Industrial Books

I absolutely love The Comprehensive Guide to Chocolate Molds: Objects of Art & Artists' Tools. It has beautiful photographs of molds with their values. This was of great interest to me since I have a mold collection. Also I use my molds for chalkware and have for more than 15 years. It was exciting to see photos of other chalkware artists' work. In all I love the book and hope Wendy comes out with Volume Two as there are many more molds to cover. Thanks, Carol

I have enjoyed the book on chocolate moulds and it is very informative for the antique moulds. I would recommend this book and am happy that I ordered it. It has many pages of information and pictures.

this book was well worth the money, it was well done. very informitive, unique and happy to own it

Wendy Mullen found her first chocolate mold over fifteen years ago and loves writing about chocolate. She has published articles about chocolate molds and this book displays a wide array of antique chocolate molds that include everything from Easter eggs to cats and angels. There are molds for butterflies, bunnies, frogs, turtles, goats, roosters, pigs, lambs, dogs, elephants, teddy bears, deer and just about any other animal you can think of including storks, seals and stylized dolphins. Fairy Tales are also featured and you can may enjoy seeing a Hansel and Gretel house, Red Riding Hood and Snow White Scenes.

All the prices are included so you can have an idea of how much you want to spend if you go looking for these molds. All the main holidays are represented, as are unique items like the the Krampus mold familiar in Austria. Neptune also appears and then there are may pages of Santa. If you love collecting Santa items, there is page after page. Christmas takes up at least one fifth of the book and is perfect for getting ideas if you make chocolates for Christmas. There are snowmen, angels, Christmas ornaments and even manger scenes.

Even if you don't want to go looking for a three hundred dollar scallop shell, at least you can get ideas for what you want to go find online. Many of these molds seem to be useful for candy making and for making soaps.

Additional creative finds at the end include hearts in a postcard style which are very beautiful once painted or if you use three types of chocolate. There are castles, temples, crowns, shoes, cars, boats and even hot air balloons.

A special "Collector's Tips and Closing" section shows how to purchase antique chocolate molds, explains how they must be cleaned and handled to prevent rusting.

From the information in this book, you could actually buy a new chocolate mold that looks antique. Additional information on suppliers is briefly discussed. To find most of the molds, you only need to do an Internet search because all the items have collection information and the names of the specific items.

As a coffee table book this is highly entertaining, but the usefulness factor is especially enjoyable because of the way the book is organized. A lovely gift or a research tool for your own journey of chocolate art.

~The Rebecca Review

Wendy Mullen's The Comprehensive Guide To Chocolate Molds: Objects Of Art & Artist's Tools more than just a collector's price guide, Wendy Mullen, chocolate maker for 15 years, delves into the history of antique chocolate molds and their design and production, packing over 1300 photos of such antiques with discussions of all kinds of molds. Topped by an interview with the great-granddaughter of one of the best German mold specialists in history, Anton Reiche, The Comprehensive Guide To Chocolate Molds is unparalleled in depth and detail: there's simply nothing like it on the market, past or present.

To the practitioner: this book aptly shows how the concepts of good management can be applied in one's professional life and unabashedly explains that much of management is common sense (while admitting that common sense isn't very common).
To the lecturer: whether you're teaching freshman or experienced executives this is the book that will get your students interested in the study of management. It is the perfect introduction.
Students love it because it's affordable, short, and easy to read (particularly those who speak English as a second language). Teachers love it because, by presenting a wide succinct, spectrum of fundamentals, it provides an intelligent springboard from which a more in-depth examination can proceed.
Forget all the other 300+ page, hundred-dollar-or-more verbose introductory management texts. The Concise Handbook of Management is the best way to begin your business or management curriculum and/or brush up on your management skills.

This little gem, which graciously (and refreshingly) operates under the concept that less is more, reads like a Cliff Notes on Management. As far as I can tell, it's also one of the very few management books out there that understands and emphasizes the importance of customers - then backs this imperative up in every chapter. In addition, because the entire book is condensed and to the point (none of the chapters is over four or five pages in length), it is very reader friendly. All in all, Jonathan Scott must be one of the most easily understandable authors writing about management today.

