Manufacturing Books

I bought a signed and numbered edition and wish that I had bought a working copy. My book is showing the wear which results from consulting and re-consulting to I.D. anvils of fellow blacksmiths. I have read it cover to cover (are you supposed to do that with a reference work?).

If you are into blacksmithing, even just a little bit, you have to have this book! An absolutely thorough and professional work on the history and manufacturers of anvils in America. Pictures galore of that simple, but beautiful tool so important in our history. And practical information too. I can't think of any book that has given me as much pleasure in a long, long time! Worth every penny, and maybe more.

APPETITE FOR CHANGE: HOW THE COUNTERCULTURE TOOK ON THE FOOD INDUSTRY appears in its second updated edition to appeal to college-level students of American culture, particular that of the 1960s - as well as students of culinary history. Food and eating habits changed as a result of the social revolution of the 1960s: this examination considers both sides of the health food industry's rise, charts the rise of ethnic cuisine, and establishes strong connections between social movements and eating habits. APPETITE FOR CHANGE originally appeared in 1989 and is updated here to reflect new alternative diets and organic food's rise.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

I read this several years ago in an anthropology course and it was truly enlightening. It describes how elements of the counterculture in the 60's came to view the mass production of food as the fundamental basis of industrial economy. They sought to decentralize, communalize and humanize this massive "combine." Unfortunately, they were co-opted, by the giant corporations that today continue to shovel their bitter porridge into our gaping pie holes. This book is more than about food production, but how corporate capitalism manufactures values, and disires and marginalizes those who threaten to provide viable alternatives. An excellent book.

Excellent, information packed, a good reference as well as how-to book, belongs in every collection, lots of images of artists' work. I return to it for moldmaking for casting paper.

This book has saved us many times when we've been searching high and low for the information we need. Good technical ( but not boring ! ) descriptions of processes, materials, techniques. This is an essential book for all papermakers and paper artists.

I love this book because it doesn't spell out every step, but allows you to apply your own creativity. But, this same feature might make it a little difficult for beginners.
I still highly recommend the book because so many of the techniques can be applied to totally different projects.

I would really suggest this book to all those who love to quilt or embellish with an Asian theme. It is easy to understand and follow instructions.

This book chronicles all models produced from about 1986 to 2006, with the greatest focus on the hand crafted V-series cars of 1990-2000 (Virage and all its decedents). In many ways the book shows how the company has made the transition from a ultra-low volume maker of coach built cars into a maker of expensive semi-mass produced sports cars (like an English Ferrari). Personally I have mixed feelings about this transformation, but the book does a magnificent job paying homage to both eras.

Each chapter details one model, or one special run of cars. In some cases the "run" describes production quantities in single digits...in a few cases it even represents a single unique car. The book itself contains amazing photographers, and was obviously produced with great attention to detail and love of the cars/company.

One funny aspect of the book... Many places in the text "well known far east customer" is mentioned, but his name is never actually given. This is obviously the Sultan of Brunei. It is well known he was a major Aston Martin customer during this period, and commissioned many of the highly custom cars in the book. Since these cars are locked far away, this book is the only way to experience these works of art.

I only have one minor complaint. I really wish they included more photos inside of the Newport-Pagnell factory itself. Since this book chronicles the last chapter of hand-made cars, it would have been nice to see more details of this lost art.

Worth every penny.

Very comprehensive of the modern cars. Including many, many one off and unique Astons AND Lagondas also.
An incredible resource.
Hence my "Must Buy" title as above.

Even though most world leaders are focused on our global energy crisis now, two British scholars are prophetically giving us this newly revised "Atlas of Food." It's a terrific resource for teachers, preachers, small-group leaders, students and pretty much anyone who wants to understand an even more important global crisis: feeding humanity.

It's no surprise that the words "our daily bread" represent one of the world's most common prayers. The creators of this information-packed atlas argue that -- sooner or later -- we're all going to discover that the real struggle for global dominance involves food and water.

