<KNIGHT>
<VOL N="1">
<FRONT>
<PLATE N="I">
<PB REF="1.1">
<HEAD>PLATE I. SUSPENSION BRIDGE. BETWEEN BROOKLYN AND NEW YORK CITY.</HEAD>
<P><REF>See <I>Suspension Bridge.</I></REF></P>
</PLATE>
<PB REF="1.9">
<P>KNIGHT'S AMERICAN MECHANICAL DICTIONARY: BEING A DESCRIPTION OF TOOLS, INSTRUMENTS, MACHINES, PROCESSES, AND ENGINEERING; HISTORY OF INVENTIONS; GENERAL TECHNOLOGICAL VOCABULARY; AND DIGEST OF MECHANICAL APPLICANCES IN SCIENCE AND THE ARTS.</P>
<P>BY EDWARD H. KNIGHT, CIVIL AND MECHANICAL ENGINEER, ETC.</P>
<P>ILLUSTRATED WITH UPWARDS OF FIVE THOUSAND ENGRAVINGS.</P>
<P>VOLUME I. A-FEL.</P>
<Q>
<L>Thus Time brings all things, one by one, to sight</L>
<L>And Skill evolves them into perfect light.</L>
<BIBL>LUCRETIUS, Book V.</BIBL>
</Q>
<P><FIGURE><HEAD>First Steam Engine.</HEAD></FIGURE></P>
<P>NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY HURD AND HOUGHTON. Cambridge: The Riverside Press. 1876.</P>
<PB REF="1.11">
<P>Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, BY J. B. FORD AND COMPANY, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.</P>
<P>RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED BY H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.</P>
</DIV1>
<PB REF="1.12">
<HEAD>PREFACE.</HEAD>
<P>MORE than twenty years ago the author commenced collecting memoranda of mechanical and scientific information ... science and industry.</P>
<P>After carefully considering the mode of presentation, it was thought best to adopt the form of a <I>Dictionary,</I>—a "word-book," which describes things in the alphabetical order of their names,—and not that of an <I>Encyclopedia,</I> which considers them in the order of their scientific relation. ... </P>
<P>The aim has been to place the information in the most systematic order, so that any specific point of detail may be readily reached when required. A book or a mind, though a closely packed repository, unless order has supplemented industry, is unavailable in an emergency, reminding one of "the fool i' the forest":—
<Q>
<L>And in his brain—</L>
<L>Which is as dry as the remainder biscuit</L>
<L>After a voyage—he hath strange places crammed</L>
<L>With observation, the which he vents</L>
<L>In mangled forms.</L>
</Q>
</P>
<P>As to the general scope of the book ... the author has sometimes become
<Q><L>A snapper-up of unconsidered trifles,</L></Q> worthy of a more careful estimate.</P>
<P>"First the blade, than the ear, then the full corn in the ear," is the natural order in invention ... the machine should afterwards
<P>With these convictions ... at least forty centuries.</P>
<CLOSER><SIGNED>EDWARD H. KNIGHT.</SIGNED>
<DATELINE>WASHINGTON, D. C., <DATE>December 15, 1873</DATE></DATELINE>
</CLOSER>
</DIV1>
<PB REF="1.14">
<HEAD>LIST OF SPECIFIC INDEXES.</HEAD>
<P>The Specific Indexes in the following list are to be found in their alphabetical places in the body of the work. Each index embraces the technical appliances, etc., appertaining to its subject.</P>
<LIST>
<ITEM>Agricultural and Husbandry Implements.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Air Appliance and Machinery.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Alarms.</ITEM>
<ITEM>...Printing.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Projectiles.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Propellers.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Pulleys.</ITEM>
<ITEM>...Wrenches.</ITEM>
</LIST>
</DIV1>
<PB REF="1.16">
<HEAD>LIST OF FULL-PAGE PLATES. VOL. I.</HEAD>
<TABLE>
<ROW>
<CELL ROLE="label">PLATE.</CELL>
<CELL ROLE="label">SUBJECT.</CELL>
<CELL ROLE="label">PAGE.</CELL>
</ROW>
<ROW>
<CELL>I.</CELL>
<CELL>SUSPENSION BRIDGE. (<I>East River, N.Y.</I>)</CELL>
<CELL><I>Frontispiece</I></CELL>
</ROW>
<ROW>
<CELL>II.</CELL>
<CELL>PIER AND CAISSON. (<I>Illinois and St. Louis Bridge.</I>)</CELL>
<CELL>49</CELL>
</ROW>
<ROW>
<CELL>XV.</CELL>
<CELL>WORTHINGTON DUPLEX PUMPING-MACHINE. (<I>Newark, N.J.</I>)</CELL>
<CELL>763</CELL>
</ROW>
</TABLE>
</DIV1>
</FRONT>
<BODY>
<HEAD> <PB REF="1.17">
<PART N="A">
<HEAD>A.</HEAD>
<E>
<HW>Ab`a-cis`cus.</HW>
[etc.]