Stories of Inventors: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Stories of Inventors, credited to Russel Doubleday, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Stories of Inventors, by Russel Doubleday. Read by LivelyHive. Doubleday chronicles the history of everyday inventions that form the foundation of technology now common through the world. While some of the inventions are no longer used, each example shows how inventors contributed to technology through perseverance, inspiration and clever observations. In each chapter, he gives a clear, understandable background of the technology. Many of the now outdated inventions may have inspired later inventions by meeting emerging demands. For example, Edison's filament bulb is now being phased out by more efficient CFL's, but Edison's contribution to indoor lighting likewise removed the need for inefficient gas-burning lamps. While trains for carrying mail and freight have largely been replaced by more nimble semi trailers, one example shows how technology can translate from ground to air travel. Trains with curved pipes that scooped water to refill reservoirs could be controlled from the train engine-cab without stopping, and mirrors the in-flight refueling systems that keep aircraft flying without the need to land. Although computers have replaced typewriters, word processing programs and web browsers justify text with similar algorithms. (Summary by LivelyHive)

Recording facts

• Recording title: Stories of Inventors
• Author credits: Russel Doubleday
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 13
• Listed recording duration: 4:56:26

Catalogue topics

• history
• inventors
• science

Track guide

1. 00 - Contents and Introduction — 3:09
2. 01 - How Guglielmo Marconi Telegraphs Without Wires — 37:52
3. 02 - Santos-Dumont and His Air-Ship — 34:35
4. 03 - How a Fast Train Is Run — 15:25
5. 04 - How Automobiles Work — 25:05
6. 05 - The Fastest Steamboats — 14:51
7. 06 - The Life-Savers and Their Apparatus — 21:43
8. 07 - Moving Pictures - Some Strange Subjects and How They Were Taken — 25:34
9. 08 - Bridge Builders and Some of Their Achievements — 28:48
10. 09 - Submarines in War and Peace — 36:47
11. 10 - Long-Distance Telephony - What Happens When You Talk into a Telephone Receiver — 25:02
12. 11 - A Machine That Thinks - A Type-Setting Machine That Makes Mathematical Calculations — 10:04
13. 12 - How Heat Produces Cold - Artificial Ice-Making — 17:39

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.