Free summaries
Engineering & Technology — page 2
409 public-domain engineering & technology books, summarised. Page 2 of 9.
Gunpowder and Ammunition, Their Origin and Progress
H. W. L. (Henry William Lovett) Hime
The history of gunpowder is not a single invention, but a slow, often obscured evolution of chemical mastery that redefined the mechanics of human conflict. By disentangling centuries of myth from the technical reality of saltpetre, the development of modern warfare emerges from the shadows of alchemy.
Ocean Steamships: A popular account of their construction, development, management and appliances
J. D. Jerrold (James Douglas Jerrold) Kelley
Explore the golden age of steam navigation, where coal-fed engines and iron hulls transformed the world’s oceans into a bustling, interconnected thoroughfare of commerce and travel.
Highways and Highway Transportation
George R. Chatburn
The humble road is a machine for civilization, bridging distance to bind the human family together. This comprehensive survey traces the evolution of human transit from ancient footpaths to the dawn of the motorized age.
Portable Flame Thrower M2-2
United States. War Department
This technical manual provides precise operational and maintenance protocols for the M2-2 portable flame thrower, a weapon system central to mid-century infantry combat.
Rambles on Railways
Roney, Cusack P., Sir
Steel tracks, mountain tunnels, and post-office bags construct a globe-spanning portrait of nineteenth-century locomotion.
Pyrometry: A Practical Treatise on the Measurement of High Temperatures
Charles R. (Charles Robert) Darling
A clear, methodically structured survey of the physical principles, structural designs, and industrial applications behind the scientific measurement of high furnace temperatures.
A short history of the printing press and of the improvements in printing machinery from the time of Gutenberg up to the present day
Robert Hoe
The evolution of the printing press is a story of mechanical ingenuity, tracing the transition from simple wooden hand-presses to massive, lightning-fast rotary machines. This technical history documents the relentless pursuit of speed, precision, and the democratization of information through engineering.
Kinematics of Mechanisms from the Time of Watt
Eugene S. Ferguson
This study examines how mechanical design evolved from the empirical intuition of James Watt to the rigorous mathematical synthesis of the mid-twentieth century.
Seasoning of Wood
J. B. (Joseph Bernard) Wagner
Wood is a stubborn, living material that vigorously defies the efforts of human ingenuity to strip away its natural moisture without causing damage or destruction.
John Deere's Steel Plow
Edward C. Kendall
A blacksmith’s ingenuity transformed the stubborn, sticky soil of the American prairie into the heart of a nation’s farmland. This historical inquiry examines how a simple tool fundamentally reshaped agricultural productivity.
American Hand Book of the Daguerreotype
S. D. (Samuel Dwight) Humphrey
Capturing a mirror-image on a silvered plate is a delicate alchemy, requiring not just scientific rigor, but the steady hand of an artist. This 1858 manual serves as the essential guide for mid-century practitioners navigating the precise, volatile chemistry of the Daguerreotype.
The History of the Telephone
Herbert Newton Casson
A man whispers into a dead man’s ear, setting off a chain reaction that transforms human speech into a global pulse. This account chronicles how a scientific curiosity became the nervous system of modern civilization.
The Invention of Printing.: A Collection of Facts and Opinions, Descriptive of Early Prints and Playing Cards, the Block-Books of the Fifteenth Century, the Legend of Lourens Janszoon Coster, of Haarlem, and the Work of John Gutenberg and His Associates
Theodore Low De Vinne
Before mechanical types could reorder the world, human hands spent centuries refining the arts of pressure, carving, and ink. The modern printed page is not a sudden miracle, but the culmination of a long, deliberate mechanical evolution.
Railway Adventures and Anecdotes: Extending over More Than Fifty Years
Unknown
Iron tracks redefine time and distance, transforming a hesitant world through the raw power of steam, human ambition, and unforeseen peril.
Textiles, for Commercial, Industrial, and Domestic Arts Schools: Also Adapted to Those Engaged in Wholesale and Retail Dry Goods, Wool, Cotton, and Dressmaker's Trades
William H. (William Henry) Dooley
A comprehensive guide to textiles for commercial, industrial, and domestic arts education.
