Civilization has many facets, but how man lives depends very much on what he can make. The object of this book is to arouse wider interest in the way in which technological factors have shaped - and continue to shape - human history. Technological achievements have not only filled our material needs, but also expanded our spiritual and cultural horizons. The book shows how inventions have revolutionized the way artists, craftsmen, philosophers and even theologians have seen and explained our world. At the beginning of civilization inventors were anonymous - we don't know who made the first wheel or smelted the first copper - but as the story unfolds inventions can be attributed to particular individuals or companies who were sensitive to social and economic opportunity, up to the modern day where it is only major companies who can afford the research and development costs to venture further into the unknown. The book also looks to the future to see where the scientists of tomorrow will be taking us.