NEW WORLD OF MACHINES
By
A rather unimaginative title for a very imaginative treatment of the advancing field of science on many fronts which touch intimately the lives of every one of us. Frankly -- I'm not interested in machines -- and I found this fascinating reading, so feel safe in prophesying that many another layman will likewise be absorbed by it. We are on the threshold of the greatest technological advance since the discovery of the internal combustion engine, an advance speeded up immeasureably by wartime research and development, the results of which will be available to the general public when hostilities cease. Communications, transportation, power, structural materials and fabrics, reduction of man-power labor, extension of sight and hearing, control of heat and light and climactic conditions -- all these factors will be drastically changed and Harland Manchester takes us behind the scenes and gives us glimpses into the mysteries of laboratory development and practical use. There is good grounding of historical background; there are vivid bits of biography; and throughout, even the most intangible subjects, remote from the lay understanding, are made exciting reading and, for the average need, intelligible. Words we use freely, with little knowledge of their actual meaning, emerge with greater significance, -- polaroid, fluorescent, octane, diesel engines, plastics, buna-s, and so on.