Controls Books

The first edition was published in 1969, the second edition was released in 1982 (Volume 1) and 1985 (Volume 2). This latest edition comprises over 3000 pages between the 2 volumes. Each volume includes 8 chapters with many sub-headings per chapter.

The Flow Measurement (29 sub-headins) and Analytical Instrumentation (60 sub-headings) chapters were heavily revised for the 1995 edition of VOLUME 1. PLC's & Other Logic Devices (10 subheadings), DCS & Computer-based Systems (16 sub-headings) and Process Control Systems (27 sub-headings) were largely rewritten for the 1995 edition of VOLUME 2. Within each product-oriented sub-heading (eg. Magnetic Flowmeters, Infrared Analyzers, DCS Basic Packages), in addition to extensive treatment of the applicable technology, a comprehesive listing of manufacturers and typical price ranges is provided. Under Process Control Systems, a diverse group of applications (Airhandler Controls, Clean Room Controls, Distillation Advanced Controls, Compressor Controls, Reactor Control & Optimation and many others) is profiled. Throughout this handbook, process control is treated in the time-domain to minimize mathematical complications implicit in frequency-domain analysis. Its focus is the practicding engineer and explains most control phoenomena visually.

Over 250 contributing authors are listed, including many prestigious names immediately recognizable by process control professionals. Liptak personally authored a substantial number of revised and up-dated easlier contribution of pioneering practitioners. This opus is a tour de force.

Liptak is a long-time industrial consultant, teaches a graduate course in advanced process control at Yale and writes the widely-followed Lessons Learned feature in CONTROL magazine. He has also lectured at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and been published on the editorial pages of the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

This book is a Must Have in your Engineering Library.
Liptak provides extensive detail for this to be your one-stop-shop for controls as well as a great introduction & encyclopedia for the rookies.
Hats off to Liptak and his team.
Just brace yourself for the 1,500 pages of information !! ;)

Absolutely the Very Best Process Control Reference for the Process Control Engineer - Now Updated and Expanded !!. This is the second volume of the Instrument Engineer's Handbook, and. as its title suggests, it deals with Process control and Optimization, covering everything from Control Hardware, Control Theory, Control Strategies, and the Control and Optimization of Specific Unit Operations.

The Chapters on Control Hardware cover in detail transmitters, controllers, control valves, regulators and other types of final control elements, PLCs, and other logic devices, human interfaces and displays, including the design of control rooms.

The Chapters on Control Theory and Control Strategies covers everything from control basics and PID controllers, to tuning methods, stability, process characteristics, process modeling and simulation, model-based control, genetic and other evolutionary algorithms, fuzzy logic programming, neural networks and other advance control strategies.

The Chapters on Control and Optimization of Unit Operations provide both in-depth of both the theory of operation and control, and practical implementation for the control of pumping, distillation, chemical reaction, heat transfer and many other.

While evaluating and reviewing such sophisticated topics about Process Control, this handbook also tries and succeeds to provide and reinforce the reader with the most useful tool for the Automation and Control Engineer: Common Sense. In order to emphasize the importance of Common Sense, the Author gives some practical recommendations that include the following ones:

- Before we can control a process, one must fully understand it.
- Being progressive is good, but being a guinea pig is not. Therefore is the wrong control strategy is implemented, the performance of even the most advanced digital hardware will be unacceptable.
- And Instrumentation, Automation, and Process Control Engineer or Technician is doing a good and better job by telling plant management what they need to know, and not what they like to hear.
- If an instrument is worth installing, it should also be worth calibrating and maintaining. No device can outperform the reference against it was calibrated.
- Trust your common sense not the sales literature. Independent performance evaluation based on the recommendation of international and national users associations should be done before installation, and not after it.

I am an Industrial Practitioner of Process Measurement & Control. I have been working in the Process Industries for more than 16 years as an Automation, Instrumentation, Process Safety and Process Control Engineer. I consider this book to be the very best reference in the field for anyone and everyone working in these areas or in areas related with their Industrial applications. You will find this handbook useful, either if your work is related with the engineering, maintenance or operation of Process Control Systems.

