Abstract
THE first edition of this well-known book was published in 1903. Sections are included giving mathematical formulæ and tables, information on mechanics, materials, machine design, heat, air, water, fuels, steam boilers and engines, internal combustion motors, and electric power. While much of the information supplied is good, and renders the book of service to engineers, there is a considerable amount of space taken up with matter which is surely unnecessary in an engineering reference book. Some of the very elementary geometry given on p. 107 et seq. might be eliminated. There are few engineers who would require to consult a reference book in order to find out how to bisect a line by another line at right angles. The tables given on pp. 432 and 433 face one another, but the book has to be inverted before the second table can be read. On p. 274 there is a table giving the heights traversed by a falling body to seven significant figures. The American nomenclature in several places makes it somewhat difficult to obtain the precise meaning.
The Mechanical Engineer's Reference Book.
By H. H. Suplee. Fourth edition, revised and enlarged. Pp. xii + 964. (London and Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, n.d.) Price 18s. net.
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The Mechanical Engineer's Reference Book . Nature 93, 295 (1914). https://doi.org/10.1038/093295a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/093295a0