I teach at both the (under) graduate and post-graduate levels and have found that students (whatever their age or experience) cannot fully grasp in-depth or abstract management theory without a solid understanding of basic management principles. This book fills that bill. It injects the saturated subject of management with a directness, clarity and conciseness that is difficult to match. Perhaps the reason for this is that the author is not an academic, but rather a professional writer and successful practitioner who managed a number of businesses in several different countries. What a difference application makes. The book's short, anecdote-laden layout, bristling with substantial and timeless research, makes for a quick and easy read and the importance of customer orientation is carried throughout. If I could award ten stars to this nifty and valuable book, I would gladly do so.

Author Jonathan Scott returns the subject of management to its rightful position as a human endeavour, not a mathematical one. Chapter One is the opening salvo, setting the tone by focusing on what management really entails (forget all the academic nonsense you've heard). Scott insists that accountability, hard work, integrity, training and maturity are the keys to business success and pulls no punches in explaining why they are necessary and how they can be acquired. Bravo!

Straight-forward and realistic without being patronizing or pedantic. This is one of the few management books out there that will open your mind, teach you things you didn't already know, force you to re-examine your own management methods and abilities and show you how all the different aspects of management are tied together. I highly recommend it.

For most, Charles Dickens is the only source we've encountered regarding the awful human misery of the early industrial revolution. However, Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx reported on it, too. Indeed, most of their criticisms were far more applicable to the raw capitalism of contemporary England than their native Germany.

Engels stayed in Manchester, the premier industrial city of the time, during the early 1840's to research his book. And he produced a devastating indictment of the truly miserable and life-threatening living conditions he found. Unlike Marx, Engels had a pronounced flair for writing; he makes it a fascinating, eye-opening journey back through time.

The topics he includes cover: struggling labor movements, the denigrating effects of immigration on domestic workers (due to competing subsistence-cost labor), the ignorance and crippling of child workers, the sexual exploitation of women workers, the displacement of male heads of household by lower-cost and more pliant women/children, the unbelievable filth and subhuman housing conditions workers endured, the dangerous and unhealthy working conditions of miners/factory workers, rampant substance abuse, doping of children by babysitters, the total lack of legal redress for the poor, the displacement of labor by machinery, and the role of unbridled competition in perpetrating economic distress.

While we all know communism has failed, its rise was due to these very real and serious problems, some of which remain with many Western workers today. And most of these conditions do very much persist in emerging economies right now. So, even though the book is well over 150 years old it is still highly valid!

The main fault of course with Marx/Engels' communist philosophy is that ALL humans are greedy and lazy - it's just that the clever ones (whether they originate from 'bourgeous' or 'working' classes) will always exploit the others. And it doesn't matter whether the system is capitalist or communist - those at the top will always exploit those below for personal advantage. Probably the best response has been the progressive social reform in Western nations over the last 100 years. (Revolutions and dictatorships usually only lead to mass murder.)

This chilling book is the real-life Oliver Twist exposed.I think Fredrick Engels wrote this book,in part to clear his conscious.And largely, to shed light on the fetid ,wretched underbelly of the 19th century industrial-age society.The nameless toilers working ten to twelve hour shifts,in a factory operation they had no vote or control over.Marx and Engels had many valid arguments for improving the workers lives.Did their end-results justify their means of social revolution? Engels would be amazed at the former textile towns,like Manchester,absorbing the large influx of Asians,Moslims and Africans today.It is still being debated,whether history has proven Engels & Marx right.This book is still a historical classic,thats presumptive findings give the modern reader,reason to pause. So,look all around you. -A Great Book !

Fabuous book. Engels wrote this when he was only 24- and what a tour de force.

The work is detailed, beautifully observed and elegantly written. Despite the depressing nature of the subject matter, the tone is always possible about a better world beyond the evils of capitalism.

Unfortunately 150 years after this masterpiece was written things dont seen to have gotten better under capitalism. Rather, the old evils of poverty, infectious diseases, starvation have been replaced by the modern evils of capitalism: obesity, alienation, mass materialism, depression, plunging fertility and marriage rates and so on...

Engels was the engine behind Karl Marx, one that gave him all the support he could, so to permit Marx to dedicate himself almost completely to the completion of his works. Judging himself many degrees bellow Marx in terms of intelect, Engels nonetheless is capable of writting a book such as this which describes all the impoverishment of the working class in the beginning of the industrialization in England, being helped by some well porputed factories labor fiscalization agents who allowed Engels to flip trough their reports. Strong terms like "the dark satanic mills" describe fully what were the working conditions of the time in a so rich country as England. An historical document lest no one forget what can happen again if the free hand of capitalism is allowed to run free of any barriers.