Wonderful Balloon Ascents
Fulgence Marion
A soaring chronicle of human ingenuity, Fulgence Marion’s work captures the brave, fragile beginnings of flight and the unyielding dream of navigating the sky.
Steamships and their story
E. Keble (Edward Keble) Chatterton
A century of human ingenuity transformed a simple wooden hull into a floating city of steel and steam.
Keely and His Discoveries: Aerial Navigation
Moore, Bloomfield H., Mrs.
Bound by etheric currents and molecular sound waves, an obscure inventor and his dedicated patron attempt to rewrite physics itself. Mrs. Bloomfield Moore presents an ardent defense of John Ernst Worrell Keely's revolutionary vibratory energy.
Railway Construction
William Hemingway Mills
Engineers who build iron highways must master earth, water, and steel long before the first locomotive rolls down the track.
An Introduction to Machine Drawing and Design
David Allan Low
A systematic Victorian manual reveals how drafting precision and mechanical understanding turn lines on paper into operational engine components.
The American Railway: Its Construction, Development, Management, and Appliances
Thomas Curtis Clarke
American railways emerged from a spirit of defiant innovation, transforming a rugged landscape into a connected nation through engineering ingenuity and rapid, often brutal, industrial evolution.
The Rare Earths: Their Occurrence, Chemistry, and Technology
Stanley Isaac Levy
HOOK This work charts the emergence of the rare earth elements from scientific obscurity into the essential building blocks of modern industrial civilization. It captures a moment of intense transition when chemistry moved from confusion to precision.
A History of Aeronautics
Evelyn Charles Vivian
The dream of human flight moves from impossible speculation to a mechanical reality, chronicling the transition from visionary theory to the roar of the internal combustion engine. This record preserves the rapid, often perilous, evolution of aviation.
Mechanics: The Science of Machinery
A. Russell (Alexander Russell) Bond
Modern machinery acts as the steel-muscled extension of human capability, transforming the raw forces of nature into the engine of our material civilization. This survey captures the evolution of mechanical ingenuity, from primitive tools to the complex power systems defining the early twentieth century.
Marvels of Scientific Invention: An Interesting Account in Non-Technical Language of the Invention of Guns, Torpedoes, Submarine Mines, Up-to-Date Smelting, Freezing, Colour Photography, and Many Other Recent Discoveries of Science
Thomas W. Corbin
HOOK This guide navigates the ingenious mechanics behind early 20th-century progress, demystifying the complex science that powered everything from deep-sea torpedoes to the miracle of wireless communication.
Development of Gravity Pendulums in the 19th Century: Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology, Papers 34-44 On Science and Technology, Smithsonian Institution, 1966
Robert P. Multhauf
The study of the pendulum evolved from a simple clock mechanism into the primary instrument for mapping the internal structure of the Earth and the variations in its gravitational field.
Masters of Space: Morse and the Telegraph
Walter Kellogg Towers
Talking across vast distances once seemed a miracle beyond human reach, yet the persistent efforts of a few determined minds transformed the silence of space into a vibrant, interconnected web of speech and signal.
Motorcycle, Solo (Harley-Davidson Model WLA)
United States. War Department
Maintaining a piece of precision machinery in the field requires patience, technical clarity, and an unflinching attention to detail. This manual provides the definitive framework for the operation and mechanical care of the iconic Harley-Davidson WLA.
Principles of Mining: Valuation, Organization and Administration
Herbert Hoover
The practice of engineering is a complex fusion of geological science, financial strategy, and human management. This foundational text serves as a definitive guide to the rigorous, often unforgiving, realities of professional mining.
Nitro-Explosives: A Practical Treatise
P. Gerald (Percy Gerald) Sanford
This technical treatise offers a rigorous, detailed examination of the chemistry and industrial production of nitro-explosives, providing an essential snapshot of late-nineteenth-century chemical engineering. It serves as both a historical record and a comprehensive reference manual.
Illustrated Catalogue of Locomotives
Baldwin Locomotive Works
This is a technical chronicle of the rise of steam-powered transit in America, detailing the evolution of locomotive engineering from a jeweler’s basement project into a global industrial force.
Time Telling through the Ages
Harry Chase Brearley
This is a panoramic survey of human ingenuity in the service of time, tracing our progress from observing the stars to mass-producing the precise mechanical ticking we carry in our pockets today. It is a chronicle of both the evolution of a machine and the transformation of a culture.
