The Book of wonders
gives plain and simple answers to the thousands of everyday questions that are asked and which all should be able to, but cannot answer.
From the preface:
No truly great book needs an explanation of its aim and purpose. A great book just grows, as has this Book of Wonders. It began with the attempt of a father to answer the natural questions of the active mind of a growing boy. It developed into a nightly search for plain, understandable answers to such questions as "What makes it night?" "Where does the mind begin?" "Why is the sky blue?" "Why does it hurt when I cut my finger ?" "Why doesn't it hurt when I cut my hair?" "Why does wood float?" "Why does iron sink?"
"Why doesn't an iron ship sink?" on through the maze of thousands of puzzling questions which occur to the child's mind. It has grown until the answers to the mere questions cover practically the entire range of everyday knowledge and has been arranged in such a form that any child may now find the answer to his own inquiries.
As the mind of the child matures, the questions naturally drift toward the things which the genius of man has provided for his comfort and pleasure. We have become so accustomed to the use and benefits of these wonders produced by the man that we generally leave out of our books the stories of our great industries, and yet the mind of the child wonders and inquires about them.
We have so long worn clothes made of wool or cotton, that we have forgotten the wonder there is in making a bolt of cloth. Every industry has a fascinating story equal to that of the silkworm, which moves its head sixty-five times a minute while spinning its thousand yards of silk. Can you tell me What happens when we telephone? How a telegram gets there?
What makes an automobile go? How does a man learn to tell time? How is a moving-picture is made? How a camera takes a picture? How ironic is made? How the light gets into the electric bulb? How glass is made? How the music gets into the piano?
This required some means of recording his knowledge. i\lan had to learn to write. Without writing there could be no Book of Wonders, and the l)ook, then, begins naturally with the Story of How Man Learned to Write.
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