Friedrich Engels' classic "The Condition of the Working Class in England" was written when he was only twenty-four, and had but recently abandoned his Calvinist upbringing for a more critical, socialist, point of view. Yet this book reads as if it were written by an experienced political commentator or a radical sociologist, without actually at any point becoming melodramatic or dense.

Engels' main purpose is to confront the bourgeoisie with the reality of their mode of production and to contrast this with the rhetoric of "free choice" and "civil liberties", as well as the capitalist apologia of the political economists of his day, in particular Andrew Ure. With great insight into both the causes and effects of the capitalist system, Engels catalogues the endless want, filth, despair and misery experienced by millions of labourers every day in 19th century England. He pays attention to housing, to factory safety, to unionism, to the physical condition of the workers, to alcoholism, the state of the Irish underclass, to prostitution and disease; in short, all the ills attendant on industrialization.

What gives this book such power is that Engels on the one hand proceeds in an analytical manner, making use above all of sources from the bourgeoisie itself and from Parliamentary reports, in explaining the functioning of the capitalist system and the competition between capitalists and between labourers. On the other hand, he writes in a particularly readable manner and at no point bores the reader with the mere summing-up of statistics. On the contrary, every analytical truth is accompanied by a vivid description, taken from Engels' excursions into working-class neighbourhoods, of the terrible state of humanity that the economic laws of capitalism cause for a great number of people.

For those interested in political economy, it may come as a surprise to see how much of the functioning of capitalism Engels already understood at such an early point in the development of theory. This gives the lie to the many theorists who would later claim that it was Marx only who worked on economics and that Engels was a mere epigone; this book should be a vindication of Engels. His later sketches of the political economy and of the historical development of capitalism would lay the foundation for both the Communist Manifesto and Marx' economic works. But the core insights that would create the modern theory of socialism are for the first time fully expressed here, and in a most appealing and shockingly effective manner.

In other words, an absolute must read for every person of intelligence.

About this purchase I have all the good things to remmember and now share with all the other AMAZON customers.
First, I tried to buy the same book from another seller ( A1Books ), but they sent a wrong book and after many emails, I have NOT a single reply. After a time I contacted the AMAZON and they provided a REFUND of the book as a kind of warranty for the buyer.
Later, as I really needed the book ( I am building a palace in Islamic style in Rio de Janeiro)I bought the book directely from AMAZON. In some days I received the book fast and in very safe package.
In order to see what I am making check: [...]
Thanks!

Affordable entertaining book if you love Damascus like i do.Excellent pictures .No big lies like some authers who are experts!!!!. buy it you will love it.Give it as gift to any friend.

Photos here are exquisite, great text in pursuit of a noble cause--saving the crumbling architectural treasures in Old Damascus. Would be tragic if these are forever lost--the feeling of standing in a mosaic courtyard with trees, a fountain in the middle, where just outside the bustle of the world moves by in the suq...this book brings back memories of the place, if you've ever been there. The one comfort is that if these houses do crumble beyond repair, at least they are preserved in some way in this beautiful book.

Combine Syria's architectural treasures with the warmth of its people, its great food, and you see why it leaves such an impression with visitors.

This book documents a lifestyle that we can only know through writings and recollections, mostly by English expatriates and scholars. The houses themselves are gradually falling into decay, which is shameful, but which appears to be the fate of so many great architectural treasures of the past. I was charmed by the magnificence that one can sense (through the photographs), however dimmed by present squalor, and resolved that if I could, somehow, I would try to recreate the feeling; I know that's quite silly but even so it would be marvelous to have a fountain right by one's door and great trees growing inside one's living quarters. I loved the black, red, and white horizontal stripes and the mother-of-pearl-inlaid furniture, the inlaid Arab designs, the 20' ceilings and the beautiful arches. I also loved the recollections of Isabel and Richard Burton, and Jane Digby, these people were triumphantly confident and strode through life with none of the fright and nerves that we contemporary readers seem to have...and rightly so. I loved this book, and hopefully it will assist in the preservation of the great houses of Old Syria.

This book is a must for anyone who loves Damascus and is concerned about its deterioration. It's a must for any Damascene expatriate's living room coffee table book collection for sure. The photographs are absolutely stunning and the text is interesting and engaging. One flaw, however is that I would have liked to see the photographs and the text regarding specific houses cross-referenced, (perhaps in the appendix of houses' names in the back of the book) as photographs and texts about specific houses are scattered throughout the book and you have to find all the references yourself--very annoying. Other than that, it is a wonderful book for showing off a unique aspect of our beloved city. Some of these houses are being used as sets for Syrian soap operas-- look closely and you might recognize some!

