Thanks to Joe Goble:








[This message has been edited by Webmaster (edited 12-04-2002).]

I never tire of reading old technical books and journals. Sometimes the difference in approach shows us just how things have changed over the years, other times they show that some things never really change at all.

Isn't this quote still true, over 70 years later?

Joe;
Thanks for sharing these pages! It's fascinating to look back into history and see where we have come from.

BTW, I'll bet the electric chair on the stage of the Hippodrome Theater must have been a real "show-stopper"

Mike (mamills)

This is great!

Is there any way you could PDF the book?

That would be very cool!



[This message has been edited by sparky66wv (edited 12-06-2002).]

I enjoy this type of thing more than you can imagine! Thanks!

that's a great 1st paragraph there, my chuckle for the day, i guess some things will always stay the same !

Revived from the past, & looking for current comments! Anyone??

How many members dig into the 'old stuff'??

I have a 1926 copy of the Electricians notes. 35 lessons of varying length with illustrations. Interesting information and advice including using an umbrella upside down as a dirt collector when cutting in a ceiling box.
There is even a reference to underwriters laboratories, then located at 207 Ohio street in Chicago.
Looking at the illustrations of how to do residential wiring with knob & tube is a history lesson in itself.
alan

I do. I think it helps me in the field to know about old technologies and how things were done in the past. It can sometimes aid in troubleshooting. I also collect some of the neat things I rip out, and come across at garage sales and flea markets.

I have a few old books. One that I think is interesting is a single volume from "Audel's New electric Library." It from 1938 with alot of older stuff from past editions. It is the one that includes building wiring, some theory, and stuff on power distribution. It explains how to install knob and tube. I also find it interesting where it shows steps and photos on how a joint is made in high voltage lead sheathed cable. A lot of work!

Some of my books aren't even that old, I have do-it-yourself wiring books from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and there is some interesting and odd stuff in them as well.

Living in an Edwardian era house it means I get to use this kind of wiring without it being out of place. The fabric wiring, wooden mounting blocks, and bakelite fittings just look nicer and don't constantly remind one of the cheap mass produced era of plastic and cost cutting we have today. The lighting circuit is largely original and probably because of the climate where I live the rubber/cloth wire is still as good as new. It's all encased in split seam steel conduit in the walls and roof space anyway in case something did happen.
While I've got a collection of ancient carbon and squirrel cage filament light bulbs the light output and colour temperature is pretty awful, so I draw the line at using them for lighting. The heat output of a 60W carbon filament bulb is quite a surprise when compared to a tungsten coiled coil filament. No wonder they didn't make light sockets out of wood back then. For those that have never seen a carbon filament lamp in operation, let's just say that the colour temperature is like when a modern bulb is operated at about 2/3 of normal supply voltage. And as for brightness they give about a third of the light output as the same wattage modern bulb. The 1920's squirrel cage tungsten filaments are somewhat better.

I have an old WWII vintage Navy Sea Bee manual. It has a whole lot of information about old time stick framing, concrete, block and other building skills. This is aimed at people who are frontier building with locally gathered materials and whatever you can come up with.

Wow, reminds me of an old NEC book a friend of mine found on the internet as a pdf file. That old code book was only 40 pages.

Today's code book would probably still be only 40 pages if the same things weren't written 15 different ways!

You're probably right