LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

  Marconi Reading a Message Frontispiece

  Marconi Station at Wellfleet, Massachusetts
  The Wireless Telegraph Station at Glace Bay
  Santos-Dumont Preparing for a Flight
  Rounding the Eiffel Tower
  The Motor and Basket of “Santos-Dumont No. 9”
  Firing a Fast Locomotive
  Track Tank
  Railroad Semaphore Signals
  Thirty Years’ Advance in Locomotive Building
  The “Lighthouse” of the Rail
  A Giant Automobile Mower-Thrasher
  An Automobile Buckboard
  An Automobile Plow
  The Velox, of the British Navy
  The Engines of the Arrow
  A Life-Saving Crew Drilling
  Life-Savers at Work
  Biograph Pictures of a Military Hazing
  Developing Moving-Picture Films
  Building an American Bridge in Burmah
  Viaduct Across Canyon Diablo
  Beginning an American Bridge in Mid-Africa
  Lake’s Submarine Torpedo-Boat Protector
  Speeding at the Rate of 102 Miles an Hour
  Singing Into the Telephone
  “Central” Telephone Operators at Work
  Central Making Connections
  The Back of a Telephone Switchboard
  A Few Telephone Trunk Wires
  The Lanston Type-Setter Keyboard
  Where the “Brains” are Located
  The Type Moulds and the Work They Produce

INTRODUCTION

There are many thrilling incidents—­all the more attractive because of their truth—­in the study, the trials, the disappointments, the obstacles overcome, and the final triumph of the successful inventor.

Every great invention, afterward marvelled at, was first derided.  Each great inventor, after solving problems in mechanics or chemistry, had to face the jeers of the incredulous.

The story of James Watt’s sensations when the driving-wheels of his first rude engine began to revolve will never be told; the visions of Robert Fulton, when he puffed up the Hudson, of the fleets of vessels that would follow the faint track of his little vessel, can never be put in print.

It is the purpose of this book to give, in a measure, the adventurous side of invention.  The trials and dangers of the builders of the submarine; the triumphant thrill of the inventor who hears for the first time the vibration of the long-distance message through the air; the daring and tension of the engineer who drives a locomotive at one hundred miles an hour.

The wonder of the mechanic is lost in the marvel of the machine; the doer is overshadowed by the greatness of his achievement.

These are true stories of adventure in invention.

STORIES OF INVENTORS

HOW GUGLIELMO MARCONI TELEGRAPHS WITHOUT WIRES