This book is a steal. I've read more than a hundred of the best general business books and yet Merrill's book managed to stand out among them. Merrill's teachings are sound and proven. His writing is fluent, clear and concise. His observations of successful business practices are rewarding for the reader - intellectually and financially. As Mae West said, "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful." Anyone interested in business who doesn't read Dare to Lead is making a big mistake. I highly recommend this book.

Review of "DARE TO LEAD!"
Author: Mike Merrill, published by Career Press

Talk about mindsets! When the reviewer, having a military background, was asked to comment on this work, knowing that the author was a second generation West Pointer, said reviewer automatically presumed that the book was going to be about some aspect of military leadership.

Wrong!

However, there are some commonalities, in that the brand of leadership that the Military Academy teaches translates into `getting down into the trenches with your troops', and this book gives concrete examples early on of that type of leadership practiced by men and women who thought `outside the box', who acted as ticket agents and as members of cleaning crews for failing airlines, as well as for `start-up' air lines; for successful entrepreneurs who were cooks for their own businesses.

Although relatively small - not the size of a `full sized' book and less than 225 pages - this is an extremely well researched and documented work, indicating many, many hours of painstaking research, countless interviews, etc.

There are a few central themes running throughout the book. One is "change". This book is composed of relatively short vignettes covering a wide range of businesses, mostly but not all, small ones, several of which were on the brink of failure and needed `change' to survive, to prosper.

It is also about "people", people who were not averse to getting their hands dirty, not afraid to ask for advice from others more successful than they, men and women who - one has to read between the lines to see this - put in horrendously long hours, who lived literally hand-to-mouth, in some cases for years, in order to succeed.

Another theme is "persistence". Few if any of the entrepreneurial folks featured in this book had instant, `flash-in-the-pan' ideas. Almost without exception they were in a sink or swim situation; a change had to be made, creditors, investors had to be convinced, as well as entrenched bureaucracies in some cases. This takes patience, persistence, and leadership.

Still another is "guts", the intestinal fortitude required to take an idea that one believes in and push it - often in the face of opposition, the specter of failure, until the idea is proven to work.

The book is well written, sometimes in the first person, indicating in-depth knowledge of the problems, which is accurate, since the author has been CEO of at least two firms.

Another trait common to military leadership that the book evokes is "Take care of your people and they will take care of you".

How often do we see situations today where upper management takes care of themselves to the exclusion of the people, the employees whose hard work, loyalty has put these managers where they are?

This is a highly recommended work, an excellent and enjoyable read!

Reviewed by Thomas W. Leo, CPP, USMA 1959

Dare to Lead! is exactly what I was looking for. All the essential lessons from actual business leaders packed into one book. No theoretic nonsense from someone who never led anyone, but a valuable collection of the essential factors that allowed 50 real leaders to beat their competition and to successfully drive their business. A great reference for anyone in business looking for swift inspiration! I highly recommend it!

Dare to Lead! will be of most value to a CEO who is new to an organization or who is starting up a company. Those who want to become CEOs in the future would also do well to read this book.

Mr. Merrill read about a number of successful entrepreneurs and succeeded in interviewing a number of them. He clustered the lessons that the CEOs described about themselves into 18 principles which are each exemplified by 3-4 brief stories. The most interesting stories came from JetBlue, Boston Beer Company, Google, 99 Cents Only, Panera Bread, Columbia Sportswear, Trader Joe's, JOE BOXER, and Medtronic. The stories are the best part of the book. The chapters don't offer much guidance aside from what is contained in the stories. Several of the stories were new to me, and I found them to be interesting and helpful.

Here are some of the key lessons in the book: Set a good example; pursue strategies that take you around obstacles; pursue your idea to its logical limit; look for good ideas that can be transferred from other industries; concentrate your focus on what you do best and do it better; repeat and build on success; use innovative promotions to attract partners and customers; listen to and observe customers; have senior management handle customer complaints; focus on what you can do today to make progress; put your employees and customers ahead of your profits; let employees solve problems; help your customers sell to their customers; work more closely with outside partners; and make your company's purpose and values seem more real to your employees and customers.