If you are a beginner to Process Control, you may also want to consider "Process Dynamics, Modeling, and Control (Topics in Chemical Engineering)" by Babatunde A. Ogunnaike, which is an excelent introductory reference to Chemical Processes Dynamics and Control.

I have used this book for years and it has never failed to provide the information necessary to troubleshoot and repair problems with measurement systems. Liptak does a wonderful job presenting measurement theory and the principles of operation of various measurement strategies. The most helpful information Liptak includes is the discussion of the limitation of various measurement devices. If you are responsible for the maintenance of a wide variety of instruments and you desire to know how those instruments work, this book is worth every penny.

Excellent book. I second Mr. Hills comments, although I have recently purchased the books based upon comments Mr.Liptak has made in the control mailing list. It is a very good investment. The book is easy to read/understand, covers the full spectrum of instrumentation,give relative costs and companies manufacturing the items. It is a good first book to turn to, and will save me much research time. I wish I would have known about it earlier.

The book cover almost every single instrument used in the process industry for Process measurement and Analysis of the most common process variables. The book covers Flow, Level, Temperature, Pressure, Density, Safety and Miscellaneous Sensors (Vibration, Shock, acceleration, torque, noise, etc.)

One of the aspect that I find more appealing is that at the beginning of each chapter you find an application and selection oriented overview and an orientation table for the process variable covered in that chapter of the book. The tables list all the different types of sensors and summarize the features and capabilities, as well as approximated prices, accuracies and characteristics of each one. If you need a sensor for a particular application, you can narrow your options and then go to the sections of the book that covers in details the selected sensors.

If you work with Industrial Instrumentation you will find this book to be a very valuable tool in your day to day job, either if you specify, install, maintain or operate them.

This handbook has almost 2000 pages of really useful information.

I have been working in the Process Industries for more than 16 years as an Automation, Instrumentation, Process Safety and Process Control Engineer. I consider this book to be the very best in the field, and it is really an Excellent reference for anyone and everyone working in these areas or in areas related with their Industrial applications.

This is definitely an excellent reference book on the security systems subject. I especially liked to see sections on TCP/IP and wireless communications, which are typically not areas of expertise of a security systems specialist (even some younger ones).
Maximum value for money, I must say.

The one objection I have is the misaligned print in the first 100 pages or so. But this definitely has nothing to do with the contents. The book is entirely readable, that's important.

This is simply the best book on security system design available. It has it all, from the history and evolution of electronic security to designing the most advanced enterprise integrated security systems in the world. All elements of security system design are here, including definitions, technology, roles and responsibilities of design team members, and most importantly, how they all work together. This book will become the standard on security systems design. I highly recommend it for security professionals and students.

This book combines an approachable style with actionable information. The author is an excellent technical writer with a readable style, a rare combination for any technical book. I found two actionable items in this book upon my first reading and I feel will become a primary reference work for me.

In short this book exceeded my expectations.

He was a Navy officer serving on the USS Yorktown by the age of 22, in law school at 26, a staff assistant to the counsel to the president at 29, and Undersecretary of Transportation at 33. At 34, he was in jail. How could this happen to a man raised in a highly moral family, with an excellent education, with Christian Middle American values and a strong sense of patriotism? Yet here was Egil "Bud" Krogh at 33, starting a prison sentence for violating the civil rights of Dr. Lewis Fielding, a California psychiatrist. Bud says the principal cause was the collapse of integrity of those members of the White House's Special Investigative Unit (SIU) who conspired, ordered and carried the break-in of the doctor who had been consulted by Dr. Daniel Ellsburg, the "leaker" of the Pentagon Papers" to the New York Times in early 1971.

In this short book on integrity and decision-making, Bud Krogh tells his story as an advisor in the White House during the Nixon administration and his role as co-director of the SIU. The reason for the book is quite clearly stated in the Dedication: "To those who deserve better, this book is offered as an apology, an explanation, and a way to keep integrity in the forefront of decision-making".

After leaving the Navy in June of 1965, Bud was assisted in his career by John Ehrlichman, a close family friend and father figure to whom he admits he owed complete personal loyalty. Bud was working for Ehrlichman's law firm in Washington State when Ehrlichman was named counsel to the president upon Richard Nixon's election in 1968, and jumped at the chance to move to Washington to assist in the transition, eventually acting as assistant counsel and deputy counsel to the president.

