Cyclopedia of Applied Electricity from 1908

[techy101]

My father-in-law gave me a complete set of 1908 electrical engineering books today as a graduation present. He's also an EE and has had them displayed in house for years. I've not had much time to look through them, but the bits that I've seen are fascinating, especially the pictures of period machines.

[G7PSK]

I love old technical publications and collect them. I find that it is often easier to learn the basics from the early books as they were written from the standpoint of the reader not having come across the theory before.

[PointyOintment]

I thought "Didn't they use the term intensity instead of current back then?" But I looked it up and it looks like it's been called current since the beginning:

The conventional symbol for current is I, which originates from the French phrase intensité de courant, meaning current intensity. Current intensity is often referred to simply as current. The I symbol was used by André-Marie Ampère, after whom the unit of electric current is named, in formulating the eponymous Ampère's force law, which he discovered in 1820. The notation travelled from France to Great Britain, where it became standard, although at least one journal did not change from using C to I until 1896.

[timothyaag]

I started skimming through early Byte magazine issues, which are obviously much later than this, and it's quite trippy reading about what are now elementary concepts from the perspective of people who were experiencing them for the first time. I can't imagine how it might feel to read these.

[mikeselectricstuff]

I have a few selves full of old books, I think including this set. Lots of interesting stuff, surprising how much detail was understood and engineering sorted out even in the early 1900s
Also lots of fabulous drawings, and the occasional interesting terminology, like "electrical pressure" instead of voltage.

[Gyro]

Likewise, I love trawling second hand book shops for old technical books. Among them I've got two sets of Practical Electrical Engineering (Newnes), about 20 years apart pre National Grid and post (I think mid '20s and mid '40s). The second set I picked up for £7.50 for 5 volumes! 

I've got just one volume of the Cabinet Cyclopedia - Natual Philosopy, A Manual of Electricity, Magnetism and Meteorology by the Rev Dionysius Lardner dated 1841. Now he was a bit of a lad! ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysius_Lardner

An interesting book though, it goes into significant detail of the experements in atmospheric electricity etc. (Benjamin Franklin et al). One of the interesting facts  is that actually it wasn't Franklin who first did the kite and thunderstorm experement, it M Dalibard of Paris, using a method proposed by Franklin..... except that it wasn't Dalibard either - it was the workman employed by Dalibard to errect the equipment while Dalibard was off at a meeting in Paris! Apparently a matter of great controversy and dispute at the time, something Lardner really vents his opinions on! If you search around, you can find a few of his titles in free ebook form.

These book need rescuing and preserving, it's our duty to search them out, regardless of bookshelf space!

[igendel]

I've got just one volume of the Cabinet Cyclopedia - Natual Philosopy, A Manual of Electricity, Magnetism and Meteorology by the Rev Dionysius Lardner dated 1841. Now he was a bit of a lad! ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysius_Lardner

Wow, I just recently encountered this name, in a biography of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Lardner is definitely not portrayed there in a positive light 

[Neilm]

By coincidence, one of my collegues at work showed me his copy of a study published by Sydney Evershed into the behaviour of insulation, dated 1913. He had produced the first portable insulation tester known as a "Megger" (about 10 years before if you trust Wikipedia)

[CatalinaWOW]

It is interesting how few of the ideas we use in our field today have changed.  The materials have changed immensely and would have stunned practitioners of the day, but they would have immediately recognized much of what we are doing.

[Cubdriver]

Very cool set of books - those should be a fascinating read.  I've been collecting old texts and reference books, mostly from the 30s on, and it amazes me just how much was already known way back then about so many different materials.

Great graduation gift - I hope you enjoy them!

And congrats on graduating, too.

-Pat

[amyk]

For those curious about what's inside, archive.org seems to have ebooks of most if not all the volumes, from various dates.

[Vtile]

I like these old books, have a meter or two on my bookself. It is interesting how good the books are most of the time compared many publications of the modern days. I have noticed the same trend that the books are more explanary (even compared to so called course books) on their text and graphs and drawings are that much better that it is hard to find even close as good ones in modern publications. One reason must be the parrot effect, the real meaning and couse of something is actually forgotten and the writer actually do not have any idea why or where, I have seen it a few times. Ie. some experimental formulas are just thrown around, without any knowledge where (and when) they originates, I particularly find it annoying how modern books often describes the reactive power as something that inductor and capacitor just (by miracle) generates and the further claim that it doesn't do work (=doesn't consume energy) which is obviously misleading as it do make work, but most of the time in wrong place.

[mikeselectricstuff]

More ancient goodness here : https://archive.org/details/electricalexperi04gern