E-text prepared by Albert László and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org/) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 37574-h.htm or 37574-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/37574/pg37574-images.html) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37574/37574-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See http://www.archive.org/details/greatinventionsd00pier [Illustration: THE FIRST SHEET FROM THE PRINTING PRESS] Graded Supplementary Reading Series GREAT INVENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES by WILLIS DUFF PIERCY New York Charles E. Merrill Company Copyright, 1911 By Charles E. Merrill Co. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. Introduction 7 II. The Printing Press 15 III. The Steam Engine 30 IV. Electricity: The Telegraph and the Telephone 56 V. Electricity: Lighting, Transportation, and Other Uses 78 VI. The Discovery of America 92 VII. Weapons and Gunpowder 108 VIII. Astronomical Discoveries and Inventions 127 IX. The Cotton-gin 138 X. Anæsthetics 147 XI. Steel and Rubber 154 XII. Stenography and the Typewriter 164 XIII. The Friction Match 169 XIV. Photography 177 XV. Clocks 182 XVI. Some Machines 188 The Sewing Machine 188 The Reaper 192 Spinning and Weaving Machines 197 XVII. Aeronautics 203 GREAT INVENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION