Stories of Useful Inventions [First Edition]

Title page dated 1911. Stated: "Copyright 1911 by The Century Company. Published September 1911." True first edition of this uniquely historical, illustrated guide to the development of modern society through invention and advancement. Red full cloth pictorial boards, cream cover and blind-stamped spine titles, moderate shelf wear. Cover features interesting design of lit torches beside model of earth. Heavy stock coated pages near fine; no writing. Blank endpaper removed. Bind fine, square; intact. Scarce very good, clean first edition. Contents: "The Foreword; I. The Match; II. The Stove; III. The Lamp; IV. The Forge; V. The Steam-Engine; VI. The Plow; VII. The Reaper; VIII. The Mill; IX. The Loom; X. The House; XI. The Carriage; XII. The Carriage (Continued); XIII. The Boat; XIV. The Clock; XV. The Book; XVI. The Message." Richly and copiously illustrated with insightful and entertaining illustrations and imagery varying size and style including beautiful full-page designs. With contemporanously modern, classical and diagramatic imagery inform and educate. The world's luxuries, industry and manufacturing did not simply spring from the ether, but were painstakingly and arduously developed over millennia from the most rudimentary aids to their then most advanced states. Samuel E. Forman documents this long path of the most integral and important inventions to date. This volume also could be laid in with the values of free enterprise in it's perfect sense and the value of the individual mind in all of it's beneficial attributes and varieties. Society does not often remind of the hardship and difficulties in a world without creators and invention. Most have greatly forgotten, fail to appreciate and take for granted the great luxury and convenience much of the modern world enjoys without appreciation to an existence without. But, in the 1900s when much of the developed world first came upon electricity and mechanized advancements, it was a time when the near past was still fresh in the minds of the people. This volume offers a concise yet densely packed overview of advances from ancient times to the then present. Written in an accessible manner and suitable for all readers of all ages. It is also of interest to note and compare the rapid advancement in all of these elemental "necessities" including "The Message" which refers to communications and "The Carriage (Continued) which is actually in reference to travel, or "carriage," through the air. Features detailed six-page index. 272 pages. Insured post. Size: 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" Tall.…