An engineer's miscellany: by Greville Bathe. 136 pages, plates, illustrations, 13 × 29 cms. Philadelphia, Patterson & White Company, 1938. Price $4.50
✍ Scribed by R.H. Oppermann
- Book ID
- 104131388
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 1938
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 65 KB
- Volume
- 226
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0016-0032
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The title of this book is perhaps the best that could be chosen for it. It is exactly an engineer's miscellany. It consists of ten brief but concise sketches of the nature of the historical from, and of interest to, an engineering point of view. Being a miscellany, there is no relation, one to the other, of the sketches. The first of these dwells on the early artisan as depicted in art. Here the art of engraving is taken as the starting point for recording how early engineering problems were tackled. The history and development of tools in this section make very interesting reading.
It will be recalled that model engineering is of comparatively recent origin. In fact it has not as yet come into full stride. The author first became interested in models as a boy, fifty years ago, and he entitles the second of his collection in this book, "The Commercial Toy Steam Engine of Fifty Years Ago." Passing from this description to the next sketch, there is a treatment of a somewhat forgotten era designated as the decorative era in machine design. The peak of this was from 184o to 186o. The examples shown bring to mind that the idea of dressing up the modern steam locomotive is not altogether new. Then there is a digest of Fitch's steamboats followed by an article on the first high pressure steam engine in America, of Oliver Evans. Both of these subjects receive a noteworthy treatment, historically and technically.
The story of the Old Cornwall iron mine should interest every engineer and should provide double the appreciation to those who may visit that part of Pennsylvania. An introspection on the antiquity of the inclined plane on canals is considered, with the old Morris Canal as a representative example of this principle. Following this the topics bear on the Cornish engineering talent and its contribution to engineering history, the lift wheel pumping plant of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, and Christopher Colles and the Steam Engine.
The book offers well written stories of these ten topics that interested the author over a period of years to the extent of initiating considerable historical research. His correlation of data, biographical and mechanical, by way of illustrations and writing should become increasingly valuable as time goes on. R. H. OPPERMANN.