Books!

[Private Lugnutz]

Good stuff, Beemer. I have accumulated a small library, some of which I shared on my Lugzsonian Virtual Tour thread, as you know. I will try to post some here later. Have to say, most of those have been happenstance pickups. Books that are by themselves with other stuff and hard to miss. (Like "Face-Outs" at a bookstore.) There are plenty of "paper" vendors at the flea markets. Usually I am too impatient to stand there thumbing through hundreds of magazines and books wondering if someone is beating me to a good tool one row over.

 

[bonneyman]

Speaking of books, we have locally a really good used book place called Bookmans. They have 3 locations in town, and several up the road in Phoenix. Inventory changes regularly, plus they have DVD's, CD's, musical instruments, and knic knacks. On top of that they have a fabulous trade-in policy where you can turn in books or DVD's you don't want and get store credit that can be used at ANY location fo something you do want. Perhaps your locale has something similar?

https://bookmans.com/blog/

Also we have 3 times a year Public Library sales, and an annual book swap meet at the state fairgrounds that until COVID had great stuff. If books are your thing there are opportunities out there. Just saying.

 

[bmwrd0]

Bonneyman, we don't have something quite like that, but we do have a small, independent used bookstore, owned by an acute book lover, Scott. I am in there at least weekly, and in fact worked at a couple of shops like that in my twenties, learning the trade by a long apprenticeship. I still keep my hand in, doing what is called "scouting" which is the trade term for going out and finding valuable books on the cheap to resell. And speaking of which, we have a great thrift store chain here in the valley, St. Vincents. And the local ones keep all the really old books for sale, as opposed to just destroying them. Like the Restore, 90% of the time there is nothing, but sometimes you find gold. Like those English engineering books.

Working in those stores was the best life, until I looked at my bank balance!

Lugz, I rarely go through magazines, unless I start seeing something from the '30s or older, but I will go through random papers, as that is how I found that early Stanley catalog, the CAT book, and so much more. It's also where you are likely to find tool catalogs.

Also, pretty much everything I have been showing is stuff that I found in the wild, so to speak. While I will buy newer stuff, and buy things online as I need them, I love the thrill of just randomly stumbling into something. It's the same reason we all go to swap meets, estate sales, and so on.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Lugz, I will go through random papers, as that is how I found that early Stanley catalog, the CAT book, and so much more. It's also where you are likely to find tool catalogs.

Oh, trust me, I know! It just takes so much longer than going through a toolbox. I'm just expressing the dilemma I typically feel. It pains me, knowing I am very well passing up some good stuff, and there are always at least 2 or 3 "paper" guys with tables at my fleas, but I don't go through those boxes as religiously or as thoroughly as toolboxes, and sometimes not at all.

 

[bargainhuntingking]

I was flipping through a 1938 popular mechanics tonight spotted this. I had never even heard of Audels before this thread

C1504, amazing ad! If I had read those chapter headings today, I’d want to buy the set right now. And financing with $1 down and $1/month for 5 months!

I paid $75 for my set of 4, which is a steal considering $6 in 1938 is worth $108.53 today.

 

[ttpete]

Bonneyman, we don't have something quite like that, but we do have a small, independent used bookstore, owned by an acute book lover, Scott. I am in there at least weekly, and in fact worked at a couple of shops like that in my twenties, learning the trade by a long apprenticeship. I still keep my hand in, doing what is called "scouting" which is the trade term for going out and finding valuable books on the cheap to resell. And speaking of which, we have a great thrift store chain here in the valley, St. Vincents. And the local ones keep all the really old books for sale, as opposed to just destroying them. Like the Restore, 90% of the time there is nothing, but sometimes you find gold. Like those English engineering books.

Working in those stores was the best life, until I looked at my bank balance!

Lugz, I rarely go through magazines, unless I start seeing something from the '30s or older, but I will go through random papers, as that is how I found that early Stanley catalog, the CAT book, and so much more. It's also where you are likely to find tool catalogs.

