POWER FROM WATER AND FIRE (PoD)

In a highly technical age, in which man can tap into forces of inconceivable magnitude from the atom, it is hard to imagine what modest sources of energy were available in earlier times. Yet the first attempt to use steam power dates back two thousand years. - The adventurous history of the discovery and use of this power from water and fire - a power that changed the world and people's lives so decisively - is described vividly and with great clarity in words and pictures in this non-fiction book. The author gives a gripping account of the inventors' struggle for progress in this still little explored field. James Watt finally achieves the decisive breakthrough with the construction of his steam engine. And soon the first high-pressure steam engines were in operation, steam pumps kept mines free of groundwater, steam hammers shaped metal. Steam carriages rumbled along roads, the locomotive opened vast stretches of land, and the screw steamer ploughed the seas. - Thus, the invention of the steam engine sets a milestone in human history.