Books....proof positive of dumbing down!

[MikeG.]

......Not like modern books, half about tools quarter techniques and quarter uninspiring projects.
Pete

Bit like woodwork shows, that. Once I realised they aren't 80% inspirational projects, 10% tools, 10% demonstrations, I gave up bothering.

The thing with books from back then is that everyone, but everyone had practical skills, and everyone had tools. You had to. Some were more skilled than others, but nonetheless, with a general culture of doing skilled stuff yourself it isn't surprising that the books reflected much higher standards than would generally be achievable these days.

 

[Chris152]

A friend recently gave me a copy of J.T. Makinson, The Art of Modern Fretcutting, the only woodworking book I now own except Paul Sellers' Working Wood.

Blokes in suits cutting wood, almost surreal. I'm now planning a trip to Hay-on-Wye's amazing secondhand book shops to look for more!

 

[tony_s]

Dick Barton- special Agent????

Surely you meant to say Paul Temple?!!

 

[dickm]

Paul Temple? That's positively modern. By the time that came on the wireless, the transistor had arrived, so we didn't have the problem of the accumulator running out before the next episode of Dick Barton!

 

[Rockford]

Mind you, I did manage to tip a tin of walnut woodstain over my wool suit trousers a fortnight ago :shock: . I had been 'refurbing' my workbench at the weekend and when I was passing the shed on my return home from work on the Monday evening, I thought 'I'll just give it a quick last coat before it gets dark...' A proper brown shopcoat is now being considered!

I have the three volume 'Handyman in the Home' that came from my wife's grandfather. It has everything, from knocking up a quick bedroom furniture set, to a device for projecting your pocket watch onto the ceiling in the dark and (my own personal favourite) mixing your own luminous paint. Looking at the ingredients, trying to make it now would probably initiate a visit from the boys in blue!

Best wishes

Brian

 

[bourbon]

Do tell the ingredients, I'll have a bash! How hard can it be??!

 

[swb58]

Firstly you'll need some Radium but I think you'll find it's quite hard to come by.

Radioactive paint was banned from being used on watches 50 years ago, so it might not be a good idea to paint your house in it anyway :shock:

 

[bourbon]

Bit of topic I know, But a friend of mine is one of the curators of the reserve collection for Cosford/Duxford. The surplus instruments from all of the cockpits of WW2 are stored in a special lined room and he has to wear a badge that detects radiation if he has to go in there.

 

[Mr T]

The thing with books from back then is that everyone, but everyone had practical skills, and everyone had tools. You had to. Some were more skilled than others, but nonetheless, with a general culture of doing skilled stuff yourself it isn't surprising that the books reflected much higher standards than would generally be achievable these days.

That was exactly my thought reading this thread Mike. Most people learned practical skills at school so books could start with the assumptiojn of a higher level of competence than today.

Thanks for resurrecting this thread Custard, it's a gem.

Chris

 

[custard]

Thanks for resurrecting this thread Custard, it's a gem.

All Andy T's work, my jaw dropped when I read about preparing your living room for air raids!

 

[RossJarvis]

I always recommend Mitchell's "Building and Construction" (Part 2, advanced courses) to any tradesman I meet on site as a handy useful pocket reference. For some strange reason they always laugh when I say "but don't bother with any published after 1945, they went downhill a lot from then!"

Admittedly I think the rot set in before then anyway.

 

[wallace]

Enjoyed that, I found 3 volumes of wood working ranging from shoring up houses to church work in my loft when I bought my house 20 years ago along with a pile of woodworker magazines.

 

[Rockford]

Firstly you'll need some Radium but I think you'll find it's quite hard to come by. Radioactive paint was banned from being used on watches 50 years ago, so it might not be a good idea to paint your house in it anyway :shock:

Quite! The 'recipe' does call for radium, or mesothorium both to be mixed with phosphorescent sulphide of zinc. If you can't get those apparently strontium thiosulphate and paraffin wax will suffice....

However, in these long drawn out October nights, the book does offer some helpful advice...

"On very dark nights, it is possible to have a nasty collision with the sharp edge of a door, especially if one has stared at a bright light while putting it out. This can be avoided by having a warning spot of self-luminous paint on the edge of each door, on a level with the eyes."

It reminds me of the 'Diary of a Nobody' with Hugh Bonneville where Pooter found how effective enamel paint was and almost killed himself with the fumes after painting and dabbing it on everything :roll:

Best wishes

Brian

 

[AndyT]

It's nice to have this old thread revived, as it's reminded me that I can now offer some more evidence of Jimi's original comment - that the projects in books now just don't expect enough of the home hobbyist.

I'd like to share with you one of the chapters from "Home Mechanics" published about 1921 by Nelsons in their "Hobby Books" series. Its 300 pages cover ordinary things such as fretwork or making a steam engine or an electric motor, but I was most impressed by the chapter on making your own X-ray apparatus.

Much of it is actually concerned with making a Wimshurst Machine, which generates the necessary high voltage electricity. Not too difficult back then, when the necessary glass discs could be bought from the Economic Electric Company, but I suspect the demand for such things may have fallen to the point where it's no longer worth offering them to an ungrateful public. I think that getting the right chemicals to make your own fluorescent screen could be a bit challenging as well.

Although you do just buy the x-ray tube itself ready-made, the whole description of how to make your own apparatus is admirably brief and assumes a decent level of skill.

And I was entirely convinced by the opening paragraph in which the author reassures us that there's nothing difficult, expensive or dangerous about it. :roll:

So here you go - build along at your own risk!

 

[Racers]

Rega turntables have glass platters.

Pete

 

[Halo Jones]

you might be able to guess where I found my avatar pic!

Andy - you mean that isn't you in your avatar pic? Well that's ruined my day :roll:

:lol:

 

[acewoodturner]

Andy
That's brilliant. I have a small company next door to my workshop that sell, service and refurbish x-ray machines for vets, dentists and chiropractors and I would love to show them this. Is there any chance you could email me the scans so I could print them out bigger so they can be read better. My email is info at pensofdistinction.co.uk.
Thanks for posting that.

Mike

 

[AndyT]

Glad you like it!

Maybe your neighbours could sell you an old x-ray tube for a few shillings? :lol:

Rather than hit email limits, and in case anyone else wants slightly higher resolution scans, here are links to the original images which you can download and use as you please.

http://sloot.co.uk/2017b/xray1.jpg
http://sloot.co.uk/2017b/xray2.jpg
http://sloot.co.uk/2017b/xray3.jpg
http://sloot.co.uk/2017b/xray4.jpg
http://sloot.co.uk/2017b/xray5.jpg
http://sloot.co.uk/2017b/xray6.jpg
http://sloot.co.uk/2017b/xray7.jpg
http://sloot.co.uk/2017b/xray8.jpg
http://sloot.co.uk/2017b/xray9.jpg

I should add that I was especially interested in this as when I was about 11 I borrowed a book from the public library which had instructions for making a Wimshurst machine. Full of enthusiasm, I decided I'd have a go. The central disks were old 78 rpm records, with triangles of kitchen foil glued on. I did get that far, but never finished the project and the book went back to the library...

 

[acewoodturner]

Thanks Andy

 

[Losos]

The thing with books from back then is that everyone, but everyone had practical skills, and everyone had tools. You had to. Some were more skilled than others, but nonetheless, with a general culture of doing skilled stuff yourself it isn't surprising that the books reflected much higher standards than would generally be achievable these days.

The other big advantage people had in those days was that decent quality hardwoods were readily available for amateur and professional woodworkers. As someone who does woodwork for a hobby I can still get local hardwoods but the price is staggering. Tropical stuff is virtually unobtainable.