As you can see, none of these principles are new. They are a good antidote to much of the overly analytical education that new MBAs receive. New MBAs won't probably want to read this book, but they should.

The book would have benefited from sharing fewer lessons and doing so in more detail . . . along with more advice on how to follow through in these areas.

The writing is smooth and easy to follow. You'll find yourself finishing the book in one or two airplane trips. Take it along on your next JetBlue flight!

I'm always so hopeful when I start a business book that there will be real "meat"; information of value that can be internalized and used in my own working life. Mr. Merrill crafted a fast paced book broken into small bite-sized chunks that makes it easy to grasp and a joy to plow through. More important, he brings to life a wide variety of business examples that we are all familiar with (or thought we were), in order to make a point. It's a quick read that is full of food for thought.

Before I bought, I open inside, then not more than a minute, I can feel, "Yes, this is what I want". Most books are full of pictures and say what happen, but do not give the reason of why or how. This book is what I like, it explianed in details. Well, what can I say, if you like to read pure theory, buy it, if you don't really like formular, just only theory..think about it, if you like picture book, don't buy it. Summary: it is not for beginner. But once you understand it, it is amazing.

The only one book I ever red about aeronautic, where I dont feel me badly stupid on mathematics, physic and other academic disciplines... From propreller to tail, wing AND cabine measurements, every thing is in the Stinton's book. And a bit more, an excellent sense of humour !

I am a pilot and aircraft builder and found this book essential for the comprehension of the structures and flight characteristics of the various aircraft designs. It is clearly written and contains explanations of immediate comprehension along with the more traditional calculations.

This book uses an incredible number of line drawings to very clearly illustrate points. One of the better fundamental aero engineering books I have seen. (note: This book is written in 'British English'- and is stuffed with a number of words that are spelled differently from 'American English' yet very 'recognisable' (ie: manoevrability, aeroplane, etc, etc). Makes it a fun read too).

I used this book as the main source of information and design data for the development of my own airplane design. The author goes directly into design carachteristics without spending too much in complicated aerodinamics formulations, but deep enough to cover the necessary details of the design process. Just basic engineering knowledge required.

These books (Truckers, Diggers, and Wings) are a fun romp! Well thought out, well told, with a liberal dose of humor. If you have read any of Terry Pratchett's "Disc World" books, you'll love this light hearted series. ... You can purchase them from Amazon.co.uk for ... plus shipping. You might find a few words spelled differently than standard US English but so what?

this is a wonderful book and Terry Pratchett is a wonderful autho

In Truckers, Masklin rescued the other nomes from the store before its demoliton. Then, he led them to a quarry, a place that they could call home. But now, Masklin realizes that the nomes can never really be at home in the human's world, so he sets off to find the airport, and the spaceship that brought the nomes to Earth some 15,000 years ago. But for the nomes left at the quarry, now led by Grimma, things go from bad to worse, and worse still. Where is Masklin, and who will save the nomes?

This book is as funny as the last one. The nomes are so very human, and yet so very different. Plus, the story kept you at the edge of your seat, right up to the surprise finale. What a wonderful book!

This the second book of the Bromeliad trilogy (following Truckers and followed by Wings).

After escaping from the doomed Store of Arnold Bros (est. 1905), the nomes find refuge in a disused quarry. And although life's harder Outside than it was in the Store, after a while everything goes well... until they find out that the quarry is going to be reopened.

At the same time, they also learn that Grandson Richard, 39, an heir to the Arnold Bros (est. 1905) fortune, is going to Florida to watch the launch of his first telecom satellite. To Masklin it's an oportunity to send the Thing back into space where it could contact the Ship which will bring them back HOME. And so he sets out, with Gurder and Angalo, on a trip to the airport.

And as the rest of the nomes are waiting for them to come back, their food reserves are inexorably running out and the humans' presence is starting to be a real nuisance. Are they going to flee and hide or are they going to stand up to them?

As expected, Diggers is brilliant and extremely funny. And again, the confrontation between the nomes' and our view of the world is the source of many of the typically "Pratchettian" puns we've all come to love!

At the end of "TRUCKERS" by Terry Pratchett. Maskerlin and the gnomes of the doomed supermarket floor boards, escaped into the outside world, with Maskerlin driving a lorry carrying the gnomes. After the famous epic, A new adventure has dawned, The Gnomes from the lost supermarket lead by the heroic Maskerlin, make a new home inside the devastated buildings of a old quarry. The Gnomes begin to face a nightmare reality, as things suddenly happen, as their home has rain fall from the Earth's sky, in ice drops and the humans start causing chaos. But the Gnomes as a band of colonists, are brought toghere to protect their new home from humans in the horizon who have the help of a beast named Jekub. This is the best follow-up to Terry Pratchett's Gnome classic "TRUCKERS".