In June of 1971, the "Pentagon Papers", revealing that the United States government was deliberately expanding its role in the war while President Johnson was promising not to do so, were leaked to the New York Times by Dr. Daniel Ellsberg. Subsequent attempts by the Nixon Administration to prevent disclosure failed, including a ruling by the Supreme Court halting Administration attempts to prevent publication. Together with a article in the Times revealing the fall- back position of the U.S. in the first SALT talks, these disclosures created a "crisis of major proportions" in the Nixon White House. Bud was selected to co-direct the White House's Special Investigations Unit (better known as the "Plumbers"), and tasked with stopping leaks of top secret information related to the Vietnamese War, the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks and other foreign policy operations. The SIU included such now famous names as G. Gordon Liddy, David Young and E. Howard Hunt, and according to Bud the group felt that it "had been given a critical responsibility by the president, and we were embarking on a quest that held great import for the security of the nation."

Bud's SIU decided to go forward with its own investigation. During deliberations, no one in the SIU questioned the necessity, legitimacy, legality, or morality of the proposed covert action. Relying on the president's declaration of a national security crisis, the unit never asked whether their actions were "right". Instead, the unit focused on questions such as who had the skills, who could be trusted, and who would pay for it? They assumed it was "right" because the president was pressing for action and because they believed that information from Dr. Fielding's office would help prevent further leaks from undermining Nixon's plan for ending the Vietnam war. Their loyalties were to their principals and to the president personally.Staff members had been hired on the basis of loyalty to the president and to the senior presidential aide who had recruited him or her. To suggest that national security was being improperly invoked would have been to invite a confrontation with both patriotism and loyalty, well beyond what he was capable of at that time. (In the Foreword, Daniel Ellsberg relates although he had taken an oath of office a number of times, he first noticed the Code of Ethics for Government Service hanging on a wall while he was a visitor at a New Mexico correction facility. He was particularly struck by the first principle: "Put loyalty to the highest moral principles and to country above loyalty to persons, party, or Government department." Ellsberg admits that he didn't recall that it ever occurred to him that he was taking on obligations to the Constitution that might contradict the demands of a cabinet secretary or the president.)

And so the members of the SIU conspired to break into the psychiatrist's office because national security mandated an assessment of Ellsberg's mental state to determine if he was likely to release other classified information. It was seven weeks from the "crisis" declaration to the break-in. Bud sums it up: "In those seven weeks, the SIU had undergone a journey from suspicion to certainty to covert action to frustration to zealotry: hardened by their first action, the Plumbers knew that the rules of engagement had been changed and the conventional respect for laws set aside. A botched break-in, evidence by a few Polaroids, didn't seem to represent much. In practice, however, it was the first irreversible step by which a presidency ran out of control."

The efforts of the SIU didn't end with the break-in of Dr. Fielding's office. Failing to garner any information on Dr. Ellsberg, it was suggested that a break-in be conducted at Dr. Fielding's home. After Bud rejected this idea, his involvement with covert action ended, but his troubles had just begun.

In February of 1973 Bud was confirmed as undersecretary of Transportation. In May he reisgend his position. In August, he was indicted for making a false declaration to the DOJ regarding the travel to California by the Plumbers. Then, in November of 1973, while on a vacation in Williamsburg, VA with his family, he admitted to himself that he felt uncomfortable with the soundness of using national security as a defense: "The more I tried to align my thought with a higher sense of right, the more problematic it became." He recognized that here he was under federal and state indictment, but still free to travel wherever he wanted, speak to the press, worship freely, etc. , but had nonetheless violated another man's civil rights in order to protect the country. If he continued to justify violating rights he continued to enjoy, he felt he would not only be a hypocrite, but a traitor to the fundamental American idea of the right of an individual to be free from unwarranted government intrusion in his life. He decided to plead guilty: "While there may have been some damaging impacts upon national security from Ellsberg's release of the Pentagon Papers, those impacts simply could not justify the invasion of Fielding's rights that this operation involved."

