The opening of Preface
In the following pages an attempt has been made to present a popular account of remarkable discoveries and inventions which distinguish the XIXth century. They distinguish it not merely in comparison with any previous century, but in comparison with all the centuries that have preceded, in regard to far-reaching intellectual acquisitions, and to material achievements, which together have profoundly affected our ways of thinking and our habits of life. In the latter, the enormously increased facilities of locomotion and international communication due to railways and steam navigation have wrought the greatest changes. These inventions depending primarily upon that of the steam engine, this first claims our notice, although properly assignable to a period preceding our era by a few years. Again, much of our material advancement is connected with improvements in the manufacture of iron and its applications in the form of steel, which have been especially the work of the last half of the century. So great has been the progress in this department, that for the present edition it has been found necessary to re-write altogether the article devoted to it.