Machines at Work

A children's introduction to the large machines used in construction, shipyards, and on farms, showing how mechanical devices multiply human strength and simplify heavy labor. It describes earthmovers such as giant shovels and scrapers, lifting equipment like overhead cranes, pounding machines including pile drivers and jackhammers, and breakers such as rock crushers, as well as dredges and borers used in waterways and foundations. The book then turns to farm equipment, explaining how tractors with plows, harrows, planters, and other implements prepare, seed, and level fields. It links these machines to earlier simple tools and the inventive processes that combined many ideas into modern machines.