Four days after making his decision, Bud walked into the office of Leon Jaworski, the special prosecutor for Watergate and related crimes and offered to plead guilty to the more serious charge of the deprivation of civil rights in exchange for a dismissal of lesser federal and state charges. His one other stipulation - to avoid any suggestion that he was seeking leniency through testifying, and in the belief that it would be wrong to benefit directly from sharing a truth that would damage others, Bud made it clear that his guilty plea was conditional on the prosecutor's agreement that he would not talk with them or the grand jury until after he'd been sentenced: "It was critically important to me that Judge Gerhard Gesell sentence me solely on the basis of what I did, not for what I might say that would implicate others." Bud pled guilty on November 30th and was eventually sentenced to a term of two to six years of which he was to serve six months, with two years of unsupervised probation.

Bud spices up the book with a few tales that have only a tertiary relationship to the issue of integrity. He tells one story of working in the Nixon transition office as one of those screening the backgrounds of the president's nominees. He also discusses his experiences in Vietnam in December of 1967 studying land reform as a method of defeating the Viet Cong insurgency; the famous May, describes the 1970 Nixon "wee hours" of the morning meeting with war protestors at the Lincoln memorial; and challenges the decisions of the current Bush Administration regarding interrogation techniques and wiretapping.

Reflecting back upon his actions, Bud concludes that his absolute loyalty to President Nixon personally and to his view of the national security threat had skewed his perspective. This kind of absolute loyalty lacked integrity, he came to understand, because it was unbalanced and too exclusive. Loyalty to the president was obviously important up to a point. However, loyalty to the Constitution, to the rule of law, and to moral and ethical requirements should have been key factors in his decisions as well: "The key point I had not internalized was that the integrity in which the president was reposing special trust was my own. Not his integrity, not the integrity of someone else on the staff, but my own. In short, no one can check their personal integrity at the door when they walk into work at the West Wing or anywhere else".

This is an excellent book addressing the competing pressures of individual integrity and personal loyalty and is recommended reading for all, both private and public sector.

I would primarily like to "second" the previous review (A Needed History Lesson for Our Times). The reviewer says what I would have said, and says it well, particularly in regard to how this valuable book relates to current issues. I would add that I thought I knew the history of the Vietnam era, but I learned so much from this book, and not only concerning the Nixon White House. A very interesting thing to me was the concept of "land reform" and how that issue related to Vietnam, and still is of importance in the world today, when considering how to raise people out of poverty. Bud writes about his time spent in Vietnam, when he was a law student, doing research on land reform issues. He speaks about traveling in the country with reporters who were seeking out members of the Viet Cong to interview. This is just an example of the firsthand and unexpected material that draws a reader in and is so much more involving than one might expect from a book on ethics and integrity. I highly recommend this book, as history, as an explanation of an ethical journey, and, as the previous reviewer said, as a lesson for our time.

At a time when we are governed by an administration that whole-heartedly believes "the ends justify the means", it is crucial to step back and look at history; to see where that motto has failed again and again. Bud Krogh writes an insightful and extremely timely account of his time in the White House under Nixon and his direction of the "Plumbers"--created to seal up real (or perceived) leaks that were threatening our national security.

After the 2000 elections, Krogh wrote an open memo, published in the Christian Science Monitor, to Bush's new staff--VP Cheney, Secretary of Treasury Paul O'Neill and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld--all of whom Krogh had worked with under Nixon in the 1970s. He said as he watched them raise their right hands and swear to uphold the Constitution, it brought back a flood of memories for him when he stood before Nixon and swore to the same oath.

"As I pondered what the new Bush staff would encounter, I realized that I might be able to help by writing a memo to them about one of the central ideas that I had not understood as well as I should have when I was on the White House staff...the absolute imperative to maintain one's sense of integrity in the face of enormous pressures to get results at any cost."

Krogh explains how a good person, raised in the right way, given all the advantages of a young American male, could end up pleading guilty to depriving another of his civil rights and going to prison. Loyalty to his superiors, including Nixon, overshadowed his oath to uphold the Constitution and that lead him to orchestrate the illegal break-in of Dr. Louis Fielding's Psychiatric office in California for the express purpose of stealing Daniel Ellsberg's personal file to try to discredit him. Ellsberg had leaked the "Pentagon Papers" to the press and Nixon believed this to be a serious national security threat.

