Excerpt from An Exact Reprint of the Famous Century of Inventions: Of the Marquis of Worcester, (First Published in 1663;); With Introduction, Notes and a Life of the Author Our object in reprinting the famous "Century of Inventions," as it is generally called, is not to give any novel solutions of the problems which it sets forth, but simply to place this famous and exceedingly interesting production within the reach of ordinary book-buyers. Although it has been several times reprinted, it is so scarce that copies are to be had only with considerable difficulty. Of the first edition, published in 1663, very few copies are to be found outside the shelves of a few well-known public libraries. It is said that this is largely due to the fact that all the copies that were procurable were bought up and burned by a rival inventor (Savary), who claimed to be the first inventor of the steam engine, Of subsequent reprints it will be found on inquiry that they have been so much sought after and read that they have been literally "thumbed out of existence," as the genial author of "The Book Hunter" expresses it in regard to similarly popular books. Under these circumstances it is to be hoped that our present offering will prove acceptable to a large number of those who are interested in the history of inventions and of mechanics. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

An Exact Reprint of the Famous Century of Inventions of the Marquis of Worcester is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1887. Hansebooks is editor of the literature on different topic areas such as research and science, travel and expeditions, cooking and nutrition, medicine, and other genres. As a publisher we focus on the preservation of historical literature. Many works of historical writers and scientists are available today as antiques only. Hansebooks newly publishes these books and contributes to the preservation of literature which has become rare and historical knowledge for the future.