Archive for Items Categorized 'Technology', only excerpts shown, click title for full entry.

Race Man Jim Travers and the Traco Dynasty

by Gordon Chance

Traco was never a household name, and its founders didn’t care if it was, but it was probably the largest producer of racing engines in the world. Written by an engine builder who also did his Traco stint, this book explains the who, why, what, when, where.

Amédée Gordini: A True Racing Legend

by Roy Smith

There was a time when The Sorcerer and his cars were fixtures on the racing scene and some of the greatest names hitched their wagon to his train. Technically, Gordini could mix it up with the best but financially. . . . This book puts it all together.

Automotive Encyclopedia

by Toboldt, Johnson, Gauthier

This is the sort of book your mechanic reads! If you want to have a more substantive relationship with your automotive care provider, you should read it too!

Northrop Flying Wings

by Graham M. Simons

What occupied Jack Northrop’s mind in the 1920s would take until the late 1980s to be fully realized. Being ahead of one’s time is a difficult enough cross to bear; add to that financial woes, political bickering, a military that can’t make up its mind—and life becomes a drag. And drag is the very thing Northrop hated.

By Precision Into Power: A Bicentennial History of D. Napier

by Alan Vessey

From the earliest days of the Industrial Revolution into the 21st century, Napier engines and precision machinery made progress—literally and figuratively—possible. This book takes a stab at telling that story.

How Your Motorcycle Works

by Peter Henshaw

A basic guide to what does what and why, and how to keep it that way! Includes hybrid and battery-electric machines. It won’t make you a master mechanic but gives an understanding of fundamental principles and processes.

Automotive Climate Control: 116 Years of Progress

by Gene D. Dickirson

How do we stay warm in a car? In the olden days, lap robes and braziers; today, electronically controlled multi-zone systems with memory function that let you drive from pole to pole with only minimal temperature fluctuation inside the cabin. Also covers a/c and ancillary systems.

How Your Car Works

by Arvid Linde

A basic guide to what does what and why, and how to keep it that way! From types of bodywork to types of powerplant and ignition to emission, the book explains just enough to make you conversant enough to make that phone call for professional help.

Turtle: David Bushnell’s Revolutionary Vessel

by Roy R. Manstan, Frederic J. Frese

This exceptionally well-written book examines what barely amounted to a sideshow during the American Revolution—the first-ever attempt at submarine warfare during the age of sail.

X-Planes of Europe: Secret Research Aircraft from the Golden Age 1947–1974

by Tony Buttler & Jean-Louis Delezenne

Showcasing European efforts, the aircraft in this excellent book did by and large not advance into production but some of the technologies they tested did—the lift fan, vectored thrust, supersonic flight, to name a few.

Secrets of the Spitfire

by Lance Cole

Adding a new chapter to the voluminous Spitfire literature, this book tells the story of a brilliant but quiet aerodynamicist whose seminal work is only in recent years being recognized.

Why Has America Stopped Inventing?

by Darin Gibby

On the surface, a patent seems like a patent idea. Patent law in the US is almost 200 years old, and older still elsewhere, but is it the best way to encourage and then protect inventiveness?