Also, pretty much everything I have been showing is stuff that I found in the wild, so to speak. While I will buy newer stuff, and buy things online as I need them, I love the thrill of just randomly stumbling into something. It's the same reason we all go to swap meets, estate sales, and so on.

I have a 2 volume set of Modern Machine Shop Practice by Joshua Rose. It's from the 1890s and is huge, almost folio size. I rescued it from being tossed because the binding had totally disintegrated. A friend who was a hobby bookbinder rebound it in half leather for me in return for a bottle of single malt scotch.

I've been a bibliophile all my life and have a collection of several thousand bound volumes, almost all non-fiction, including 52 years of Automobile Quarterly.

 

[bmwrd0]

I have a 2 volume set of Modern Machine Shop Practice by Joshua Rose. It's from the 1890s and is huge, almost folio size. I rescued it from being tossed because the binding had totally disintegrated. A friend who was a hobby bookbinder rebound it in half leather for me in return for a bottle of single malt scotch.

I've been a bibliophile all my life and have a collection of several thousand bound volumes, almost all non-fiction, including 52 years of Automobile Quarterly.

I would say you made out on that deal! There was a local book bindery/repair place, but it died in the covid slow down.

And it is always good to meet another bibliophile.

 

[gpw_42]

I love seeing what others have on their bookshelves, as it seems that they tell a lot about the kind of person one is talking with. The books pictured in this thread are amazing! Don, I'm amazed how much overlap we have.

Here's a (dark) pic of my World War 2 original books and manuals. If you want to see specific titles, let me know.

 

[d42jeep]

I love seeing what others have on their bookshelves, as it seems that they tell a lot about the kind of person one is talking with. The books pictured in this thread are amazing! Don, I'm amazed how much overlap we have.[/I QUOTE]

We even have Jeep overlap!
-Don

 

[bonneyman]

I collect books because I'm into tangibles. Digital formats and electronic storage isn't secure enough in my book (pun intended), so I amass as many hardcovers as I can on practical skills and reference. When the "cloud" goes down all I need is a candle and I have previous generations of knowledge still available.

Plus users manuals and exploded views on tools I have.

 

[bmwrd0]

I collect books because I'm into tangibles. Digital formats and electronic storage isn't secure enough in my book (pun intended), so I amass as many hardcovers as I can on practical skills and reference. When the "cloud" goes down all I need is a candle and I have previous generations of knowledge still available.

Plus users manuals and exploded views on tools I have.

Truer words are rarely spoken.

And when our power was out for a couple of days due to an ice storm, I had plenty to read!

 

[RTM]

And a very early Stanley catalog, not sure of the date.

The ITCL puts your Stanley at 1898.
https://archive.org/details/StanleyCarpentersTools

My old copy of Audel's #4 is from 1937, my newer copy of v1-4 is from 1982 (not as much fun).

I have some older Bay Area hardware wholesalers, like the Cleancut distributor, from 1935ish and 1965, Dunham, Carrigan & Hayden. I also have the Stiletto distributor, from 1965, Pacific Hardware (or Hamilton Baker Pacific). These are 2-3" thick, full of tools, hardware etc., great catalogs to flip through, just randomly looking at stuff you don't recognize, great for Whatzit time.

A 1944 version of What to Make from PopMech, a 1952 version of The Old Man and the Sea (to jump Genres), and a bunch of still uncategorized tool books, mostly from the 20's and 30's. This stash yielded the MTF catalog that Tin Medic scanned and got posted with Twertsy. I need to go through them a bit more, as a few are reprints, and the MF has the wrenches that I questioned some time ago.

I also have lots of reprints of old tool catalogs and books, ranging from 1703 Moxon's Mechanick Exercises, 1765 L'Art du Tourner by Diderot, Stanley catalogs from 1855 forward, a few Dutch manufacturers from the 1940s, but as they aren't really vintage, I won't bore you with those. I have 200+ books categorized in the woodworking and tools categories, some that aren't on ITCL, so its fun to make a new discovery, or answer someone's tough question.

