Technology & Engineering

Go inside the people, places, forests and machines that made Maine the logging and lumber giant it is today.

Known as the Pine Tree State, Maine once led the world in lumber production. It was the first great lumber-producing region, with Bangor at its center. Today, the state has nearly 18 million acres of timberland, and forest products still make up a major industry. The state's lumber industry went through several historical periods, beginning with the vast pine and spruce harvests, the organization of major corporate interests, the change from sawlogs to pulpwood, and then to sustained yields, intensive management, and mechanized harvesting.

At the beginning, much of the region was inaccessible except by water, so harvesting activities were concentrated on the coast and along the principal rivers. Gradually, as the railroads expanded and roads were constructed into the woods, operations expanded with them and the river systems became vitally important for the transportation of timber out of the woods to the markets downstate. Logging and Lumbering in Maine traces these developments in the industry and examines the history from its earliest roots in 1630 to the present, providing a pictorial record of land use and activity in Maine.

Decorated with a breathtaking landscape and a treasured collection of diversely styled bridges, the Merritt Parkway runs thirty-seven and a half miles through Fairfield County.

From its complicated beginnings to the present, authors Laurie Heiss and Jill Smyth navigate the hard-fought yet picturesque path of this beloved road. Meet the bridge artist, the landscapers, the politicians and the activists whose involvement in the Merritt transformed Fairfield County from farms and country estates to one of the wealthiest counties in the nation. With the dedication of preservationists and conservationists, the Merritt Parkway today remains both functional and beautiful, holding a unique place in the heart of Connecticut's drivers.

Route 128 and the Birth of the Age of High Tech tells the intertwining stories of the construction of the nation's first circumferential beltway and the burgeoning high-tech industries of Massachusetts, which helped spawn the modern age of personal computers, the Internet, and biotechnology.

Far on the northeastern coast of Maine sits a small island whose size belies the depth of its storied past.

Over the course of its existence, Eastport has been a part of the ancestral homeland of the Passamaquoddy, seized from American hands by the British, who would occupy it for four years, and ground zero for the North American sardine industry. Its remote location and stunningly rugged environment make it appealing to a wide variety of people, from fisherfolk and sailors to artists and performers from all over the world. Once serving as the stomping grounds of Benedict Arnold (having gone from traitor to trader), it was later frequented by a young Franklin D. Roosevelt, who became enchanted by its coastal charms. Habituated to facing periods of strife and of runaway success alike, the story of Eastport is one that changes as steadily as its momentous tides.

Lura Jackson was raised in Eastport. She became an award-winning community journalist writing for the Quoddy Tides and the Calais Advertiser and developed a strong passion for local history after becoming involved with the St. Croix Historical Society. She holds a master's degree in peace and reconciliation from the University of Maine. Hugh French, director of the Tides Institute & Museum of Art, provides the foreword, while the institute provided dozens of rare photographs to the book's interior.

New Hampshire Covered Bridges is a photographic study of the state's enclosed wooden spans that date from as far back as 1827. The book contains rare photographs of historic bridges that no longer exist, as well as pictures of many that still stand today. The images are accompanied by detailed information about the design and construction of covered bridges and the men who built them. Each bridge has its own life story. Some have defied floods and hurricanes and still stand; others have fallen victim to nature or arson or the demands of modern transportation.

The visual history of the navy in Newport from mercantile trade to world war and the Naval War College.

Known throughout the world as ""The City by the Sea,"" Newport, Rhode Island, has a long history of maritime activity. Since the Colonial period, Newport has been recognized as both an important seaport for the mercantile trade and a harbor of inestimable value for naval vessels. I n 1869, the U. S. Navy opened its pioneer site in the region, the Naval Torpedo station on Goat Island in Newport harbor. The Naval War College on Coasters Harbor Island and the Naval Training Station soon followed. The navy's presence expanded through two world wars; and in the 1940s the U. S. Naval Operating Base with headquarters in Newport, included extensive naval facilities on both sides of Narragansett Bay. Today, Newport remains an integral site of naval training, research, and development. The prestigious Naval War College, the Naval Education and Training Center, and other navy command schools, in addition to the Naval Undersea Warfare Center with its Division Newport, have kept this branch of the armed services a leading employer in Rhode Island and southeastern New England.

Never before seen photographs of the U.S. Naval Construction Battalion Center at Davisville document the accomplishments of those once stationed here.

The U.S. Naval Construction Battalion Center at Davisville, Rhode Island, is first remembered as the original ""Home of the Atlantic Seabees."" During World War II, 100 battalions as well as dozens of other U.S. Navy ""Builder-Fighter"" units were formed, outfitted, trained, and prepared for overseas deployment. Here, in the first photographic history of the base, is the story of the men and women who came to Davisville and their legacy of superb accomplishments in the service of their country. Established on February 27, 1942, the base was designated to manufacture and ship overseas materials and equipment and to outfit and embark construction battalions and other naval units. Between 1942 and 1994, when the base was closed, the Seabees participated in every war involving the United States. The Quonset Hut and the Davisville Pontoons were both developed at the Davisville Seabee Center. The base has schooled and trained thousands of officers and tens of thousands of Seabees.

Building the Mosquito Fleet: The U.S. Navy's First Torpedo Boats traces the important and often dramatic history of the involvement between the U.S. Navy and the Herreshoff brothers' marine yards over a period of more than thirty years. It is a story of enterprise, naval development, and marine manufacturing during a time of experimentation and evolution. Included are dramatic stories of the men who built and tested these dangerous new vessels. This fascinating volume preserves under one cover a concise history of the torpedo boats built by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. It describes design and construction innovations introduced by the Herreshoffs and traces the events that led the major navies of the world to take notice of the Herreshoffs' work.

