Marvels of Scientific Invention / An Interesting Account in Non-Technical Language of the Invention of Guns, Torpedoes, Submarine Mines, Up-to-Date Smelting, Freezing, Colour Photography, and Many Other Recent Discoveries of Science

By permission of Messrs. Chance Bros. and Co., Ltd. A Huge Lamp The marvellous arrangement of lenses and prisms which enables the lighthouse to send out its guiding flashes, with the mechanism for turning it. Made for Chilang Lighthouse, China Frontispiece
AN INTERESTING ACCOUNT IN NON-TECHNICAL LANGUAGE OF THE INVENTION OF GUNS, TORPEDOES, SUBMARINES MINES, UP-TO-DATE SMELTING, FREEZING, COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHY, AND MANY OTHER RECENT DISCOVERIES OF SCIENCE BY
AUTHOR OF ENGINEERING OF TO-DAY, MECHANICAL INVENTIONS OF TO-DAY, THE ROMANCE OF SUBMARINE ENGINEERING, &c., &c. WITH 32 ILLUSTRATIONS & DIAGRAMS PHILADELPHIA J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY LONDON: SEELEY, SERVICE & CO. LTD. 1917



Most people are afraid of the word explosion and shudder with apprehension at the mention of dynamite. The latter, particularly, conjures up visions of anarchists, bombs, and all manner of wickedness. Yet the time seems to be coming when every farmer will regard explosives, of the general type known to the public as dynamite, as among his most trusty implements. It is so already in some places. In the United States explosives have been used for years, owing to the exertions of the Du Pont Powder Company, while Messrs Curtiss' and Harvey, and Messrs Nobels, the great explosive manufacturers, are busy introducing them in Great Britain.
It will perhaps be interesting first of all to see what this terror-striking compound is. One essential feature is the harmless gas which constitutes the bulk of our atmosphere, nitrogen. Ordinarily one of the most lazy, inactive, inert of substances, this gas will, under certain circumstances, enter into combination with others, and when it does so it becomes in some cases the very reverse of its usual peaceful, lethargic self. It is as if it entered reluctantly into these compounds and so introduced an element of instability into them. It is like a dissatisfied partner in a business, ready to break up the whole combination on very slight provocation.