Chronicles the technological inventions that have changed our lives since 1750. What are the objects, inventions, power sources, and processes that have shaped our modern industrial culture? Who are the individuals behind their creation? How have people reacted to these newfangled contraptions? This unique account explores the answers to these questions. It trace the sweeping innovations and interconnections of each advance, in a flowing text that features almost 500 photographs with captions that further explain the story of how we've become who we are today. Inventing the Modern World begins with Britain's improvements in iron and cotton production, new power sources, a successful quest for more accurate measurements large and small — both of time and on land or sea — and a new culture of technology linked to science. This First Industrial Revolution flourishes with the coming of the railway and the huge growth of towns, where disease and squalor are countered by piped water, sewage systems, and gas lighting. By 1890, the Second Industrial Revolution is under way across Europe and America. This time, chemistry, electricity, and the internal combustion engine set the pace as, aided by "R&D" and "scientific" management, a new era of efficiency transforms the work world. Two great wars bring tanks, gas, machine-guns, and bombers but, between 1918 and 1939, Model T Fords and consumer goods also pour off the new assembly lines, while information and entertainment grow more accessible through radios, records, and the movies. Finally, Inventing the Modern World explores the second half of the 20th Century: the Cold War combined with air travel, atomic energy, the pill and those popular initials — TV, PC, IT, and WWW.

Drawing on the Science Museum's own picture library and the legendary resources of the Hulton Getty Collection, this reference explores, in over 450 images and text, the relationship between human beings and their technological inventions. Full color.