Author: David Macaulay

Publisher/Date: Houghton Mifflin Company, copyright 1988. A Scholastic Book Club Edition

ISBN: 0590429892

Format/Condition: Gently used hardcover book is in very good condition. 384 pages, technical terms, index, measures 11 x 6 3/4 inches. Profusely illustrated in color. Binding is tight and pages are clean.

Description: A comprehensive, instructive and entertaining reference book for readers of all ages. From hologram to hovercraft, parachute to parking meter, a prize-winning author’s brilliantly conceived guide to the principles and workings of hundreds of machines.

This book is intended to serve as an entertaining introduction to everyday machines. It covers machines as simple as levers and gears and as complicated as radio telescopes and automatic transmissions. Its most notable feature is its illustrations: every page consists primarily of one or more large diagrams describing the operation of the relevant machine. These diagrams are informative but playful; most feature the internal workings of the machines being operated by woolly mammoths.