While I generally don't like walking round shops, even junk shops, occasionally a little gem surfaces which add to the pleasure of one's day (to quote our resident Viking!)
No1 son picked up a very nice copy of "Molesworth's Pocket Book of Engineering Formulae", 29th Edition dated 1925. Didn't tell me how much he paid for it, but I suspect under a fiver.
Sort of Machinery's Handbook but much smaller and almost pocket sized.
It runs to over 940 pages and is only 5" X 3" X 1" thick, so quite a lot of small typesetting in there. Peter
-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Luton, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk
These shops are always good for a rummage around. I remember visiting a shop in Whitby and walking thorugh into the back to find a complete Lister D pumping outfit.
I have also visited numerous junk shops whist on holiday in France and seen plenty intresting items including the odd engine, pump and corn ginder etc. It seems theres always a lot of old iron lurking around in these French Junk Shops.
It's actually the 1897 23rd edition, "by Sir Guildford L. Molesworth Knight commander of the order of the Indian Empire Fellow of the University of Calcutta Member of the Institurtion of Civil Engineers Etc Etc
and
Robert Bridges Molesworth, MA., Cantab.
Full of useful stuff such as " Windmills, rules for the angles of the sails"
"approximate rules for the proportions of locomotives"
"Dimensions of Locomotives (French Practice)"
" 'Duty of engines' The duty of an engine is the number of pounds raised 1 foot high by a bushel of Welsh coal, or by 94 pounds (or 1 cwt in recent practice)."
with half a page on milling cutters, feeds, speeds etc and similar stuff
a mere 770 pages, plus some fascinating period adverts.
I also have his "Brooks French Measure and English Equivalent" from
1878, another little pocket book which gives conversions for every single millimeter from 1 to 1000 to decimal and to fractional inches - for instance
187mm is 7 5/16 + 1/32 + 1/64 inches 'full' - in other words 'a bit over'
and there are tables for converting the other way
and
"if an order is received in Prussian inches or Zoll, multiply it by
1.02972....."
etc etc.
It is, of course, in daily use!
Cheers Tim Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service
By my 1951 34th edition it has, I see, gone up to 1624 pages and publication taken over by SPON. Apart from the engineering info in bucket loads, it has sections on seafarer's knots and the alphabet by semaphore (brings back memories of scouting - but I never could remember any semaphore and only SOS plus the letter E in morse). I have also a lot of older Spon's Workshop Receipt's etc. which are great if you want to know how to get a blue tint on a brass ashtray (not really, but you know what I mean). Phil
I was recently given "Engineers' Handbook" by Prof. Henry Adams M.I.C.E. a nice big book with about 1100 odd useful facts. This edition appears to be turn of the 20th century.
In the Preface, Prof. Adams modestly quotes a reviewer who says his volume is "as indispensable as 'Molesworth', and more readable". So there.
After #266 "Safe load on floors" (churches, warehouses etc) comes #267 "Weight of men in crowds". Various studies are quoted, including the following:
"On the continent it is not usual to estimate so high. Belgians weigh about 140lbs. each, Frenchmen 136 lbs. while Englishmen weigh 150 lbs.
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