The Incredible Talking Machine

Pull back the curtain and enter a world where mystery and magic take centre stage . . . Twelve-year-old Tig works at the Theatre Royale, cleaning, selling tickets and doing anything else that is asked of her by her tyrannical boss, Mr Snell. But Tig will do whatever it takes to get closer to her dream – to become a Stage Manager and spend her days inventing new ways to imagine and build the intricate machinery and props that bring the exciting productions to life! But when a strange new act – a talking machine – arrives at the Theatre Royale, it moves and behaves in a way that Tig just can’t work out. It’s as though it’s alive somehow . . . And when the machine appears to be hiding a dangerous secret, Tig must race against time to solve the mystery, before everything and everyone she cares about is lost forever. A gloriously gothic adventure from an original new voice in middle-grade. A gloriously gothic adventure with a magical twist from an original new voice in middle-grade. Perfect for fans of Michelle Harrison, Sophie Anderson and Emma Carroll. Praise for Jenni Spangler’s debut novel, THE VANISHING TRICK: A thrilling, original, evocative and eerie tale - I adored it!’ Michelle Harrison, author of A Pinch of Magic 'A thrilling page-turner. Madame Pinchbeck is a gloriously Dickensian villain’ Abi Elphinstone, author of Sky Song 'Ghosts, gadgets, likeable villains and unlikely heroes: The Vanishing Trick is a dark and dazzling adventure’ Emma Carroll, author of Letters from the Lighthouse 'A completely enthralling tale, oozing with atmosphere and originality’ Catherine Doyle, author of The Storm Keeper's Island

IT'S 1876 AND THE whole country is celebrating the 100th birthday of the United States. The biggest party is in Philadelphia at the World's Fair, where the latest and greatest inventions are on display for all to see. Alexander Graham Bell is headed to the fair to demonstrate his invention - a talking machine he calls the telephone. But will anyone come to see him at the world's most important science fair? And more importantly, will his machine work? This Step 3 reader celebrates the resilient, quirky spirit of inventors.

Pull back the curtain and enter a world where mystery and magic take centre stage in a gloriously gothic adventure from Jenni Spangler, illustrated by Chris Mould. Twelve-year-old Tig works at Manchester's Theatre Royale, cleaning, selling tickets and doing anything else that is asked of her by her tyrannical boss, Mr Snell. Tig will do whatever it takes to get closer to her dream - to become a Stage Manager and spend her days inventing new ways to imagine and build the intricate machinery and props that bring the exciting productions to life! But when a strange new act - a talking machine - arrives at the Theatre Royale, it moves and behaves in a way that Tig just can't work out. It's as though it's alive somehow . . . And when the machine appears to be hiding a dangerous secret, Tig must race against time to solve the mystery, before everything and everyone she cares about is lost forever. A Victorian adventure full of ghost, gadgets and shifty villains, from the critically-acclaimed Jenni Spangler, who's debut The Vanishing Trick, was selected as Waterstones Book of the Month. Praise for THE VANISHING TRICK: A thrilling, original, evocative and eerie tale - I adored it!' Michelle Harrison, author of A Pinch of Magic 'A thrilling page-turner. Madame Pinchbeck is a gloriously Dickensian villain' Abi Elphinstone, author of Sky Song 'Ghosts, gadgets, likeable villains and unlikely heroes: The Vanishing Trick is a dark and dazzling adventure' Emma Carroll, author of Letters from the Lighthouse 'A completely enthralling tale, oozing with atmosphere and originality' Catherine Doyle, author of The Storm Keeper's Island

This book introduces readers to the most significant technological developments in music making and listening, including such topics as metronomes and the development of music notation as well as synthesizers, the latest music collaboration apps, and other 21st-century technologies. Rather than focusing on technical and mechanical details, Music and Technology: A Historical Encyclopedia features the sociological role of technological developments by highlighting the roles they have played in society throughout time. Students and music fans alike will gain valuable insight from this alphabetized encyclopedia of the most significant examples of technological changes that have impacted the creation, production, dissemination, recording, and/or consumption of music. The book also contains a chronology of milestone events in the history of music and technology as well as sidebars that focus on several key individual musicians and inventors.

This four volume set of books constitutes the proceedings of the 2016 37th International Conference Information Systems Architecture and Technology (ISAT), or ISAT 2016 for short, held on September 18–20, 2016 in Karpacz, Poland. The conference was organized by the Department of Management Systems and the Department of Computer Science, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Poland. The papers included in the proceedings have been subject to a thorough review process by highly qualified peer reviewers. The accepted papers have been grouped into four parts: Part I—addressing topics including, but not limited to, systems analysis and modeling, methods for managing complex planning environment and insights from Big Data research projects. Part II—discoursing about topics including, but not limited to, Web systems, computer networks, distributed computing, and mulit-agent systems and Internet of Things. Part III—discussing topics including, but not limited to, mobile and Service Oriented Architecture systems, high performance computing, cloud computing, knowledge discovery, data mining and knowledge based management. Part IV—dealing with topics including, but not limited to, finance, logistics and market problems, and artificial intelligence methods.