Inventors at Work, with Chapters on Discovery

FLAME, ELECTRICITY AND THE CAMERA

By GEORGE ILES

A concise and brilliant recital of the chief uses of fire, electricity and photography. The steam turbine, the production of utmost cold, the Röntgen ray apparatus, the revelations of the sensitive plate directed to the sky, color photography, the wireless telegraph, are among the inventions depicted and explained.

The original points in the book are:

Proof that Electricity can do all that Fire does, do it better, and then accomplish uncounted tasks impossible to flame.

Photography is shown to be the one radical advance in depiction since art began. In days of old an object had to be seen before it could be pictured; to-day new heavens and a new earth impress their images first in the camera, to declare themselves only afterward to the eye.

Heretofore Evolution has been explained by mere excellence in swiftness, strength, vision. This book points out how the ability to change the forms of things flowered into the capacity to change their properties as well. When an arrowmaker in striking flint against flint kindled flame, and repeated the feat at will, he opened at once a new world for humankind, incomparably higher and broader than if he had simply acquired a nicer touch, a steadier aim, a quicker ear for the rustle of leaf or wing. It is the like maturing of old resources into new, of infinitely greater scope, that has brought man to the supremacy of Nature, while his next of kin remain beasts of the glade.

Fully illustrated and with frontispiece in colors, $2.

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & CO.,
133 East 16th Street, New York

AIDS FOR READERS AND STUDENTS

Literature of American History, edited by J. N. Larned. Cloth, $6. (postage, 30c.); sheep, $7.50; half morocco, $9.

Forty scholars and critics, each an acknowledged authority in a particular field of American history, have selected the 4,000 works here presented, and given them brief descriptive and critical notes. The chief historical societies of America are named, with their most important issues. The Canadian division was edited by the late William McLennan, of Montreal. Professor Edward Channing, of Harvard University, appends lists for a School Library, a Town Library, a Working Library.

Supplement for 1900-01, edited by P. P. Wells. Cloth, $1. (postage, 9c.)

The American titles included in the “Annotated Titles of Books in English and American History” form the Supplements for 1902 and 1903. Paper, $1 each. Supplement for 1904, 25c.

American Library Association Index to General Literature. 2nd edition. Cloth, $10. (postage, 52c.)

Guide to Reference Books, by Alice B. Kroeger, Cloth, $1.25 (postage, 10c.)

Books for Girls and Women and their Clubs, 2100 titles with notes. Edited by George Iles. Cloth, 90c. (postage, 10c.)

Reading for the Young. Supplement (1890-95), by M. E. and A. L. Sargent. Cloth, 50c. (postage, 10c.)

Books for Girls and Boys, by C. M. Hewins. 2nd edition. Paper, 15c. $5 per 100.

List of French Fiction, by Mme. Sophie Cornu and William Beer. Paper, 5c.

American Library Association Book List. 50c, a year; $2 per 100 copies for single numbers.

An annotated list of current books, supplementing the A. L. A. Catalog of 1904. Issued monthly, except in June, July, August and September.

Library Tracts, paper, 5c.

Library Handbooks, paper, 25c.

AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
PUBLISHING BOARD,
34 Newbury Street, Boston, Mass.