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A most comprehensive and wholly fascinating presentation of
man's struggle for technical progress, which does for technical science what Werner
Keller's Bible As History did for archaeology. The
theme is a simple one: the author sets out to explain and describe the great changes
made in our world during the past two hundred years -- changes caused not by battles
but by scientists. The latter have had a constant struggle against the average
man's fear to change. The reader learns how muscles have been replaced by machines,
how the powered wheel has conquered the world, how wings have been used, new sources
of energy discovered. Automation and electronic machines are described, machines
which seem to achieve a certain independence from their creators. The struggle
between American and Russian technicians is depicted with a glimpse of the rocket
journey of the future. The book sets out to be a key
to the technical events of today. The author maintains that we cannot avoid this
progress: we must realise that these scientific happenings give us increased strength
to further the well-being of mankind. The book is completely
up to date. Perhaps the chapter which will interest the reader most will be the
one dealing with artificial satellites. The author gives a wealth of detail about
their construction and method of operation. Among the
subjects dealt with are: the replacement of brute animal strength by machines,
the origins and development of flying, motor cars, steam engines, railways, communications,
telephones, wireless, radar, atomic energy, automation, rockets and satellites.
Science As History is the work of a German engineer, Heinz
Gartmann, who was born in Dessau in 1917. He has been a practising engineer and
has since 1950 busied himself with writing about scientific matters in technical
journals. He is also a fellow of various Interplanetary Societies. He is one of
those rare creatures: a scientist who can write convincingly and clearly for the
general reader with an absence of technical jargon. | 
