Everyday Machines and How They Work explains in informal and interesting language the workings of all kinds of household machines and devices that make life easier and more fun for us.

"You're the engineer," says the author in his introduction to this fascinating book. "In your home you operate dozens of machines everyday. They may not resemble a hundred-ton streamliner, but they are real machines just the same—machines that took many years to invent and design and improve.

"When you turn a key in a lock, you work a machine that was invented, a little at a time, by thousands of clever people.

"When you turn a faucet, or use a pencil sharpener, or play a harmonica, or weigh yourself on a bathroom scale, you are making use of machines that didn't just happen by themselves, but came as the result of many years of patient experimenting by inventors, designers, and engineers."

Hundreds of items are included and all are illustrated with Jeanne Bendick's amusing and informative drawings.

From the dust jacket