History has remembered Watergate as the downfall of Nixon's administration, but through Krogh's easy-to-read narrative of the events leading up to Watergate, we find that the break-in and burglary of Dr. Fielding's office was the "seminal event in the chain of events that led to Nixon's resignation".

Obviously, Krogh's letter to the Bush staff has gone largely unheeded as we learn almost daily about unwarranted wiretapping; holding prisoners without cause; torture at Abu Graib and Guantanamo Bay; Rove; Libby; the list goes on and on.

Who was it that said "those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it."?

At the end of his book, Krogh has created a model called the "integrity zone"; steps that each individual in public or private life can take to ascertain whether the path they have chosen is one of integrity or convenience. With three questions: Is it whole and complete? Is it Right? Is it good? one can quickly figure out if they're standing on solid ground or standing at the edge of a slippery slope. After the events of 9/11, if the Bush administration had stopped to ask those questions, we may well be living in a vastly different world than the one we live in today.

For anyone who is concerned about today's political environment and interested in where we've come from and how we got here, this is a must read. I think Krogh is an appropriate person to get this message across. It speaks volumes about who Bud Krogh is as a man of integrity that Daniel Ellsberg wrote the forward and calls him a friend today.

In his first book "Internal Quality System Audits" (no longer in print) Mr. Lewis identified the basic fundamental auditing skills and techniques needed to ensure effective and efficient development, implementation and maintenance of "value added" internal auditing capabilities. Our internal auditing operations have been in place for over four years now and I still find myself referring to this book for guidance on regular bases. It is the most dog-eared of all my books on quality and quality operating systems.

His second book "Internal Quality Systems Auditing" includes and builds on these proven methodologies and has now replaced its dog-eared predecessor as my desk reference. The updated sections on development of audit programs and checklists, documenting audit observations and findings, and audit reporting techniques provide the latest guidance for addressing evolving quality system requirements.

The latest edition makes a great reference and helps keep my audit reporting on track.

The "Internal Quality System Audits" book has proven to be a valuable tool for our internal audit team. The guidelines and the checklists have been used by our company from the beginning of our ISO program, and all seven of our internal auditors have accomplished top quality audits with skill and confidence.

"Internal Quality System Audits" is an excellent teaching tool for internal auditor training.

As a certified quality system auditor and contracted ISO 9000/QS 9000 quality systems consultant I use the auditing methodoligies, tools and techniques presented in this book when establishing internal auditing operations for my clients. I also use the book as a desk referencs when functioning as their lead internal auditor.

If your goal is to develop, implement and maintain an effective and efficient internal audit operation this book is a must have. Internal Quality Systems Auditing is truly a "how-to" presentation.

Broz provides an easy to read text. His premises are clear, leading to true understanding. I've read much on this subject, but never such a complete work. It is as economical as can be expected; and I would argue more general than others have claimed. I highly suggest this book, and thank Dr. Broz for his contribution.

Broz's "The International Origins of the Federal Reserve System" is a excellent example of how single-case qualitative empirical research should be done. By providing a detailed formal theory framework, Broz is able to derive specific hypothesis about the development of the Federal Reserve in a manner that is both scientifically rigorous and historically detailed. While comparison with other cases would have been helpful (and neccessary if the model is to be generalized), this book is one of the best qualitative works in political science in general and political economy in particular in years.

You can't find a more accessible text for this topic. I have scoured the librarys of academia and find that this text is not only readable and enjoyable, but it is superior in its treatment of subject matter. A look at the index will tell any reader that Mr. Broz's volume is the compleat guide.

Don't miss your chance to read this welcoming introductory text.

We have been invaded and we are losing the war. Know thine enemy: Garlic mustard, buckthorn, reed canary grass, and honeysuckle. Read this book and you will know the major invasives, the lesser invasives, and how to attack them. Many color photos help with species identification. The cover photo of a woodland that is totally infested with garlic mustard will send a shiver up your spine.

In addition to the technical side, the book also explains the 'why we should care' part that is essential if we want to get action, especially by our elected officials.

