Two Books For The Gulch Library
"The Amateur Scientist", published I believe in the 1940s. A series of articles drawn from "Scientific American" which detail how to use basic technology and materials to build all manner of scientific apparatus, much of which can be adapted to useful purposes--an x-ray machine, to name one example.
Also "The Boy Mechanic", issued by Popular Mechanics in different versions with different contents over the years (starting in 1915). STUFFED with plans on how to make almost anything you can imagine. A boat, a motorcycle, a wind sled, a car, your own tools, paint, varnish, and anything you might need to make for yourself someday. Need an engine or a generator? "The Boy Mechanic" will tell you how to build one. How about a welder or other machine tools? They're in there. The plans and descriptions are a bit cursory but overall the sheer volume of information is astonishing.
"The Amateur Scientist" (available in several editions) tends to be quite expensive. Most editions of "The Boy Mechanic" are in the public domain and "new" editions can be had for very little.
The main thing about both of these titles is that most can be constructed using available materials and simple tools. In effect, these are guides to surviving as a technological society should one be unable to purchase a ready-made item locally or order it online.
Also "The Boy Mechanic", issued by Popular Mechanics in different versions with different contents over the years (starting in 1915). STUFFED with plans on how to make almost anything you can imagine. A boat, a motorcycle, a wind sled, a car, your own tools, paint, varnish, and anything you might need to make for yourself someday. Need an engine or a generator? "The Boy Mechanic" will tell you how to build one. How about a welder or other machine tools? They're in there. The plans and descriptions are a bit cursory but overall the sheer volume of information is astonishing.
"The Amateur Scientist" (available in several editions) tends to be quite expensive. Most editions of "The Boy Mechanic" are in the public domain and "new" editions can be had for very little.
The main thing about both of these titles is that most can be constructed using available materials and simple tools. In effect, these are guides to surviving as a technological society should one be unable to purchase a ready-made item locally or order it online.
My antique copy of "The Boy Mechanic" shows a young man building a wright glider, jumping off a cliff and landing in the town square.
Nowadays they would never publish anything like that because somebody would sue them. However, in the age the book was published, the message to young men was "Dream Big!"
I love both these books. Thanks for recommending them!
Not to mention a series of lessons in what this country has become.
Obviously aimed at the under-10 crowd, it details 200 "experiments" which range from very basic to processes using nitric acid and carbon tetrachloride. Want to synthesize Nylon? It's all there in detail.
The remarkable thing about it all is that children were trusted with this material without question 50 or more years ago. We have lost that at our peril. Children who are treated as if they are not trustworthy tend to behave as they are treated. So do adults.
Another great addition is CONNECTIONS by William Burke' (found initially via PBS series) also wrote THE DAY THE UNIVERSE CHANGED
There are a great many useful late 1800/ early-mid 1900s technical volumes on everything from steel furnace construction to motor winding. Gone now, but remnants findable are books republished by Lindsay Technical books http://www.lindsaybks.com/
Note to Gulch librarians, one of the best ways to preserve any book is to protect the spine. Especially these days, most hardbacks, all paperbacks are no longer sewn signatures. They are ironically termed "perfect bound" which simply means they are chopped single pages with a glue spine. The thing you want to avoid doing with any book is to crack the spine.
Do the following with clean hands: 1 set the book on its spine on a solid surface. 2: open both the front and back covers; lay them flat.
3 taking a few pages at a time from the front and the back, lay them open; carefully fold the line where the pages meet the spine. Run your index finger down the length for front and back pages.
Repeat this last step a few pages til you have come to the center of the book.
You have now created a spine fold that will allow the pages to open more fully without damaging the spine.
Years ago I bought a technical book for $150 on battery technology. Since the publisher printed and assembled the book with the grain( curl) of the paper on the wrong axis relative to the spine, within a short time all the pages started falling out!
Economic Harmonies by Bastiat
How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World by Browne, Harry
Debate on the Constitution, by Founding Fathers
Federalist, The by Founding Fathers
Capitalism & Freedom by Friedman, Milton
Money Mischief by Friedman, Milton
Conscience of a Conservative by Goldwater, Barry
Errors of Socialism by Hayek, Friedrich A
Road to Serfdom, The by Hayek, Friedrich A
Economics In One Lesson by Hazlitt, Henry
Failure of the New Economics, The by Hazlitt, Henry
Time Will Run Back by Hazlitt, Henry
Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, The by Heinlein, Robert
South Was Right, The by Kennedy, James & Walter
Guns, Crime, and Freedom by LaPierre, Wayne
Anti-Capitalistic Mentality by Mises, Ludwig von
Critique of Interventionism by Mises, Ludwig von
Human Action by Mises, Ludwig von
Manipulation of Money and Credit by Mises, Ludwig von
Notes and Recollections by Mises, Ludwig von
Socialism by Mises, Ludwig von
Theory and History by Mises, Ludwig von
God of the Machine by Paterson, Isabel
Ayn Rand Letter by Rand, Ayn
Anthem by Rand, Ayn
Atlas Shrugged by Rand, Ayn
Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal by Rand, Ayn
Fountainhead, The by Rand, Ayn
Objectivist by Rand, Ayn (one original copy plus one hardback)
Objectivist Newsletter by Rand, Ayn (several original copies)
Philosophy, Who Needs It by Rand, Ayn
Sanction of the Victim by Rand, Ayn
Virtue of Selfishness, The by Rand, Ayn
We, The Living by Rand, Ayn
Conceived In Liberty by Rothbard, Murray
For a New Liberty by Rothbard, Murray
Man, Economy, and State by Rothbard, Murray
I know I have a gunsmithing set, too.
There are compilations of Extension Service bulletins which will teach basically everything about agriculture, and in many cases explain how to make your own tools, chemicals, etc.
Somewhere, there is a fair-sized download entitles "How To Start Your Own Country" or something like that. It details everything from getting everyone housed to creating an economy to establishing businesses and a government. In short, a step by step (albeit thousands of pages) guide to creating and maintaining a community of any size.
It talks about how to wind your own coils and such.
How to make your own capacitors and resistors - probably also needed in a Gulch.
I have an old copy of the Merck Manual. It just contains a list of chemicals and their properties and uses. But some of the 'chemicals' are things like 'oil of cloves' and some of the 'uses' are 'topical anesthetic'. This is a more limited use book than the ones that Dave is describing, but if you see a copy going for a dollar at a yard sale...
Jan
My father once had a fungus infection on his hand which would not respond to any of the OTC or prescription products available at the time. He went to the oldest doctor in town, who took a "recipe" out of the Merck Manual and had a pharmacy mix it up. The infection cleared up within a week.
Jan
They don't have everything mentioned, but they have a surprising amount of stuff kids would find cool.
http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Book-Boy...
http://www.amazon.com/Daring-Book-Girls-...
I quite agree with the person who prefers physical books. One can get the better part of a library onto an SD chip or a flash drive, but if there is nothing to plug it into....
I will say that a basic Kindle is a remarkable device. 32 hours of battery life and an astonishing number of titles can be fitted onto one memory card (and you can always carry as many memory cards as you wish). Eventually it will fail, but do remember that batteries can be made with relative ease.
Jan