The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century, credited to Edward Wright Byrn, 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 The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century by Edward Wright Byrn. Read in English by LibriVox Volunteers. The 1800s saw a meteoric rise in modern technology in many areas. The century set the stage for modern life with developments such as the electric light, the electric motor, the telephone, the sewing machine, the automobile, and X-rays. The difference between life in 1800 and 1900 is extreme, as the pace of invention in the 19th century rapidly increased. This book, published in 1900, is an overview of the major areas of technological change that ushered in life as it was in the 20th century. Many more changes were to come, as we know by our experience of life in the 21st. But the basis of developments up to the present day began to be built over 200 years ago. “Whatever the future centuries may bring in new and useful inventions, certain it is that the Nineteenth Century stands pre-eminent in this field of human achievement, so far excelling all other like periods as to establish on the pages of history an epoch as remarkable as it is unique. Never before has human conception so expressed itself in materialized embodiment, never has thought been so fruitfully wedded to the pregnant possibilities of matter, never has the divine function of creation been so closely approximated, never has such an accretion of helpful instrumentalities and material resources been added to the world’s wealth… ideas wrought into practical, substantive things, tried and proven true, these are inventions—immortal creations—and of these the Nineteenth Century has borne fruit in paramount abundance, and this legacy it now bequeaths to the coming century.” - Summary by Verla Viera and Epilogue

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century
• Author credits: Edward Wright Byrn
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 37
• Listed recording duration: 16:38:33

Catalogue topics

• 19th century
• inventions
• History of Science
• 19th century inventions

Opening tracks: first 24 of 37

1. 01 - Preface; Chapter I The Perspective View — 13:56
2. 02 - Chapter II Chronology of Leading Inventions of the Nineteenth Century — 24:25
3. 03 - Chapter III The Electric Telegraph — 31:58
4. 04 - Chapter IV The Atlantic Cable — 15:18
5. 05 - Chapter V The Dynamo and Its Applications — 20:12
6. 06 - Chapter VI The Electric Motor — 21:41
7. 07 - Chapter VII The Electric Light — 19:21
8. 08 - Chapter VIII The Telephone — 29:54
9. 09 - Chapter IX Electricity, Miscellaneous — 21:48
10. 10 - Chapter X The Steam Engine — 34:50
11. 11 - Chapter XI The Steam Railway — 25:06
12. 12 - Chapter XII Steam Navigation — 38:47
13. 13 - Chapter XIII Printing — 24:59
14. 14 - Chapter XIV The Typewriter — 24:18
15. 15 - Chapter XV The Sewing Machine — 41:18
16. 16 - Chapter XVI The Reaper — 32:05
17. 17 - Chapter XVII Vulcanized Rubber — 25:44
18. 18 - Chapter XVIII Chemistry — 26:22
19. 19 - Chapter XIX Food and Drink — 35:55
20. 20 - Chapter XX Medicine, Surgery, and Sanitation — 34:59
21. 21 - Chapter XXI The Bicycle and Automobile — 27:35
22. 22 - Chapter XXII The Phonograph — 27:06
23. 23 - Chapter XXIII Optics — 35:26
24. 24 - Chapter XXIV Photography — 38:47

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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.