On Thu, 19 Jan 2006 15:05:29 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, Ned
Simmons quickly quoth:

In article . net,
says...
I've been thinking about getting a set of these books, but wanted to get
a better idea about them, since information about their actual content is
pretty skimpy on the web. For those that have a set, what can you tell me
that makes me want to run out right now and get them?


Not knowing what you're looking for it's hard to make a recommendation,
so the suggestion to look at the books in a library is a good one.

Most of the ideas in the book are examples of actual machines and often
quite complex. It can be difficult to glean an idea from the material
without spending a lot of time reading the quite detailed descriptions.
The four volumes were published over a period of years, so while each
book is divided into subjects, there's no overall organization - there
may be a section in volume 1 that's very similar to one in volume 4.

A couple other books with similar coverage, but different approaches:

"Pictorial Handbook of Mechanical Devices" - Grafstein
"Mechanisms, Linkages and Mechanical Controls" - Chironis
"The Engineer's Sketchbook" - Barber
"507 Mechanical Movements" - Lindsay reprint
"Fine Mechanisms and Precision Instruments" - Trylinski

All except the last, which is a translation of a Polish text, are easily
available either new or used.

www.leevalley.com has some of those and others ("Mechanical Movements
& Devices") in reprints for cheap prices as well.


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