another book i found on amazon while searching around for titles. the book is 8vo in size and 571 pages plus appendices. th book was written in 1917 and released in 1918. i didnt know what to expect as i had never heard of the book.for the average price of $10 us i said what the hey. i had hoped it would be of interest to the modeller and would have tons of pictures and diagrams/3 views of all the engines we use in our builds. well yes and no is the answer. it has some minimal eye candy that would help modellers. what the book actually is would be a description of aircraft engines as they were in this period described in detail as to how they were designed and how they worked, below i will list some chapter sub headings to give the idea of content.
types of internal combustion engines
principals of 2 and 4 stroke engines
heat losses and effeciency
engine parts and functionality
principles of carburation
forms of magneto
spark plug design and application
piston design
block castings
valve timing
enuff? well my point is where there are a smattering of helpful photos, this book will appeal to the inner nerd in us. it is not a casual read but more of an in depth study of every facet of aircraft engines of 1918 period innner workings, adjustments, calibrations, things that an engineer would need to consider when designing an aircraft engine. oddly as a side note stuck in the book on the title page is an insert in red ink stating that the book is censored by the u.s. government as per instructed by washington. so i guess at that point some of the info was classified. i wonder if there is some way to get your hand on the uncensored version. anyway i will read this at some point. although the book is more for someone wanting to design,build or repair early aircraft engines.enjoy
