Old-Style Calashes 202 An Old-Fashioned Stagecoach 204 Munroe Tavern, Lexington, Mass. 205 Fitch's Steamboat 209 Collision of the _Clermont_ and the Sloop 217 The Erie Canal 221 Old-Style Railroad Train 227 A River Tunnel 234 A Pullman Sleeper 237 Brooklyn Bridge 239 The Boston Subway 242 Electric Car, New York City 243 Samuel F. B. Morse 245 Modern Printing Presses 246 Ancient Implements of Writing 249 An Ancient Scribe 251 A Franklin Press 255 Postage Stamps 261 Assorting Mail on the Train 262 Signaling by Beacon Fires 266 Electric Wires 270 Morse Hears of His Success 274 Laying an Ocean Cable 282 The _Great Eastern_ 283 A Telephone 287 Alexander Bell Using a Long-Distance Telephone 288 [Illustration: COUNT RUMFORD.] [Illustration: A NEW ENGLAND KITCHEN ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.] AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. SECTION I.--HEAT CHAPTER I. FIRE. "All aboard!" cries the conductor, and slowly the long train draws out of the San Francisco station on its way to Chicago and the Atlantic coast. Three sleepers, two chair coaches, passenger, baggage, and mail cars, loaded with travelers, trunks, and pouches of letters and papers; we are familiar with the sight of these heavy cars and the puffing engine which draws them. But what makes the train move? What power is great enough to do this? It is the power of steam, and steam is made from water by means of fire. [Illustration: A TRAIN LEAVING THE STATION.] Now the long journey across the continent is over, and we are standing on the dock in New York City. Here we see the steamboat _Puritan_, thronged with passengers, ready to steam away from the wharf on its regular night trip to Fall River. For hours, perhaps, we have been watching the longshoremen as they have rushed back and forth, loading the great vessel with freight for New England. A few minutes later, as we see the majestic steamer, hundreds of feet long--larger than most city business buildings--slowly, but gracefully moving away from the dock, we say to ourselves, "Can it be that steam, caused by fire, has power enough to make the steamboat move through the water like this?"