The town of Stoddard, located in the Monadnock Region of southwest New Hampshire, is blessed with a handsomely severe landscape of forests, lakes, and hills admired for their natural beauty. Hundreds of farm families settled in the town between 1768 and 1820. When the rock-laden and thin-soiled farms failed in the mid-1800s, the town turned to industry to survive. An extensive woodenware industry and a nationally known glass industry provided employment through the 19th century. Those industries also failed by the early 20th century, and the town’s population toppled by more than 90 percent. The introduction of the automobile revived the community, allowing families to easily visit the town’s numerous lakes and ponds. Stoddard became a tourist destination as the 20th century progressed. Today, two-thirds of the land area has been conserved as natural open space, most of it available for public use. Stoddard’s natural beauty and unaltered historic character are enjoyed by visitors and a growing population of permanent residents.

Over 200 photographs help paint the picture of the career of Igor I. Sikorsky, one of the most talented and versatile aeronautical pioneers in history.

This book traces the history of Sikorsky aviation and its founder, Igor I. Sikorsky, whose career spanned over 60 years and was highlighted by three major achievements: the creation of the world's first four-engine airliner, the record-breaking Clipper Ships, with which Pan American Airways explored transpacific and transatlantic airline service, and the development of the helicopter. Sikorsky then led his engineers out of the piston-engine era and into the jet age with the design and development of some of the most widely used turbine-powered helicopters in aviation history. Hundreds of photographs, many from the Sikorsky family archives, document the genius of Sikorsky's intuitive engineering, including his lifelong interest in the challenge of the helicopter, which many historians consider to be his crowning achievement.

The US Naval Air Station, Quonset Point, RI, was originally built as a Neutrality Patrol Seaplane Base.

The base eventually became a unique and fundamentally important asset to the American armed forces. In World War II, more than one half of all U-boats sunk by U. S. aviation--including the first two--were destroyed by Quonset-trained shore and carrier-based squadrons. In the years following World War II, Quonset remained a premier industrial naval air station, sending squadrons or overhauling equipment for use in the Korean, Vietnam, and Cold War conflicts. For thirty-four years and through four wars, the Quonset Point Naval Air Station stood proud and tall on behalf of the United States military.

Well-illustrated and with fact-filled text, Slater Mill is a charming look back at a pivotal part of Pawtucket life.

As a working cotton mill, a space for varied types of manufacturing, and eventually as a project of historical preservation, the Slater Mill has played many roles in the history of Pawtucket. Leavitt's work includes such illuminating images as a turn-of-the-century bicycle shop, a crowded mill scene in the early twentieth century, and the transformation of the site into a tourist attraction in the 1920s. This volume also shows how the site was re-configured as a community museum in the 1950s and '60s, as well as how the industrial emphasis of the curators eventually resulted in the addition of a working water wheel to the site. Well-illustrated, with fact-filled text, Slater Mill is a charming look back at a pivotal part of Pawtucket life that will interest young and old alike.

During their heyday in the mid-to-late 1800s, more than 150 covered bridges dotted the landscape of Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Since that time, floods, fires, and progress have claimed all but three of the historic structures. Covered bridges were heavily concentrated in the hills of northwestern Connecticut, spanning the Farmington, Housatonic, and Naugatuck Rivers. In Rhode Island, most were built by the railroads in Woonsocket, Providence, and other communities in the northern part of the state, though few pictures are known to exist. Connecticut was the birthplace of two of the nation's best known covered bridge designers: Ithiel Town and Theodore Burr. Half of the covered bridges currently standing in the United States are supported by trusses patented by either Town or Burr.

Boston's Bridges surveys the city's spans, telling the story of their construction and tracking the evolution in design, materials, and construction techniques from the 1700s to the present. Drawing on previously unpublished images from the Massachusetts Department of Public Works, the city of Boston archives, and numerous other sources, Boston's Bridges is a vivid document of the city's bridges past and present. Written by an engineer-historian, Boston's Bridges will appeal not only to those fascinated by Boston's history but also to those with an interest in construction, civil engineering, and urban architecture.

Newport is a premier destination, but getting to the city has not always been easy.

For three centuries, ferries crossed Narragansett Bay's East Passage. That all changed on June 28, 1969, the day the Newport Bridge opened, and it closed the last remaining gap between Aquidneck and Conanicut Islands. Proponents of the bridge persevered political squabbles and delays for twenty-five years following World War II to make it a reality. The longest suspension bridge in the region incorporated several new technologies and construction techniques and changed the face of Rhode Island. Author James Ricci details the trials and tribulations that produced an iconic bridge.

With some two hundred stunning images, Bristol Firefighting relives the fire department's proud history over the past one hundred fifty years, as the old hand pump gave way to an 1881 Amoskeag steamer drawn by horses, which in turn moved aside in the early 1900s for a Pope-Hartford, a motorized auto chemical truck, which changed firefighting forever. Years later, Bristol was recognized throughout the country for owning the first American La France foam pumper, appropriately known as the Bristol Model. Bristol Firefighting recalls firsthand accounts of many infamous fires, told through the eyes of the local people who witnessed them. Most dramatically, it relates the stories of heroism, sacrifice, and bravery displayed by firefighters in their unending desire to serve and protect their community.