Audel's Manuals

[UnkaJesse]

Fellers, I make frequent references to my 1921 Audel's Engineers and Mechanic's Guides. There are eight of these things, but the 8th volume is on electricity and is of no help to us live steam guys. If you ever stumble up on a set or even a partial set, latch onto them because they are a wealth of the kind of information we need in our hobby. Some of the info is on refrigeration (did you know that Ether was used as refrigeration back in the early part of the 20th century. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/crazy.gif"%20alt="[/img] I suppose that if you had a leak in a line, then everyone took a nap?) but the majority of the information is on steam equipment from ships to locomotives with stop overs at steam rollers, concrete mixers, hoists etc. Great books. Probably to much involved for Lindsay to produce (3,360 [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/laugh.gif"%20alt="[/img] ) pages not counting the electrical volume.), but wouldn't it be great to have a fresh copy? [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/cool.gif"%20alt="[/img]

The attachment is of the fly leaf on the #2 volume. The flexible cloth cover is black and will not scan since the lettering is embossed into the cloth.

Just looked at the attachment and it is about 10% larger than the actual size of the guides. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/crazy.gif"%20alt="[/img]

Unka(I ain't selling my set to nobody as long as I am able to use them) Jesse

[Bill_Gardei]

Jesse:

I had one of the Audel's manuals when I was a kid. Don't
know which one. Don't know where it went. I also had
Motor's auto repair guides. Remember those? I still have
Ed Cahill's (RCA) "Practical Color Television for the Service
Industry", Copyright 1953, and John Rider's "Television -
How it Works", copyright 1948.

Remember the old ammonia refrigeration units? I guess
most absorption units still use it.

Bill

OT: (50 years later)

[UnkaJesse]

Bill, during WWII I worked (?) at an ice plant in Jackson TN during summer vacation from school. The plant there used anhydrous ammonia as the refrigerent and when you had a leak in a pipe, everyone knew it. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/crazy.gif"%20alt="[/img] Good thing the Meth lab boys were not active back then or the refrigerent would have all disappeared. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/cool.gif"%20alt="[/img] In addition to Ammonia, Carbon Dioxide, Sulphur Dioxide, Pictet Fluid
( [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/confused.gif"%20alt="[/img]?), Sulphuric Ether,Methylic Ether, Ethyl Chloride and even air was used as refrigerents. Sulphur Dioxide was used in household refrigerators and you definitely knew if that stuff leaked! (Voice of experience):(

Unka (tried to make an air compressor out of a SO2 unit)Jesse

[davestea]

so when you cleaned, or whatever with compressed air you got rotten eggs?

sounds like fun ?

[Bill_Gardei]

Dave:

Your personal photo -- looks like a Smithy. Is it?

Bill

[GeorgeGaskill]

physics but in fact, he designed a refrigerator in the '20's or '30's that used electrodynamic pumping so the system would be entirely closed, to prevent the fatal results from leaking refrigerants of the day. It didn't work out commercially because it was extremely noisy but the process has been refined with advanced electronics and would be practical today, although today's refrigerants remove the toxicity issue.

[Bruce_Mowbray]

If you ever stumble up on a set or even a partial set, latch onto them because they are a wealth of the kind of information we need in our hobby

Jesse,
How right you are.
I have started a collection of the Audels Manuals. I have the Engineers Guide set, as well as the Carpenters, the Electricians, the Automotive and the Growers sets. I also have one Audels manual of Sheet Metal Works and one on Mechanical Drawings and Draftmanship. These are definately great sources of knowledge for those who work on "old world" projects. You know, those are the ones that you could actually build or fix youself. Tons of lost (or disappearing) knowledge.
Did you notice on the last page of each volume lists the cost of these when they were new? The entire set went for $12.00 in 1921. My grandfather didn't make that much in a week as a professional cabinet maker in New York City. Would you shell out more than a weeks wages for a set of books?

(As Jesse would say)

Bruce (I can't wait until my new library is finished) Mowbray...LOL

[davestea]

Bill in NH -

Yup - it is a Smithy - shruck to fit. HA!

Thought it was a good metaphore - maybe pun is better?

I have one and it represents both sides of the types of machining we do most.

[UnkaJesse]

Bruce, I have the "Sheet Metal Worker's Handy Guide" by Audel. Is that the one you have?. I have used mine mostly for laying out cones (like for the "Wagon Top Boiler ) on my American. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/cool.gif"%20alt="[/img] In there somewhere is also directions on how to lay out a sheet metal bath tub! I always wondered how the thing was used until I went in the "Casey Jones" home in Jackson, TN and saw the identical genuine article built right into the cabinet work.

Unka (ain't gonna part with my sheetmetal handy guide either)Jesse

[UnkaJesse]

Dave, the odor from the compressor was much worse than rotten eggs! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/frown.gif"%20alt="[/img] If you have never smelled sulphur burning, you ain't lived. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/crazy.gif"%20alt="[/img] The fumes make suplhuric acid (H2SO4) when they contact water(H2O) and are quite deadly if breathed in quantity. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/frown.gif"%20alt="[/img] I gave up on using the compressor unit because it forever gave off the SO2 fumes. I have a small greenhouse which got infested with White Flies (kin to aphids) so I closed it up and burned a handfull of sulphur to kill everything, which it did, but I don't recommend doing that. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/shocked.gif"%20alt="[/img]

Unka (will stick with the WW Granger type air compressors now) Jesse

[themnax]

of the many thing in my childhood that nearly bring me to tears for having gotten 'lost' in the shuffle of our many moves, i seem to recall what i THINK was an along about 1958 to 1962 or possibly early but not i think earlier then 56, reprint of this set of audel's manuals to which you refer. they had a paper dust jacket rather then the cloth one. the top third was black whith the same title format shown but a diffrent font - more like times roman - while the lower 2/3, 3/4 something like that was red with black lettering. same publisher'd mark accross the bottem. i don't know if i'm remembering the same thing or i was in a parallel universe or something but i quite distinctly remember the name and the appearance of those dust jackets. i don't remember if we had the full set or just one or two of them. but the're long gone and greately missed.
along with an interesting volume (i seem to remember having been) published by popular mechanics along about those years (56-64) called 1001 formulas, tips and data ...
which included among other things instructions for making such items as lead based paint and of course lie based laundry soap ... ~;)

[Bruce_Mowbray]

Bruce, I have the "Sheet Metal Worker's Handy Guide" by Audel. Is that the one you have

Jesse,
I have the "Sheet Metal Pattern Layout" book. It's an 8" x 10" semi-hard cover book with 1100+ pages. Not exactly a handy pocket guide. I use mine for things like elipse layout, cone construction, sheet copper roof and flashing details and in depth coffee table reading. I don't think there is a sheet metal layout that isn't answered somewhere in the book.