Thomas Saint--Thimonnier--Hunt--Elias Howe--Wilson--Morey-- Singer 72 CHAPTER IV. WOOL AND COTTON. WOOL.--What is Wool?--Chemical Composition--Fibre--Antiquity of Shepherd Life--Varieties of Sheep--Introduction into Australia--Spanish Merino--Wool Wealth of Australia--Imports and Exports of Wool and Woollen Produce--Woollen Manufacture 81 COTTON.--Cotton Plant in the East--Mandeville's Fables about Cotton--Cotton in Persia, Arabia, and Egypt--Columbus finds Cotton-yarn and Thread in 1492--In Africa--Manufacture of Cloth in England--The American Cotton Plant 91 CHAPTER V. GOLD AND DIAMONDS. GOLD.--How widely distributed--Alluvial Gold-mining--Vein Gold-mining--Nuggets--Treatment of Ore and Gold in the Transvaal--Story of South African Gold-fields--Gold-production of the World--Johannesburg the Golden City--Coolgardie Gold-fields--Bayley's discovery of Gold there 102 DIAMONDS.--Composition--Diamond-cutting--Diamond-mining-- Famous Diamonds--Cecil J. Rhodes and the Kimberley Mines 135 CHAPTER VI. BIG GUNS, SMALL-ARMS, AND AMMUNITION. Woolwich Arsenal--Enfield Small-arms Factory--Lord Armstrong and the Elswick Works--Testing Guns at Shoeburyness--Hiram S. Maxim and the Maxim Machine Gun--The Colt Automatic Gun-- Ironclads--Submarine Boats 152 CHAPTER VII. THE EVOLUTION OF THE CYCLE. In praise of Cycling--Number of Cycles in Use--Medical Opinions--Pioneers in the Invention--James Starley--Cycling Tours 192 CHAPTER VIII. STEAMERS AND SAILING-SHIPS. Early Shipping--Mediterranean Trade--Rise of the P. and O. and other Lines--Transatlantic Lines--India and the East--Early Steamships--First Steamer to cross the Atlantic--Rise of Atlantic Shipping Lines--The _Great Eastern_ and the New Cunarders _Campania_ and _Lucania_ compared--Sailing-ships 205 CHAPTER IX. POST-OFFICE--TELEGRAPH--TELEPHONE--PHONOGRAPH. Rowland Hill and Penny Postage--A Visit to the Post-office-- The Post-office on Wheels--Early Telegraphs--Wheatstone and Morse--The State and the Telegraphs--Atlantic Cables-- Telephones--Edison and the Phonograph 247 [Illustration] ROMANCE OF INDUSTRY AND INVENTION. CHAPTER I. IRON AND STEEL. Pioneers of the Iron and Steel Industry--Sir Henry Bessemer--Sir William Siemens--Werner von Siemens--The Krupps of Essen.