"A Passion for Steam" describes how small scale, live-steam locomotives work in clear, understandable language. All systems are covered, including boilers, boiler fittings, burners, different fuels, valve gears, different cylinder types, and sundry variations. The second half of the book is a fascinating survey of nearly 100 miniature locomotives, scratchbuilt and commercial, that discusses what makes each one different from its fellows. The book is fully illustrated with hundreds of high-quality drawings and beautiful photographs.
"The Most Powerful Idea in the World argues that the very notion of intellectual property drove not only the invention of the steam engine but also the entire Industrial Revolution." -- Back cover.
A history of the creation and evolution of the mechanism that brought precision to the steam power and changed the world. Power without control is unusable power, and long after the invention of the steam engine, finding ways of applying that power to tasks where consistency was of paramount importance was the ‘Holy Grail’ which many steam engineers sought to find. It was the centrifugal governor which brought precision to the application of steam power, and its story can be traced back to seventeenth-century Holland and Christiaan Huygens’ development of both the pendulum clock and system controls for windmills, and governors are still at the heart of sophisticated machinery today—albeit electronic rather than mechanical. Without the centrifugal governor, precise control over the increasingly-complex machinery which has been developed over the past two centuries would not have been possible. It was the first device to give the engineman the control they needed. As machine speed increased, the governor had to evolve to keep pace with the demands for greater precision. Over a hundred British patents were applied for in the nineteenth century alone for ‘improvements’ in governor design, many of which could be fitted, or retro-fitted, to engines from every large manufacturer. Some enginemen, on taking up new appointments—their jobs depending on the precision and consistency of their engine’s operation—would even request that the governor be replaced with their preferred model. This book, the first to deal with the subject, tells the story of the evolution of the original ‘spinning-ball’ governor from its first appearance to the point where it became a small device entirely enclosed in a housing to keep it clean, and thus hidden from view. Praise for The Governor “A beautiful, well-produced book that any engineering-minded person with a passion for steam engines will be proud to own. It traces the story of attempts to get the speed of steam engines and other machinery under control. . . . The book is lavishly illustrated with many beautiful photographs of some of the author's favourite machines. . . . I found this a gloriously well-produced book which I devoured enthusiastically! I commend it to anyone with a serious interest in mechanical engineering.” —Richard Gibbon O.B.E. C.Eng F.I.Mech.E former Head of Engineering, National Railway Museum
Have you ever thought: I have so many problems and nobody even cares? Well, penguins have problems too! Discover them in this hilarious collaboration from Jory John (All my friends are dead. and Quit Calling Me a Monster!) and Lane Smith (The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales)! This penguin has come to tell you that life in Antarctica is no paradise. For starters, it is FREEZING. Also, penguins have a ton of natural predators. Plus, can you imagine trying to find your mom in a big ol’ crowd of identical penguins? No, thank you. Yes, it seems there is no escaping the drudgery of your daily grind, whatever it might be. Or perhaps we’ve just learned that grumps are everywhere. . . . This book is sure to tickle kids’ funny bones and will elicit appreciative sighs from the adults reading it aloud. "We are all Mortimer [the main character in Penguin Problems]." —The New York Times “Bursting with humor.” —Kirkus Reviews “The snark level is cranked up high.” —The Horn Book, Starred “Will be right at home with fans of Jon Klassen’s This Is Not My Hat.” —Booklist “Classic comedy.” —Publishers Weekly “Rib-tickling.” —School Library Journal
When Kate Parsons decides to negotiate for her railroad's passage through Cherokee lands personally, she doesn't expect to get kidnapped and find herself attracted to one of her Cherokee captors.
L M S & L N E R Steam Locomotives, is the result of over two decades of photographing steam locomotives in action in many parts of Britain covered by the former LMS and LNER Railway Companies. They were the two largest of the 'Big Four' Railway Companies which operated in Britain between 1923 and 1948. The majority of the photographs were taken during the British Railways era between 1948 and 1968. Although the author Malcolm Clegg has a sizeable collection of steam locomotive photographs taken during this period, the photographs which appear in this book are from the private collection of his lifelong friend and family relative, Mr Peter Cookson (a retired school-master), himself a railway historian, author and amateur photographer, who has kindly provided the photographs for publication in this book. Many of the photographs selected are rare and unusual for a variety of reasons which should appeal to railway historians and steam enthusiasts alike.
The thrilling story of the last, and greatest, generation of steam railway locomotives in regular main line service: a story of invention, skill and passion, Giants of Steam reveals how the true advocates of steam's glory days pushed its design and performance to remarkable limits, taking these powerful and beautifully designed machines to new heights against a backdrop of the political upheavals and military conflicts of the mid twentieth century. Glancey tells the stories of the greatest of the 'steam men', the charismatic engineers who designed these machines and put them to use. Giants of Steam also reveals how steam design has continued to progress against the odds in recent decades, while enthusiasm for the steam locomotive itself is far from burning out.