The book itself is an example of what one person can do. The author was a self-described suburban housewife who cared about the local environment, but didn't know how to identify the invasive plants and there wasn't a handy resource guide. So she wrote this one! Sadly Betty Czarpata died of ovarian cancer in 2003 when the book was nearly complete but not yet published.

Winner of the Wisconsin Council on Invasive Species 2005 Invader Crusader Award.

This guide has invasives divided into multiple categories ranging from exotics that are of major concern to natives that are sometimes of concern. It has detailed identification of each species and gives the options for control, including mechanical, chemical, and biological. The control information includes the details on chemical concentration, time of year, and temperature. There is a lot of incorrect information on the internet on invasives control and this book is a good source of reliable information.

This is by far the best field guide for invasive species of the Midwest. I am a prairie steward on an Illinois prairie, and the photos, in addition to the clear descriptions, make it an easy to follow guide. My own book is all dog-eared and stained from bringing it out on the prairies with me.

This book is much more than a field guide. The authors provide practical advice on eradicating invasive species, as well as fascinating histories of how the invasive plants got here in the first place. It's amazing how many of them were brought over for gardens! The guide is thorough, covering both terrestrial and aquatic species. Recommended for anyone with pesky invasive plant problems, be it a homeowner or a natural resource manager.

This book is an outstanding reference for homeowners, hikers, naturalists, and botanists trying to learn more about what plants are invasive in their backyards,neighborhood parks, and forests and what to do about them. I especially like the pictures -- most useful for identification. And not only can you learn to identify invasive plants, but the book has informative sections for each species on why that species is a problem and how to control it. I really liked the fascinating stories behind the plants. Once you take a look at this book, you will start seeing invasive plants everywhere.

Although I am not a professional botanist to point out technical errors I have found this book to be very useful. I wanted a book that could help me quickly identify plants along roadsides and disturbed habitats that are typically known to be invasive. I wanted a "picture" of how many of the plants were native. I have even identified very prolific invasives in nature preserves here on Long Island , NY. My interests also involve edible plants and this book helps me determine if the plant I am curious about has any edible parts because it allows me to identify the plant and then cross reference it in other books or on the internet once I know the species. Lots of photographs to help spot that plant you are looking for and they usually show enough features of the plant to help identify it. From an ecological standpoint I think it is great to have this book at the fingertips of those looking to restore natural habitats on their own property or our nature preserves. Finally!, a book that can assist us all with the massive problem of invasive plants.

I would consider the book to be helpful to both the novice as well as the seasoned EMS Manager. The writers style makes the detailed subject readable and enjoyable. I look forward to seeing addtional books on this subject from Ms. Jackson.

This book is an invaluable asset in the EHS managers' quiver of reference tools. Ms Jackson presents what initially seems like a disjointed standard in terms that a layman can understand. Additionally, she adds insight and tips to guide even the seasoned veteran through the labyrinth of requirements that is ISO 14001. Graphics, examples and case studies are used throughout the book to impart to the reader a practical implementation scheme based on business case scenarios.

I would consider the book to be helpful to both the novice as well as the seasoned EMS Manager. The writers style makes the detailed subject readable and enjoyable. I look forward to seeing addtional books on this subject from Ms. Jackson.

I heard about this book from a Miami radio show interview just before a vacation. Fortunately! I usually gain weight during a trip and come home feeling more stressed than before I left. But this time was different. If this sounds like you, you'll appreciate thes ideas as I do. Thanks.

For a diet book this one was very friendly. It did not talk down to me or over my head with a lot of doctor mumbo jumbo but I know I'll appreciate doctor mumbo jumbo much more than I ever have before. It was a very fresh look at sticking with it which I know now how to do. And I can't wait to go on my next vacation!

It's refreshing to see such honesty and insight into the mind of the dieter. The idea that all diets work makes perfect sense and so does the memory tool for staying on track. I've tried probably 20 diets in the last 20 years. Finally someone has written a book that makes sense of them all and makes me feel good about having tried them. The inspirational quotes sprinkled throughout the book made it even more fun to read. With what it taught me, I feel like I could write my own diet book now.