E-books that might be of interest to others

[Té Rowan]

This shortcut link (http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/t#a36308) leads to a list of the six books of his that are available via Project Gutenberg.

[Té Rowan]

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6133 — “The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar”
I have a feeling that this one needs no further introduction.

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/59311 — “Gas and Petroleum Engines” by Henry de Graffigny (1898).
The history and development of internal-combustion engines.

[Té Rowan]

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/59486 — “Ely’s Automatic Housemaid” by Elizabeth W. Bellamy (Dec. 1899)
What could possibly go wrong?

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/59501 — “Hieroglyfic” by Rowland Jones (1768)
An early conlang (constructed language).

[Té Rowan]

http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/index.html — The Sciencemadness library.
As dry as the titles look, you can still find a kaboom or two in there, such as in “Ignition!”. “Excuse Me Sir, Would You Like to Buy a Kilo of Isopropyl Bromide?” is also an interesting read, as far as I am concerned.

[Té Rowan]

https://archive.org/details/@mirtitles — Mir Publishers translated various books from Russian to English. And not just science books, at that, but also storybooks. I think you will find interesting reading matter in there.

[Spica75]

https://archive.org/details/@mirtitles — Mir Publishers translated various books from Russian to English. And not just science books, at that, but also storybooks. I think you will find interesting reading matter in there.

Well damn, that is one neat find.

[Té Rowan]

https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Retailing/60s/Electronic-Technician-Best-Cartoons-1961.pdf
Exactly what it says on the can. Some of these cartoons are quite funny.

[Té Rowan]

https://archive.org/details/simplejography00herfrich — "The Simple Jography" (1908)

[Ellen Kuhfeld]

https://archive.org/details/simplejography00herfrich — "The Simple Jography" (1908)

This reminds me of a Kipling just-so story as written by Bertie Wooster.

There's another book, Through the Alimentary Canal with Gun and Camera by George S. Chappell. I've read excerpts and reviews, but it's not on Google Books, nor on the Gutenberg Project. The closest I could find was High Society from the same author. I'd recommend the illustrations in both books, as they are by wonderful cartoonists of the day - Otto Soglow (artist of "The Little King") and Anne Harriet Fish (who mined the same vein of society as Charles Dana Gibson).

[Té Rowan]

There is a copy of "Alimentary Canal" on the Internet Archive, but it is badly done. Seems to be a hallmark of Public Library of India's e-books.
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.547363

High Society is there, too.
1. https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_-OBDAAAAYAAJ (in b/w) (PDF, 3.8 MB)
2. https://archive.org/details/gri_33125010706824 (in colour) (DJVU, 4.4 MB) (PDF, 6.2 MB)

https://archive.org/details/evansbasicenglis00evan — The Evans basic English code
Basically an expanded version of the Phillips press code. Phillips was used to compress news telegrams and cut down on transmission time.

[Té Rowan]

http://www.chrispennello.com/tweller/
This page offers two books by one Tom Weller: "Science Made Stupid" and "Cvltvre Made Stvpid". Both are nice bits of send-up.

[Spica75]

"Cvltvre Made Stvpid"

[Cheb]

Electronic-Technician-Best-Cartoons-1961

Lol.
Also, I am barely oldfag enough to understand that sliced egg sandwiches joke... And it took me awhile to recognize that tool they wield as a pulse solderer.

..on a related note, I was stumped repairing Mom's favorite (as in the only in her life) hair dryer. I serviced the motor nicely, re-soldering the connecting wires that fell off at the first touch. The heater was pristine, its nichrome spiral shiny as the day it was born. I just had to brainstorm its weird 3-wire configuration: it turned to have an additional 17-Ohm wire separating the power cord from the rest of the device.
But something was still fishy, with the cause of the sparkling and burnt smell unclear... And those melted impressions in the hull from wires that had obviously heated up to unhealthy levels. Finally I took apart the handle to check the switch. Lo and behold, they had stuffed an anti-interference filter in there, parts hanging on each other swathed in polyurethane foam to prevent rattling.
Either the paper capacitor had decided to become a hero after 44 years of service or it was helped by the sticky residue the foam had decayed into... In the end, it asploded.
I hope I still can fix this thing. Everything hangs on the switch: did it survive 13 Amps running through it for a few seconds?
I only have a chance thanks to that 17 Ohm limiter: when I rewired our apartment in 2012, I only left it with one 50A breaker in the voltage stabilizer.
..which doesn't seem like a good idea now

[Spica75]

I only left it with one 50A breaker in the voltage stabilizer.

50A?!?!?

The standard here is 6A breakers, with 10 or 15A for stove and things that needs more... I mean sheesh, my whole apartment(except stove, which IIRC runs on a 15A) runs on 2, TWO, 6A breakers!
50A, those are industrial scale breakers.

it turned to have an additional 17-Ohm wire separating the power cord from the rest of the device.

Sensible.

Either the paper capacitor had decided to become a hero after 44 years of service or it was helped by the sticky residue the foam had decayed into... In the end, it asploded.

[Té Rowan]

Now I just had to check… The main circuit breaker in the flat is a 63A-rated RCCB. The rest are overcurrent breakers rated at 10–20 amps except a 25A breaker for the cooker. I think these were, if not still are, the usual dimensions here in the Chibi White North.

And, yes, this is 220V territory.