Using old Victorian documents, Caroline Rochford takes the reader on a guided tour of hundreds of fascinating nineteenth-century inventions from across the globe, some strange and some remarkably familiar.

Think solar power is a modern concept? Think again! Today everyone has a camera, but imagine the excitement of taking a snap of a giraffe hotel! This is a surprising journey, taking the reader on a trip from the clouds to the bottom of the ocean, with stops everywhere in between. Discover the use of whispering machines, crime-fighting streetlamps and over 200 other remarkable Victorian inventions.

• Published to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Stephenson’s first locomotive.

• Illustrated throughout with contemporary drawings of the inventions found in old Victorian documents.

• A replica of one of the inventions, the Bicycle Railway, is proposed to be built in London over the next ten years.

• Continued success of television programmes such as Fred Dibnah’s Made in Britain; there was also a January 2013 documentary on the Industrial Revolution on the BBC.

• Visitor numbers for the Museum of Science and Industry (Manchester), Science Museum (London), Museum of Scottish Industrial Life (Lanarkshire) and Beamish (County Durham) confirm the continued interest in the history of science and technology.

• Reviews in the national weeklies, national daily and Sunday newspapers, to include The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Mail.

• Coverage in the history press, to include The British Association for Victorian Studies, Journal of Victorian Culture, Victorians Institute Journal, The Historian and History Today.