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Steam engines, steam hammers and steamships, railways, rockets and reactors:
all are here, named as landmarks by the American Society of Mechanical
Engineers, and recorded thus in Mechanical Engineering (ASME, distributed by
Purdue University Press, £37.95/$39.95, ISBN 1 55753 093 9). This
is a handsome book that can be read as history, or used as guide to American
industrial archaeology. Full of sobering facts, such as the note that the Owens
AR Bottle Machine did more to eliminate child labour than New York legislation.
Excellent explanations of how these inventions worked, with photos and drawings,
too.