Following “The Sun on the Table,” M. Ilyin’s books on the history of other branches of technology and culture are published. The writer spoke about the history of measuring time in the book “What Time Is It?” (1927) Ilyin’s work “Black and White” (1928) is dedicated to the history of writing, the story of mankind’s long journey from manuscript to printed book. Then the story “How a Car Learned to Walk” (1929) appears and, finally, a unique book of simple riddles with complex answers “One Hundred Thousand Whys” (1929).

It is no coincidence that later (in 1936) M. Ilyin combined all these works into one book, “Stories about Things.” They are connected by the commonality of the literary method and the proximity of themes. But this is not the only {591} point: one work, as it were, complements the other. Collected together, they acquire a new quality - they become an image of the history of material culture in its most important typical features.