 

[Modern Garage]

Automotive Engineering textbook series from 1929. The first copyright is 1909. I enjoyed reading the chapter on setting up your garage, which in the 'teens and 'twenties was as much storage garage as repair and refueling. Houses in the cities didn't have any place to store a car like the country homes with stables and a carriage house. And then of course my favorite subject motorcycles.
Also Automobile Repairing from 1924 with some class notes from some long forgotten student.
Joe

 

[bmwrd0]

"Houses in the cities didn't have any place to store a car like the country homes with stables and a carriage house."

Fun fact, my house, built in 1913, had the first garage in town. Sized for a model T, it originally had no power and a dirt floor. At some point, someone put in a slab, poorly, which has now heaved and cracked badly.

 

[ooba tooba]

C1504, amazing ad! If I had read those chapter headings today, I’d want to buy the set right now. And financing with $1 down and $1/month for 5 months!

I paid $75 for my set of 4, which is a steal considering $6 in 1938 is worth $108.53 today.

I picked up this complete set for about $6 a book.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I won't repeat the books I shared on my "The Lugzsonian - A Virtual Tour" thread (see pages 8, 9, and 10), but here are a few more in the automotive maintenance category, including a few Thompson's (which may or may not have any future practical use), and Modern Motor Repair and Overhauling, George Newnes, London, that was more of a collectible purchase, just because I like the look of the cover. It doesn't have a copyright date, but based on the cars mentioned in the Foreword and the Finder's Key in the back (see Pic 6), especially the "Austin, 16 h.p." (which was the prewar Austin saloon car), and "Ford, 8 h.p." (which refers to the Model Y), I think it's from the mid 1930's, probably 1937. Ish. Maybe Farmer J. or dave or humber would be able to narrow it down further.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Here are two books (see Pic 1) that have made me a lot smarter about prewar and wartime steel.

The Disston "catalog" (it's really more like a tutorial on crucible tool steels, touting the history of how they had to make their own when they first started outside of Philly, finding US steel lacking...) has no copyright date. But the steel tables do not include any "New Emergency" 1942 consortium triple-alloy steels, which became SAE/AISI 86XX and 87XX, and it has a little addendum tucked into a pocket in the back dated 1941 (see Pic 2).

The Ryerson is from 1947, fresh off the war, and the industry transformation from rich pet formulas to low-content, high-yield, high-performing wartime triple alloys.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Here are the books I "read" the most, that have the most fingerprints, many of which are my own, and which are probably singlehandedly responsible for widening and deepening my understanding of hand tools of the prewar and wartime period. It's the 1939 Federal Standard Stock Catalog Section IV (Federal Specifications). If the federal government was buying it, it had a spec.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Chosen at random for context, here is what the specs look like.

 

[ZRX61]

Automotive Engineering textbook series from 1929. The first copyright is 1909. I enjoyed reading the chapter on setting up your garage, which in the 'teens and 'twenties was as much storage garage as repair and refueling. Houses in the cities didn't have any place to store a car like the country homes with stables and a carriage house. And then of course my favorite subject motorcycles.
Also Automobile Repairing from 1924 with some class notes from some long forgotten student.
Joe

I have the same set, found them about a year ago.

 

[ZRX61]

Some of mine

 

[d42jeep]

Here is another category of references that may be unique to my collection.
-Don

 

[c1504]

Here are the books I "read" the most, that have the most fingerprints, many of which are my own, and which are probably singlehandedly responsible for widening and deepening my understanding of hand tools of the prewar and wartime period. It's the 1939 Federal Standard Stock Catalog Section IV (Federal Specifications). If the federal government was buying it, it had a spec.

Those are so cool! That is the kind of thing I could spend days looking at. Is it a set of two books?

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Yes. That's the index in pic 3. Every spec is a 4 to 5 page little pamphlet. Two binders covering everything from Acetone to Zinc oxide. Edibles, lubricants, hardware, paint, furniture, tires, building materials, etc. It has helped solve innumerable mysteries and debates.

