How the ordinary machinery of the world works: the steam engine and the turbine, the telephone and wireless, the talking-machine, railway brakes and signals, the microscope and the magic-lantern, explained with diagrams and no equations. Archibald Williams wrote for readers who wanted to understand what they saw every day. It is a snapshot of Edwardian technology, taken by someone who had opened all of it. Its 142 original illustrations have been carefully restored and coloured for this edition.