Excerpt from Invention, the Master-Key to Progress The author is indebted to Ginn 8: Company, Boston, for the use of illustrations from General History for Colleges and High Schools, by Philip Van Ness Myers, and Ancient Times, A History of the Early World, by James Henry Breasted, and to George H. Doran Company, New York, for the use of a map from A History of Sea Power, by William Oliver Stevens and Allan Westcott. 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.

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"To show that inventors have accomplished more than most persons realize, not only in bringing forth new mechanisms, but in doing creative work in many walks of life, is, in part, the object of this book. To suggest what they may do, if properly encouraged, is its main intention. For, since it is to inventors mainly that we owe all that civilization is, it is to inventors mainly that we must look for all that civilization can be made to be." -Preface

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Rear Admiral Bradley Allen Fiske (June 13, 1854 - April 6, 1942) was an officer in the United States Navy who was noted as a technical innovator. During his long career, Fiske invented more than a hundred and thirty electrical and mechanical devices, with both Naval and civilian uses, and wrote extensively on technical ...