 

[c1504]

That’s awesome. I did some googling and didn’t see many others. Did they print very many of them?

 

[d42jeep]

I believe that they are exceedingly rare but those are in the right hands!
-Don

 

[d42jeep]

For the long C fans, my wife found this pamphlet at an estate sale last February.
-Don

 

[Private Lugnutz]

That’s awesome. I did some googling and didn’t see many others. Did they print very many of them?

They weren't for personal or commercial use. These would've been used by supply chain guys in government supply offices.

 

[d42jeep]

I promise, this is the last of the Corvair library. The final picture is of my fleet in 1988.
-Don

 

[ZRX61]

Picked up Roark's "Formula's for Stress & Strain" (1943) today

 

[zippy97]

Don those are some real nice corvair books... Thanks for sharing.

 

[d42jeep]

Thanks. It was fun to revisit them.
-Don

 

[bmwrd0]

Ah, great cars. Another Corvair was on my shortlist of possible project cars when my wife told me we were buying a project house...

 

[Private Lugnutz]

This is the first Audel book (Copyright 1932, Reprinted 1946) I have found in the wild, just this morning at the flea market. It doesn't seem to be part of a series, like the various trade subjects some of you other guys have, and it seems physically smaller, squatter to me than those. This book has a rather humorous foreword (see Pic 4). It also has all the other Audel publications advertised on the last several pages in the back. Do the other series volumes do the same? If so, I won't bother posting those pages.

 

[Stevettt]

Just looked through a bunch of my Audels' books (1918 up to late 50's) and they all seem to have the ads in the back, with some variation in style but very similar.

I bought my first Audel's, "Questions and Answers for Engineers and Firemans Examinations" when I was studying for a Boiler Operator's license in the early 90's.
Back then Ohio's test contained a lot of outdated questions (like how to caulk a rivet) that experience with modern boilers didn't teach you, so the old Audel's guides were gold.

Since then I buy them when I find them cheap. Just about any topic is fun to read and learn about and the illustrations are wonderful.

 

[d42jeep]

Here is a useful catalog I forgot to add to this thread. I have a decent collection of Walco pipe wrenches.
-Don

 

[Farmer J.]

I do have a stack of old books, but they're all stacked in a shipping container now as the dust get's up my nose!!

This is most exciting book I have read for a long time, and would probably be enjoyed by most folk here, if they haven't already read it. I like true stories with correct technical detail and this has to be one of the best I have come across. It's available on Amazon I think they just print the copies to order or some system like that. Here's the review:
The story of how a Pan American Airways B-314 flying boat, caught in the South Pacific, made an unplanned flight around the world following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Flying in total secrecy and radio blackout, Captain Ford and his 10 man crew flew over 31,500 miles in six weeks, avoiding enemy action in their effort to return safely to the United States. An astounding feat in 1941.
ISBN 061521472X
https://www.amazon.com/dp/061521472X/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Since someone else broke the ice with non-mechanical topics (distilling, wine, birds, and subversive humor), I'm going to post this foraging book I just found at the flea yesterday. The cover, which has some unfortunate water staining, smacked of the 70's to me, and sure enough, it's from 1975 - but it's a reprint of Miscellaneous Publication No. 77 originally published in 1930 by the US Dept of Agriculture. My Uncle Dutch was a roamer, a mushroomer and a rooter. He would drop sassafras off with my mom every time he visited.

 

[Ricky Joe]

I guess it depends on who you are if you want to go off-topic.

Most of my books are Factory Service Manuals, from the late 1940s forward. I have Motor Manuals that cover from the 1930s on, and many factory update sheets. I worked on antique cars and have a good collection of helpful books on them.

 

[bmwrd0]

If you are a "roamer, a mushroomer and a rooter" then I would suggest Euell Gibbons books. My wife is a bit of a forager and has a deep love for his books such as Stalking the Wild Asparagus and his Handbook of Wild Edible Plants.