In the introduction, Erik Millstone and Tim Lang tell us that global power already is moving into the hands of food traders, retailers and land-owners who control the production and distribution of the stuff that our neighbors truly must have to survive: food. The authors write: "The irony is that enough food is produced on this planet to feed everyone adequately -- IF it were to be shared uniformly. But, some over-eat while others are malnourished."

This book is not specifically religious and the reviews I write for Amazon are recommendations of important books and films specifically related to spirituality. So let me clarify, in this case: While the atlas is not specifically religious, it deals with profoundly spiritual issues.

In this book, you'll discover a host of new insights into the imbalance of food around the world. Pick up a copy for yourself or for small-group study. If you tackle it with a group, this volume will raise enough questions to keep your group buzzing along for weeks.

Erik and Tim succeed in neatly presenting the extremely complex environment of the food supply chain as well as the substantial misconceptions that society has about food, its entire production and consumption chain as well as its consequences. For anyone even slightly motivated to reconsider his food choices and dietary behaviour, this book gives a wealth of arguments for tackling things differently. This atlas should be compulsory study in every education. Moreover its concept and design has strong educational potential.
I may fancy maps and atlases more than the average person, but the sheer pleasure of discovering so many insights in a such a simple way will surely work for most readers. The visuals used fit this type of information extremely well with and they make the key learnings from this atlas quite obvious for anyone.
As a compact database, the atlas is equally useful for the professional who needs to get a first view on some other aspects of this complex area where he may have less expertise.
If more people would have only a superficial understanding of some of the issues and causal interrelationships that figure in this book, it would already make a significant difference for the way our societies would value and use natural resources . This book is therefore very recommendable and useful reading and will definitely change the way you look at food and your daily consumption patterns.

This book on planning and scheduling maintenance tasks is very well written and contains much relevant information. Anyone interested in maintenance will find this book to be a very valuable aid. I would highly recommend it to maintenance professionals.

IF YOU NEED HELP WITH PROJECT MANAGEMENT THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU, HAS HELPED ME OUT TREMENDOUSLY...

An excellent general book coverng information pump users would do well to learn!

I will recommend this book on pumps on anyone that works at a petroleum refinery, petro chemical plant, and chemical plant. The book has different kinds of pumps, that are used in the industry and gives very good explanations and details on the pumps being explained. Very valuable book and reference on different pumps that are used in refineries, petro chemical plants, chemical plants, and any other industry, that uses pumps. Highly recommend this book.

I have read several books on engines and this one is by far one of my treasured favorites. It is very detailed and has loads of information. I personally run one of the largest national remanufactured and used engine companies [...] selling thousands of engines each year.

It is important as a leader in the industry to stay polished on my knowledge of engines, and this book has helped in so many ways. This book would be helpful for car buffs who tool around on the weekends and powerful enough for the nations best mechanics. Well worth the price!!!!

This book contains so much info its unbelievable. Everything is step-by-step and so detailed. This book is a must have!

This book explains the basics of the networks and protocols used in industrial automation. It goes into detail about specific protocols, explaining their intended purpose, how they evolved, and what they're used for today. It explains the models that separate fieldbuses from control networks and where the lines blur. There is good discussion of field control vs distributed control. It explains how redundancy and failsafes come into play with each type of network.

I approached this book as an engineer who designs industrial products without any training in the purposes behind the various industrial communication systems. Users of industrial products often understand the relationships between the various standards intuitively but cannot explain it well to a product engineer with little manufacturing experience. This book clears it all up in under 150 pages of easy-to-follow text and diagrams.

Anyone who wants to take a couple hours to learn what's behind the apparent hodgepodge of communication standards used in industrial automation should read this book.

Dick Caro has a wealth of knowledge about automation networking--and it shows throughout this book. From his rendering of the history of industrial networks and fieldbuses to the technical review of the leading contenders, the book is a veritable encyclopedia on the subject. It has a permanent place on my reference shelf.
Gary Mintchell
Editor, Automation World