… you know, those old-timey tech books that covered everything from steam-engine design to kiln building to embalming?
You’ll be happy to know they’re back. Most of them, anyway. JW writes to say that Lindsay’s — which went OOB a while back — was purchased and its products are now available via Your Old Time Bookstore. So should you ever need to hand-craft a coffin or should you want to get your son (or daughter) a copy of Electrical Things Boys Like to Make! (complete with exclamation point), you can do it once again.
NFI on my part. But I can hear crusty old do-it-yourselfers cheering from coast to coast, and probably beyond.
Cool!
Kind of like Foxfire, with electricity.
Yeah. Well said, Kent. That’s exactly it. And without folktales and myths about planting carrots according to the phases of the moon.
Oooh, what a trove!
Learn to design and repair steam locomotives for only $12.95!
I could spend great piles of money there.
Electrical Things Boys Like to Make!
Ought to send that to my sis-in-law, our family electrician.
I like the Boy Mechanic series, four books. There are plans for at least three airplanes, all gliders. One cautions not to fly in winds above 25 mph. Can you picture today’s kid telling Mom and Dad, “I think I’ll build and airplane. I’ll take it to the playground to fly it.”
What I found interesting is what was taken for granted tat the reader already knew. Comments like,”Finish in the usual manner” are everywhere in the books.
Hubby will love this, thanks.
The Lindsay catalog itself was fun to read. Its disclaimer started:
“If you’re an idiot, GO AWAY! Much of the information contained in these books is potentially dangerous. If you’re too lazy to think ahead and exercise caution in your work (my definition of an idiot), then I don’t want you on my customer list.”
Seems some of these books would be excellent gifts for homeschoolers, and those who lead scout troops of one sort or another. I used to be a cub scout leader and was always looking for stuff the boys could enjoy making.
There is a veritable gold mine of knowlege long lost in those manuals.
Think about it, some of that stuff is a hundred years old now, long before any of the mass produced crap was available that we take for granted every day.
Techniques and skills that could be very valuable .
Things like tin smithing are skills that a guy could make a living at even in this day and age. Some things are so basic that no one bothers to think of them until you find a need for that one guy who remembers how to do that basic job, like sweating copper pipe fittings together.
Ask yourself this, how many people do you know personally that know how to sweat solder into copper pipe joints.
HMMM?
My brother would have loved the info on Radio, He was making crystal sets and bringing in news as a teenager, as well as using Morse Code with his friends. Some of that might be useful again…
I wish I had the funds to buy a copy of the whole library before they closed the first time. Yeah, looking stuff up on the internets is easy, but I still like to turn the paper pages, and what happens when the screen goes black forever?
My son started out years ago with a Lindsay book on building your own metal lathe. Never really explained what he needed a metal lathe for, but Lindsay had a cool looking book, so he decided to build one. He found out early on that building your own lathe requires casting your own parts, which is 3 more Lindsay books, 1 on metallurgy, 2nd- how to build your own foundry/metal forge and another for how to make dies and casts.
So the lathe is built, and he still has a forge, wouldntcha know it, Lindsay has a book about blacksmithing.
It goes on and on, but in the end he’s become a damn fine founder, die maker, caster and smitty, in large part thanks to his Lindsay education.
bustedknuckles, i still, occasionally, get paid to do it. even though pex and push-ons are much easier for the job, some people don’t want to upgrade.
Cool link.
And now here is your John Milius quote of the day:
“I’m an anarchist. I’ve always been an anarchist. Any true, real right-winger if he goes far enough hates all form of government, because government should be done to cattle and not human beings.”