Audio Books

Hurricane Hunters

Ivan Ray Tannehill
This 1955 book by an acknowledged authority is an absorbing account of meteorology before the advent of weather satellites. “This is the lively account of the hair-raising experiences of the men who have probed by sea and air into the inner mysteries of the world’s most terrible storms…. Here is the first intimate revelation of what the human eye and the most modern radars see in the violent regions of the tropical vortex. The descriptions of the activities of these valiant scouts of the storms are taken from personal interviews with military flyers and weathermen who have risked their lives in the furious blasts in all parts of the hurricane. The author has made a special study of hurricanes for over forty years. He has served with the Weather Bureau as chief of the marine division, chief of all forecasting and reporting and assistant chief of the Bureau, in charge of its technical operations.”

Little Masterpieces of Science - Invention and Discovery

George Iles
A collection of essays on various inventions and scientific discoveries, this volume of Little Masterpieces of Science from 1902 includes topics such as the discovery of electricity, the invention of the telegraph, the telephone, Roentgen rays, and other advances.

Twentieth Century Inventions: A Forecast

Sutherland, George
This work from 1901 predicts what technological developments will manifest in the twentieth century. The author, a technical journalist, presents ideas for inventions and new developments in the areas of power, transportation, agriculture, mining, domestic applications, electronic devices, warfare, music, art, and news. Many have come to pass. All of them provide an interesting look into how the next century was imagined and what challenges were anticipated for the progress of society.
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Story of Electricity

John Munro
In the book's preface, the author writes: "Let anyone stop to consider how he individually would be affected if all electrical service were suddenly to cease, and he cannot fail to appreciate the claims of electricity to attentive study."
In these days when we take for granted all kinds of technology - communications, entertainment, medical, military, industrial and domestic - it is interesting to learn what progress had been made in the fields of electricity and technology by the beginning of the 20th century.
Including the dawn of hydro-electric power, the x-ray, the phonograph, the telephone and the wireless telegraph, this book explains the pioneering work of the men who made our modern world possible, and sets us wondering what the next century may bring - providing that we do not manage to destroy our planet in the meantime.

Nature's Miracles: Familiar Talks on Science, Vol. 1.

Gray, Elisha
Elisha Gray (August 2, 1835 – January 21, 1901) was an American electrical engineer who co-founded the Western Electric Manufacturing Company. Gray is best known for his development of a telephone prototype in 1876 in Highland Park, Illinois and is considered by some writers to be the true inventor of the variable resistance telephone, despite losing out to Alexander Graham Bell for the telephone patent.

Little Masterpieces of Science - Mind

George Iles
Another in the series "Little Masterpieces of Science" edited by George Iles, Mind is a collection of articles and book chapters that provide insight into the study of the workings of the mind the nineteenth century.

Behavior of the Honey Bee in Pollen Collecting, The

Casteel, D. B.
The value of the honey bee in cross pollinating the flowers of fruit trees makes it desirable that exact information be available concerning the actions of the bee when gathering and manipulating the pollen. The results recorded in this manuscript are also of value as studies in the behavior of the bee and will prove interesting and valuable to the bee keeper. The work here recorded was done by Dr. Casteel during the summers of 1911 and 1912.

Mushrooms and Toadstools (Third Edition)

Worthington George Smith
This is a useful, but not comprehensive description of both edible and poisonous fungi found in Great Britain. Although the book is well illustrated, the descriptions are well done and useful.

Apis Mellifica

Wolf, C.W.
Wolf's essay considers the homeopathic medicine Apis Mellifica, or the poison of the honey bee, as a therapeutic agent based on his experience as a practicing physician.

Lasers

Hal Hellman
Among great technologic developments of the twentieth century has to be that of laser light with its myriad of applications in industry, communication, medicine and many other fields. As author Hal Hellman says in conclusion in this 1968 publication, “Indeed the most exciting probability of all is that lasers undoubtedly will change our lives in ways we cannot even conceive of now.” And, so has it been, and this treatise gives insight into the early days of the research and development of lasers.This booklet is part of the Understanding the Atom Series from the United States Atomic Energy Commission Division of Technical Information.

Is Mars Habitable?