In 360 B.C., Archytas of Tarentum made a model pigeon that flew by flowing steam out its tail. A humble beginning, perhaps, but it's the first entry in The Dream Machines, and it should give you some idea of just how comprehensive this book is. Every rocket I've ever seen or heard of is in here, fact or fiction, and for every one I knew about beforehand there are probably a hundred that I didn't know about until I found this book.

One of the best things about the book is that its contents are ordered chronologically. This lets you trace the evolution of spacecraft from pulp magazine covers to illustrations in popular and technical articles to serious design proposals to prototypes to full production. It gives you a taste of what it must have been like to watch all this happen in the middle of the 20th century, and it's fascinating to see all the designs that never made it off the drawing board. In particular, near the end of the book there are no less than 6 pages of drawings that trace the evolution of the Space Shuttle from a winged bullet launched from a jet-powered mothership to the familiar configuration that finally entered service in 1981. A similar sequence shows the development of the Apollo program spacecraft.

If all of that sounds dry instead of inspiring, you'll be pleased to know that all of those shiny silver rockets from the golden age of science fiction are in here, too. Some of them I hadn't seen since I was a 12-year-old watching old movies on Saturday afternoons, and there are many more that I had never seen at all. Radio dramas, television, movies, even prominent spacecraft from comic books and novels are covered.

The book is over 700 pages long and EVERY two-page spread has at least one illustration; most have three or four. The illustrations are in black & white and monochrome color, and there are several sections of full-color pages scattered through the book. Multiple orthogonal views are provided for many spacecraft, which will make this book a valuable reference for scale modelers. The reproduction quality of the illustrations is great, and the cover and binding are solid and of high quality. I know the book is durable because there is a well-thumbed copy at the local library that is still as sturdy as ever.

This is one of those books that you can dive into at random and not look up from for hours. If my house catches on fire, I'm going to grab this on the way out. It's spaceship heaven.

The first surprise for the new buyer of Ron Miller's "Dream Machine: An Illustrated History of the Spaceship in Art, Science and Literature" is that it was published in 1993, leaving the book strangely out-of-date despite being exactly what the spaceship romantic has desired all these years. My library is chock-full of books and magazines on the subject of spacecraft, and I admit with shame to having discarded older books which would now be collectors items because the spaceships depicted in them were "out of date". Something Miller's book emphasizes is that there is no such thing as an idea that is out of date. "Dream Machines" (beautiful title) treats Defoe (1705), Jules Verne (1865) and H.G.Wells (1901) who dreamed of space travel with the same dignity as Tsiolovsky, Goodard and von Braun, who made it a reality. This book's 714 pages are packed with the brilliant, the outlandish, the amusing, the thought-provoking and the real - and the almost real - spaceships which have graced humanity's longing to go "out there". The fan of early science-fiction has a rich field to explore, no less the student of hard-core spaceflight technology. Of special interest are details of the spacecraft which almost made it - the Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar, the European Space Agency Hermes spaceplane, the Russian Buran, and all the developmental designs which were considered, often discarded, with these never-to-fly spaceships. The impressive hard-cover book is well laid out, with bold-type dates and crisp drawings and a few color pages. There is some confusion about which drawing goes with which text due to minimal captions, but the generous white-space give the pages a friendly tone that allows the reader to go cover-to-cover (if one is so dedicated) or to leaf through looking for technological or impossible gems. The development and discards of the Apollo Moon project are well documented, and compared with the Soviet attempt to trump the United States in the Space Race to the Moon. The discussion of starship designs leans more to the "realistic" such as the British Interplanetary Society's "Daedalus", leaving Star Trek's "Enterprise" to get just a bit more than a mention. Many designers of spacecraft which never made the grade get their names into these pages. Author Miller has really delivered a work of love here. Strangely though, the reader's final emotion is one of sadness and loss. Here is all this brilliance, designing machines that could really take us off the Earth to however far we wish to go, yet few - very few - have become a reality, and usually by the power of short-sighted politics which beggar the vast vision of so many of those whose works are described in this book. If you dream of the Solar System and the stars, you need this one on your shelf.

