This book deals with the history of Isaac Newton, the greatest genius that ever existed, one of the famous men of science. In the same year in which Galileo, sad and blind, went away from the earth, Sir Isaac Newton came to make his home upon it... In speaking of Newton we are tempted to paraphrase a line from the Scriptures: Before Newton the Solar System was without form, and void; then Newton came and there was light. To have discovered a law not only applicable to matter on this earth, but to the planets and sun and stars beyond, is a triumph which places Newton among the super-men.

The history of inventors is generally the same old struggle with poverty... The history of James Watt, the inventor of the steam-engine, is no exception to the rule of struggling to win. He was born in the little town of Greenock, Scotland, 1736. Too delicate to attend school, he was taught reading by his mother, and a little writing and arithmetic by his father. When six years of age, he would draw mechanical lines and circles on the hearth, with a colored piece of chalk. His favorite play was to take to pieces his little carpenter tools, and make them into different ones. He was an obedient boy, especially devoted to his mother, a cheerful and very intelligent woman, who always encouraged him.