This book is an account of the engineering behind eight breakthrough innovations that transformed American life from 1876 to 1939: the telephone, electric power, oil refining, the automobile, the airplane, radio, the long-span steel bridge, and building with reinforced concrete. Beginning with Thomas Edison's system to generate and distribute electric power, the authors explain the Bell telephone, the oil refining processes of William Burton and Eugene Houdry, Henry Ford's Model T car and the response by General Motors, the Wright brothers' airplane, radio innovations from Marconi to Armstrong, Othmar Ammann's George Washington Bridge, the reinforced concrete structures of John Eastwood and Anton Tedesko, and in the 1930s, the Chrysler Airflow car and the Douglas DC-3 airplane.

The World's Fairs of 1876 and 1939 -- Edison, Westinghouse, and electric power -- Bell and the telephone -- Burton, Houdry, and the refining of oil -- Ford, Sloan, and the automobile -- The Wright brothers and the airplane -- Radio: from Hertz to Armstrong -- Ammann and the George Washington Bridge -- Eastwood, Tedesko, and reinforced concrete -- Streamlining: Chrysler and Douglas -- The Edison dynamo and the parallel circuit.