I can't believe how fantastic this book is! I got it for christmas and have a hard time putting it down. Considering the weight of this encyclopdiac work that's saying something. Pound for pound worth it's weight in gold or platinum! Only a few notable omissions that I would have liked to see (ie. "The Valley Forge" from Douglas Trumbull's "Silent Running" ) Probably the most amazing relvelation is that many current designs have thier genesis back in the late 40's ! Truly a must have for anyone who dreams or dreamed of interplanetary voyages!

Comment: Sensational chronological roundup of text, photos, and sketches of virtually every spacecraft and launch vehicle design every conceived but never built. A gold mine for space-struck baby boomers.

Exellent book for any rocket or sci-fi enthusiast. The illustrations and drawings bring home man's facination with the heavens. I have read numerous publications concerning rocketry, and by far this is the best book I have yet to see published to date. I was blown away by the sections, 'The Archaeology of the Spaceship', and 'The Experimenters'. All dealt with rocketry ante-WWII. There are also page after page of NASA concept vehicles that were never flown, including several pages of Apollo and Space Shuttle designs that did not make it to the lauch pad, but yet look like they are ready to just rocket from the page. This book would be a great source of information for those who scratch build model rockets. Color illustrations, 3 view diagrams, an appendix of U.S., Soviet, and international lauch vehicles; what more could one want? If I could only own one rocket book, this would be the book I would chose over all the rest! Buy this book, heck buy 2 and give one to a friend!

I received this book in High School as part of the "Electrical Installation" curricullum in January of 1986. At the advice of my instructor, Mr. Bergovoy, I didn't return the book at the end of the school term. I ended up having to pay for the replacement. However, this book has paid for itself thousands of times over the last 20 years. I recommend it to electricians ranging from the student to the master level..

This book is great. I've read many books on repairing electric motors , but none of them have given me a practical & theoretical view on the subject as this book has. I recommend this book to students, and fully quallified engineers. The best...... My greatest thanks to the authors.

started as a plant electrician and kept learning thanks to this book now repair light fixture to refrigeration

If your looking for a book that is all meat, if your looking for the "bible" of motors, if your desire for motor knoweledge is from the most basic to advance knoweledge.....YOU have to buy this book. I am an electrician, and industrial controls technician and I have found no better book. I am looking through my well used second edition, that was given to me while in college in 1984, and if you could see just my first page of the book, at how much highlighting and notes in the margins there are, you would see that nearly every sentence in the book is packed full of useful information,...IF... you take the time to read it. I believe it is as clearly written as you can get on a technical subject. I consider myself just a slightly above average student, and even I could understand this material. From casual interest in motors to engineer, this book needs to be on your technical bookshelf, unlike other technical books at this price that I threw out after college, this is a keeper. Check out all the other reviewers here, then buy the book.

I am an electrician whose job requires trouble shooting different types of equipment for different customers in many different environments. I see all kinds of motors and machines and jury rigs. This book is invaluable for troubleshooting any motor on the planet. It gives excellent reference schematics and diagrams that coincide with the different chapters. It has helped me on many occasions. It's really meant for poeple who
re-wind motors more than trouble shooters but you will not regret owning it if you do any kind of maintenance or trouble shooting on a variety of machines.

Comprehensive overview of power quality. This book is a very good reference for power quality engineers or anyone interested in power quality.
Needs more example problems. Book needs more refinement as well.

voltage transient - voltage sag - swell - voltage fluctuation - harmonics - noise

This is a must have for any professional involved in Power Quality. Not only are all the topics covered, they are explained in a way that is easy to read and understand.

This is a very good handbook for not only power quality professional,but also electrical engineers. With well organized chapters, it covered comprehensive knowledge of power quality and relevant experience of authors. I really hope it can be translated into Chinese and let more power quality professionals share this valuable resource.

I have recently asked some electrical engineers to recommend me a good book concerning Power Quality. Each of them gave me two or three recommendations and only "Electrical Power Systems Quality" by R. C. Dugan, M. F. McGranaghan, S. Santoso and H. W. Beaty appeared in all recommendations...
Indeed, it seems to me to be one of the best books about Power Quality I have ever read. It is very well organized, complex and up-to-date, and above all it is very useful for my research project as it offers clear descriptions (understanding) of all, important Power Quality issues. I would recommend it as a kind of compendium for engineers, designers and researchers that work not only with Power Quality but also with modern Electric Power Systems in general.