39 - "There are a lot of things we just take for granted - electricity, water, food, phones, computers, etc. Where do these things come from? Who invented them and when? There's tons of great stuff we take for granted every day that could be used to intro kids to science and engineering. "
very true - and about 20 years ago I ran across a 3 volume set of books - "How Things Work" (I forget the author), but it was just fascinating. Though not a 'repair manual', more of a theory manual - it covered just about everything, with simple explanations, drawings, pictures. From airplanes, and propellers, to electric motors, and pumps, to airconditioners and internal combustion engines and microscopes and dams, and ships, and cranes and bulldozers, and tanks and cannons, etc, etc, etc.
Most fascinating, easy read, great for children, and adults. Highly recommended if you can find it today.
I did a quick search on the web on "How Things Work", and came up with all kinds of stuff - and probably somewhere in the list of 15000+ returns is that book set. (It was silver colored, in a box, if that does any good
I have it on my bookshelf -- a later edition, still silver colored, 4 vols, published in the UK, translated from a German work. It's very good.
Since then, there have been many, many clones of the same or similar name, some good, some not.