Marvellous machinery

John Lienhard’s The Engines of Our Ingenuity is a stunning book,
endlessly insightful, deeply interesting and easy to read. It is crammed with
anecdote and amusement. You hardly realise that what you are enjoying is really
a survey of technology and culture and how they have influenced each other
through the ages. If you lend it, you’ll never get it back. Published by Oxford,
£17.95,$25, ISBN 0195135830.