The Panama Canal
Frederic J. (Frederic Jennings) Haskin
A marvel of human engineering emerges from tropical jungle as a massive lock-based waterway cuts through continental rock, forever connecting two global oceans.
Aërial Navigation: A Popular Treatise on the Growth of Air Craft and on Aëronautical Meteorology
Albert Francis Zahm
From the quiet drift of early hot-air balloons to the high-stakes speed trials of early monoplanes, humanity’s relentless push into the atmosphere reshaped the boundaries of distance, transportation, and military strategy.
The Romance of Modern Mechanism: With Interesting Descriptions in Non-technical Language of Wonderful Machinery and Mechanical Devices and Marvellously Delicate Scientific Instruments
Archibald Williams
Industrial ingenuity transforms physical forces, intricate mechanics, and subtle natural laws into silent, unyielding human power.
The 1893 Duryea Automobile In the Museum of History and Technology
Donald H. Berkebile
A meticulous engineering history unearths the painstaking triumphs, mechanical missteps, and forgotten details behind the creation of one of America's earliest successful gasoline automobiles.
The Wright Brothers' Engines and Their Design
Leonard S. Hobbs
A deliberate focus on lightness, mechanical simplicity, and practical experimentation transformed an ordinary internal combustion engine into the essential catalyst for human flight.
Early American Scientific Instruments and Their Makers
Silvio A. Bedini
Before American scientific enterprise became formal and institutionalized, early survey instruments and mathematical tools were forged by local tradesmen, self-taught mechanics, and ingenious clockmakers adapting to a growing nation’s urgent practical needs.
Field artillery materiel
Unknown
Modern warfare demands a precise synthesis of mechanical engineering, tactical mobility, and rigorous maintenance, transforming chaotic violence into an exact science of iron, fire, and disciplined coordination.
Measuring Tools
Unknown
Precision is the foundation of industrial progress. This technical volume serves as a comprehensive guide to the historical evolution and practical application of the instruments that define modern manufacturing.
The engineer's sketch-book of mechanical movements, devices, appliances, contrivances and details employed in the design and construction of machinery for every purpose
Thomas Walter Barber
This expansive catalog of mechanical ingenuity serves as a timeless repository for the fundamental movements and devices that underpin the entire history of modern machine design.
Opportunities in Engineering
Charles M. (Charles Marcus) Horton
To build a life in engineering is to marry the precision of the slide-rule with the calloused hands of a builder. It is a dual existence for those who find their deepest satisfaction in both thinking and doing.
Flying Machines: Construction and Operation: A Practical Book Which Shows, in Illustrations, Working Plans and Text, How to Build and Navigate the Modern Airship
William J. (William James) Jackman
The dream of human flight transforms into a mechanical reality through the careful application of physics, spruce wood, and engine power. This guide demystifies the early, exhilarating era of aviation for the everyday tinkerer.
Turning and Boring: A specialized treatise for machinists, students in the industrial and engineering schools, and apprentices, on turning and boring methods, including modern practice with engine lathes, turret lathes, vertical and horizontal boring machines
Franklin Day Jones
This technical guide offers a detailed examination of metal-cutting practices, providing the foundational principles and operational strategies required to master engine lathes, turret lathes, and various boring machines in an industrial setting.
Oxy-acetylene welding manual
Lorn Campbell
This manual serves as a foundational guide for the safe and systematic instruction of oxy-acetylene welding, capturing the methods and rigors of industrial repair at the dawn of the twentieth century.
A Catechism of the Steam Engine
Bourne, John, C. E.
Understanding the complex machinery of the nineteenth century requires moving beyond mere theory to grasp the practical, gritty realities of operation and maintenance. This manual demystifies the steam engine through a structured, inquisitive dialogue between teacher and student.
Mechanical Devices in the Home
Edith Allen
Understanding the machinery of a household is a key to comfort, safety, and efficiency. This guide offers a practical, non-technical education in the selection, management, and repair of the essential devices that define the modern home.
Straw Hats: Their history and manufacture
Harry Inwards
This technical account traces the evolution of straw headwear from ancient antiquity through the mechanization of the twentieth-century factory. It documents the transition from pastoral cottage craft to global industrial production.