Alfred Russel Wallace
In 1907 Wallace wrote the short book Is Mars Habitable? to criticize the claims made by Percival Lowell that there were Martian canals built by intelligent beings. Wallace did months of research, consulted various experts, and produced his own scientific analysis of the martian climate and atmospheric conditions. Among other things Wallace pointed out that spectroscopic analysis had shown no signs of water vapour in the Martian atmosphere, that Lowell's analysis of Mars's climate was seriously flawed and badly overestimated the surface temperature, and that low atmospheric pressure would make liquid water, let alone a planet girding irrigation system, impossible. (from Wikipedia)

Light Science for Leisure Hours

Richard A. Proctor
In preparing these Essays, my chief object has been to present scientific truths in a light and readable form—clearly and simply, but with an exact adherence to the facts as I see them. I have followed—here and always—the rule of trying to explain my meaning precisely as I should wish others to explain, to myself, matters with which I was unfamiliar. Hence I have avoided that excessive simplicity which some seem to consider absolutely essential in scientific essays intended for general perusal, but which is often even more perplexing than a too technical style. The chief rule I have followed, in order to make my descriptions clear, has been to endeavour to make each sentence bear one meaning, and one only. Speaking as a reader, and especially as a reader of scientific books, I venture to express an earnest wish that this simple rule were never infringed, even to meet the requirements of style.

It will hardly be necessary to mention that several of the shorter Essays are rather intended to amuse than to instruct.

Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Years 1799-1804, Vol.3

Aimé Bonpland
Volume 3, the final volume of the “Personal Narrative”, records the travels of Alexander von Humboldt and the botanist Aimé Bonpland in South and Central America, and the Caribbean. In this volume, they start at Angostura, the capital at that time of Spanish Guiana, where both required recuperation from serious febrile disease contracted on their journey on the Orinoco. Once well, they recommenced their travels, returning across Spanish Guiana and Venezuela to the coastal settlement of Nueva Barcelona, from whence they departed for Cuba and further travels in the Caribbean. As in the previous volumes, von Humboldt describes their travel with a narrative that is expressively descriptive of people, plants, animals and geology. Volume 3 also discusses slavery in Cuba and provides a geological description of South America north of the Amazon and east of the northern region of the Andes.

“The Flu”: A Brief History of Influenza in U. S. America, Europe, Hawaii

A. Mouritz
PREFACEThis Booklet has been written and compiled for the use of any student or layman who seeks concise and clear information on the history of Influenza. Brief and salient facts are set forth relating to “Flu” epidemics and pandemics: other collateral features have also been discussed, connected with or bearing upon this subject.Honolulu, Hawaii, U. S. A., 1921. - A. MouritzNotes: Much of the material in "The Flu" is still relevant today, like pandemic terminology, thoughts about causes and micro-organisms, the flu's relationship with pneumonia, the impact on society, and approaches to treatments "The Flu" is included in the Surgeon General's Library at the U. S. National Library of Medicine omitted Chapter 5 (titled, From the Author’s Booklet, “Historical Hawaii”) to retain the primary purpose as stated in the title and Preface, and subtract secondary material

History of Esculent Fish

Roger North
Roger North, son of Dudley North, 4th Baron North, was a successful member of the bar and later member of parliament. But he had wide ranging interests from architecture to music. He has an avid collector of books and is best known as the biographer of the North family. Here we sample his interest in raising fish. He presents fifteen short sketches of esculent (edible) fish, and a longer essay as "A Discourse of Fish and Fish Ponds."

Bird Study Book, The

Pearson, Thomas Gilbert
Do you enjoy birdwatching? Would you like to learn a little more about the early conservations efforts to protect wild birds? In the Preface to The Bird Study Book, Pearson tells us “This book was written for the consideration of that ever-increasing class of Americans who are interested in acquiring a greater familiarity with the habits and activities of wild birds. Attention is also given to the relation of birds to mankind and the effect of civilisation on the bird-life of the country. ” An avid ornithologist, T. Gilbert Pearson (1873-1943) was a co-founder in 1905 of the National Association of Audubon Societies of which he was first secretary and then president for many years. He was also a pioneer of the conservation movement in the United States, international bird protection and broad nature education for school-aged children. (Audubon Magazine. 42: 370–371. Nov-Dec 1943)

Moths of the Limberlost

Gene Stratton-Porter
Gene Stratton-Porter (August 17, 1863 - December 6, 1924) was an American author, amateur naturalist, wildlife photographer, specializing in the birds and moths in one of the last of the vanishing wetlands of the lower Great Lakes Basin. The Limberlost and Wildflower Woods of northeastern Indiana were the laboratory and inspiration for her stories, novels, essays, photography, and movies. She was an accomplished author, artist and photographer and is generally considered to be one of the first female authors to promulgate public positions; conserving the Limberlost Swamp in her case.

Although Stratton-Porter wanted to focus on nature books, it was her romantic novels that made her famous and generated the finances that allowed her to pursue her nature studies. In Moths of the Limberlost, she shares her lifelong love of the moths she describes through a series of charming anecdotes and wonderfully descriptive passages, providing vivid detail of each stage of their life cycles.

Bilingual Versions - Alice's in Wonderland (English – Spanish)

Lewis Carroll
This book tells of a girl named Alice falling through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures.

English Audio Books

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