This book is a review of the 20th-century machines, hundreds of thousands of various machines and mechanisms for moving tremendous masses of earth, for weaving fabrics, for "baking” diamonds and for many other jobs. It tells you about machines which hop around likegrasshoppers, about machines which can work for week without conventional motors and batteries, and about: lose that can repair themselves.The book also introduces the reader to unusual materials possessing amazing properties, new components of machines, ingenious methods of flaw detection and control.The reader will find that the history of machine tools, rolling mills, forging presses, excavators and other mechanisms, which at first glance seem so routine, is full of dramatic clashes of ideas, fascinating adventures, great discoveries and bitter disillusions.The book is written in a popular form and will be interesting for those who are keen on engineering, and also, for specialists.And although written in a popular scientific style, the present work is neither concerned with spectacular spaceships heading for far-away planets, nor with “nautili” exploring the depths of the ocean; it mainlydeals with such modest unassuming hard workers as rolling mills, excavators, lathes, presses and turbines which make up the machinery backbone of the present day industry.The book was translated from the Russian by V. Vopyan and was published by Mir in 1974.ContentsPreface 71. Materials - Flesh and Blood of Modern Machines 92000 Times Stronger Than Steel 11Steel as Soft as Wax 17A Plastic Matryoshka as a Reduction Gear 191000 Times the Heat Conduction of Silver 27Chromoplastic and Chromoplasticity 35Wing Made of Balls 36Friction Without Wear 38Uncrowning the Involute 452. Meaningful Noises: Flaw Detection and Control 49Foucault Currents in the Role of Sherlock Holmes 49Pigeons as Assembly Line Inspectors 55The Smell of Drill: a Sign Not to Be Overlooked 63Gauge from a Rainbow 67Pressurized Airscrew 713. Giants of Modern Machine Construction 72Mechanical Titans 75Agrobridge, a Giant Agricultural Machine 94Midget Machines with Huge Productivity 99The Needs of "Gulliver" 1114. Electric "Sphynxes" Break Tradition 120Magnetohydrodynamic AC Generator 120Electricity and Fertilizers from a Gas Stream 125Multimillion-Volt Generator 132Piston-Operated Generator 139Mirror Switch 140Electromotor from Ball Bearings 1415. Jet Engine Down from Heaven 142By Rocket from the Depth of the Earth 142Jet Mill 149Jet Engine Drills Earth 151Jet Engine in Reverse 152Jet Engine in a Fire Helmet 162Jet Engines Clean Railroad Tracks 1646. Machines Dig Earth 165Beam-Control Device 165Pick-Hammer Made of Plastic 172Leaping Wheel 182Excavator Drills Dams 184Fire-Spitting Excavator 1877. Machine-Making Machines 191Light-Controlled Machine-Tool 192Wriggling Machine-Tool 197Heating and Cooling Mirror 201Machine-Tool with a Float 205Laser and Electric Shaver 209Magnetic Field Assembles Machines 213Continuous Casting of Round Hollow Steel Pipes 216Walking Thermopress 2228. Machines of Tomorrow 226Beams Make Patterns 226Machines with Ultrahigh Efficiency 231Light Beam Serves as a Working Member 241Walking Machines 249Forward to "Iron Make" 261