Scientific American inventions and discoveries : all the milestones in ingenuity - from the discovery of fire to the invention of the microwave oven / Rodney Carlisle.

1.The Ancient World through Classical Antiquity ,8000 B.Bc.to A.D.330,@.Middle Ages through 1599,3.The Age of Scientific Revolution,1600 to 1790,4.The Industrial Revolution,1791 to 1890,5.The Electrical Age,1891 to 1934,The Atomic and Electronic Age,1935 into the 21st Century.

In periods I and II technical progress in tools,materials,appliances,fixtures,methods,and procedures was implemented by farmers,animal erders,cooks ,tailorshealers,and builders.As the human race acquired an increasing body of ordinary proceudres and instruments,from making fire through planting seeds,harvesting crops,cooking food,and living in shelters ,specialists emerged with craftsmen perfecting and passing down through families and apprenticeship systems such special arts as jewelry and instrument making,the fine arts,wood furniture making ,plumbing,carpentry ,masonry and metal smithing.In these eras ,the lasing discoveries of scientists were very few,although natural philosphers speculated about topics later given the names of satronomy,physics,chemistry.biology ,and anatomy.Inthe third era ,natural philosophers now had new instruments develpoed by the craftsmen and instrument makers.The Industrial Revolution,scientists turned their attentionto the new machines and sought to develop new and comprehensive laws that would explain their operations.The Electrical Age , the flow of technical innovations was further stimulated by scientific discovery.The Atomic and Electronic Age, was a witness to the govt.'s and laboratories' organizations of regular structures of research and developemnt ,which created horrifc instruments of warfare and at the same time introduced a host of technologies in electronics,nuclear and biologicall fields.