[Steam-engine] Books

[Joe Prindle]

A lot of Lindsays books are excerpted chapters from text books by
International Correspondence School, of Scranton, PA. The frustrating part
is that often times they will publish a few chapters, but the original
book had more chapters in it that also had good information.
A series of books called the Power Plant series, written by Terrel Croft,
has a lot of information on valves, valve settings, boiler operation and
construction, water chemistry, etc. ad infinitum. These books often can be
found on Ebay for 10 bucks. This is the time of year for bargains on eBay,
in the winter too many folks are housebound and surfing looking for
bargains, so there aren't as many. Interestingly, although Croft wrote
much of his work over 50 years ago, some of it is still being used in
Technical College for stationary engineering classes, and his name still
appears on the Electrician's Handbook, widely used in school and in the
trade.
Interesting reading for a person who is interested in mechanics and
machining are the works of Fred Colvin. Colvin was editor of American
Machinist for many years, and a prolific writer. His work reads very
easily, his style is very matter of fact and it is much like carrying on a
conversation, as opposed to attending a lecture. "60 years with Men and
Machines" is the title of his autobiography and it is available from
Lindsay. It is a great book and really gives you an understanding on how
much industry changed in a 60 year period from the 1880's through the
1940's. I highly recommend it.
Colvin also partnered with Frank Stanley to produce the American
Machinist's Handbook. Now it has largely been replaced with Machinery's
Handbook, but I find the original to be much more useful to me as it has
dimensions for fasteners and thread pitchs that are now so obsolete that
no one else lists them. The book went through several printings and I
prefer the earlier ones. Again, copies surface on Ebay and I have bought
at least a dozen for myself and for gifts to friends, never paying more
than $10.
Sorry for the ramble but, as you can tell, I really enjoy collecting and
reading old technical books.
Joe
--- Francis Orr <steam.boat at verizon.net> wrote:

> Lindsay Publications has had the J.I. Case book listed for $6.00 if it
> is still available. They list all sorts of good steam stuff at a decent
> price. www.lindsaybks.com. n.b.books has been taking chapters out out
> original hard bound books and offering them at a pretty stiff price.
> >From what I have seen, most of the steam stuff comes from Audels
> Mechanics and Engineers Guide. For what you pay on eBay for an n.b.books
> extract, you can probably get the whole volume from other book dealers.
> For those who don't know about the Audels, there are eight volumes (#8
> is electrical) and it is a tremendous source of information including
> how to build boilers and design engines.
> Francis A. Orr
> _______________________________________________
> Steam-engine mailing list
> http://www.stationary-engine.com/mailman/listinfo/steam-engine
> 


=====
Joe Prindle
Patternmaker, Founder & Machinist
See my 1889 Reynolds Corliss at:
www.tznet.com/jprindle
Our Club:
www.badgersteamandgas.com
See Yoo in Baraboo!


		
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