| Summary: | Of all man's mechanical inventions, none has changed his way of living so drastically as the wheel. So great has been its impact that the technological progress of civilizations can be measured in terms of the uses they have made of wheeled vehicles. This volume surveys that progress from the solid wheeled oxcarts of ancients times to the 155-mph (249 km/h) train a Grande Vitesse and turbine-powered trucks. It traces the many turns of the wheel's development, and points to innovations that are likely to shape human society in the future. The text chapters are supplemented by picture essays. For example, Essay 2, "An Iron House on Tracks of Steel," augments Chapter 3, which surveys the development of railroads from the early steam engines to the latest diesel locomotive. Essay 7, "Cities without Congestion," is concerned with imaginative solutions to problems of urban travel posed in the chapter that goes before it.
|
|---|