'The Boy Electrician' (1914 book download).

[David G4EBT]

I thought this book, published in Boston (USA) in 1914, might be of interest to some forum members. It runs to some 400 pages and contains a lot of graphic explanations and simple experiments which still hold good today. Magnets and magnetism, static electricity, electrical units, bells, annunciators and alarms, transformers, wireless telegraphy, and so on.

https://www.tayloredge.com/museum/mu...lectrician.pdf

On page 167 it gives the Morse Code, but as the book was American and went into print more than a century ago, the version of the code was the original 'American Railroad' Morse Code, now extinct. On page 274 it gave the version of what it called the 'Continental Morse Code', which is for many years has been the 'International Morse Code' adopted worldwide, including America.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americ...ic%20telegraph

Page 120 uses what (in the UK at any rate), has long been an archaic word, though still used in property law and certain government Acts. Namely, 'appurtenances'. Not sure if it's still used in the USA.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rating-m...ffective-dates

The Concise Oxford Dictionary definition is “belonging, appendage, accessory“. (Middle English: from Old French apertenance, based on late Latin appertinere ‘belong to’, from ad- ‘to’ + Latin pertinere ‘to pertain’).

Rather a dinky word - sounds much nicer than 'accessories'.

Anyway, enough from me.

I hope it's of interest.

[Station X]

I remember borrowing that title from my local library 60 years ago, but I think it might have been a later edition.

[Peter88gate]

I have a book with the same title first published in this country in July 1920. The author is given as J W Sims senior lecturer at Imperial College South Kensington. The edition I have is the sixth one reprinted in 1954. It was formerly a school library book from a Carshalton Secondary School.

I certainly remember doing some of the experiments covered in the book as a young teenager!

Peter

[Peter88gate]

Looking further at my edition the chapter titles are more or less the same so it must be a revised version of the American book. However, there is no acknowledgment of its American ancestry!

Peter

[Station X]

I seem to remember a fellow pupil at school receiving a copy of what must have been the 1965 edition as a Christmas present. I believe it contained construction details for a simple valve amplifier, but my memory could be at fault.

[winston_1]

I have the seventh edition, given to me by 3 aunts (sisters) with love for Christmas 1957 written in the inside front.

[David G4EBT]

I've discovered that there's an updated version, the second edition being in 1948, then further reprints, the last being the 12th, in 1966, with revisions along the way ( still printed by the original American publisher, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co). For example, on page 270, there is a section entitled 'How to Build a one-tube Regenerative Receiver' which in addition to the circuit and step by step illustrated construction, outlines the principles of how 'tubes' work, and how the circuit operates.

It almost gives me the urge to rummage through my spares box!

That version of the book is on the World Radio History archive at this link:

https://worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSH...n-2-Morgan.pdf

That quaint mellifluous word 'Appurtenances' fell out of favour somewhere down the years, supplanted by 'accessories'.(It's remarkable how many words in English do survive down the centuries. John Bunyan (1628 - 1688) wrote the hymn 'Who Would True Valour See' in the late 1600s. Only one word isn't still in daily use, namely 'hobgoblin'.)

Hope the update book is of interest.

[Vintage Engr]

They are great books & remind me of my own childhood, I pestered my parents to buy me a copy, after I'd had one from the local library.

I had renewed the loan so many times, & had the 1955 edition as a present. Much later on I picked up a 1941 edition. It is interesting to see the differences. I built many of the projects, including the the telephones, & the 'How to hear the footsteps of a fly' microphone. That got me into trouble, as I used it as a bugging device to listen to what was going on downstairs after I had gone to bed!
The book is still annotated in pencil with my modifications to accommodate component parts that I could more easily obtain.

David.

[DrStrangelove]

"Somewhere" I have two copies of this: one is a 1960s edition, the other rather older.

Is it imagination (more likely a delusion) that the final mid 60s edition mentioned those new fangled crystal triodes in the section on wireless?

[ColinB]

Has (or could...) anyone put this online somewhere...? I ask as I remember borrowing this book from our local library several times when a young whipper-snapper. That would be in the early '90s, and I'm just curious which edition it was.

[David G4EBT]

The link in post No1 is to the original 1913 book.

The link in post No 7 is to the final (1966) reprint.

At each link the book can either be read online, or downloaded, saved, printed, whatever.

Hope that helps.

[Pfraser]

I borrowed 'The Boy Electrician', by 'ARMAC', many times about 50 years ago. This was a hardback, in standard library protection sleeving which bore the marks of time! I don't recall a printing date. It did feature valve and solid state technologies. I'm 98% certain it was a British edition. One of the many textbooks which helped me on my way.

[Ian - G4JQT]

I made one of the versions of the telephones at age 16 for a combined physics/woodwork CSE project in 1974! I managed to rewire standard phone handsets to replace the design given. I've revamped them slightly since then, but still work perfectly well - and why shouldn't they?


Later additions vaguely warned against the X-ray experiments!

[John KC0G]

I trawled through the WorldCat library catalogue. These are the dates for the UK editions:
1st 1920 by Morgan
2nd 1923 by Morgan and Carpenter, with "a new chapter on wireless"
3rd 1930 by Morgan, revised by Sims
4th 1933 by Morgan, revised by Sims
5th 1941 by Morgan, revised by Sims
6th 1946 by Sims
7th 1955 by Sims
8th 1965 by "Armac" (pseudonym) and Sims
I wonder who "Armac" was?

In post #2, David provided a link to the 12th printing of the final US edition. There seems to have been fewer editions of those. Here we get into the difference between an edition and a printing. One would expect a new edition to have revised or new content, and a new printing to be just that. But it has not always been the case.

You can read and download the first US edition at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63207

The third US edition has been reprinted, and is currently in print.

This thread has been very timely for me. I have just finished reading "Memoirs of a Telecommunications Engineer" by W.J. (John) Bray. He did a lot of very good and important work during his career at the Post Office. He was inspired by Morgan's book which he borrowed from a local library (page 6). In his later autobiography "Then, Now and Tomorrow - the autobiography of a communications engineer" he noted that he later discovered that two Presidents of the IEE, Sir Eric Eastwood and Dr. David Jones, had been similarly inspired in their schooldays.

73 John KC0G / M0KCY

[Simon Gittins]

Extracts from "Memoirs of a Telecommunications Engineer" by W.J. (John) Bray start on page 26 here:
https://www.bvws.org.uk/publications...5_Alive_04.pdf