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Vey
Guest
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 Posted:
Mon Nov 28, 2005 8:55 am Post subject:
I miss the basic books |
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I grew up in the 60's.
Back in the '50's there were books written about basic electricity by
big corporations, like AT&T, GM and GE, for the "ordinary Joe." The big
companies knew that they needed to educate their workforce and they took
it upon themselves to do it rather than waiting for the school boards to
get around to it.
When I meet a youngster these days and he is confused about A/C, I want
him to see those basic books I saw, but if I go to the bookstore what I
find are books written by engineers that say way more than they have to.
I can't recommend those books to a kid.
I know that engineers think that the more known the better, but for
simple things, they can't understand the concept of "overkill."
We really need to educate our workforce again. They only need to know
the basics. I'm sorry if the engineers take offense, but they are the
*last* people that should be educating the "ordinary Joe."
So what to do?
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John Popelish
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Nov 28, 2005 9:04 am Post subject:
Re: I miss the basic books |
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Vey wrote:
(snip)
| Quote: | We really need to educate our workforce again. They only need to know
the basics. I'm sorry if the engineers take offense, but they are the
*last* people that should be educating the "ordinary Joe."
|
I think that depends very much on the engineer in question. Some
engineers are very good at making what they want with what is
available, even if what they want is for an average Joe to understand
basic electricity and their own experience, newsgroups and Google are
all that are available (as if those last two resources are severe
limitations).
Some do it, here, daily. |
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Vey
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Nov 28, 2005 9:08 am Post subject:
Re: I miss the basic books |
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| Quote: | Some do it, here, daily.
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John, I see what you are saying, but a piece here and a piece there
can't take the place of a good book.
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John Popelish
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Nov 28, 2005 9:20 am Post subject:
Re: I miss the basic books |
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Vey wrote:
| Quote: |
Some do it, here, daily.
John, I see what you are saying, but a piece here and a piece there
can't take the place of a good book.
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I see what you mean. I am pretty much self taught, in the arts, for
the first 20 years of my life and some of those old books were a big
part of my education. The one that got me started was "Elements of
Radio" by A. Marcus and Wm. Marcus. I must have checked it out of the
library a dozen times before I could really understand most of it. I
recently bought a copy of it for sentimental reasons. |
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Vey
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Nov 28, 2005 9:26 am Post subject:
Re: I miss the basic books |
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I remember a picture showing me how one half of a wave could go from NY
to LA. Wouldn't that cartoon do the guy that asked about antennas (a
couple of posts up) some good?
Or how a motor got too hot (fanning itself) when the voltage was too
high and pooped out when the voltage was too low.
Dumb, simple stuff. |
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Vey
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Nov 28, 2005 9:35 am Post subject:
Re: I miss the basic books |
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--"Cartoon History of the Universe" by Larry Gonick?--
I looked on my bookshelf and there it was. I was thinking I needed to
reread it the other day.
The books I remember were not that cartoony, but maybe to hook the kids,
that would be better, because when I do scout out a GM or AT&T book (and
they got them from the Navy) the kids don't seem to respond to them the
way I did when I was their age.
But when I was their age "electricity" was some mysterious, magical
"thing" that only experts knew anything about. Same as today, but they
think learning the basics is too pedestrian . . . "what about digital
electronics"? |
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John Popelish
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Nov 28, 2005 9:35 am Post subject:
Re: I miss the basic books |
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Vey wrote:
| Quote: | I remember a picture showing me how one half of a wave could go from NY
to LA. Wouldn't that cartoon do the guy that asked about antennas (a
couple of posts up) some good?
Or how a motor got too hot (fanning itself) when the voltage was too
high and pooped out when the voltage was too low.
|
Have you ever seen the comic book format, "Cartoon History of the
Universe" by Larry Gonick? I would love to see what he could do with
basic electronics.
http://www.larrygonick.com/ |
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Michael Black
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Nov 28, 2005 9:35 am Post subject:
Re: I miss the basic books |
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John Popelish (jpopelish@rica.net) writes:
| Quote: | Vey wrote:
Some do it, here, daily.
John, I see what you are saying, but a piece here and a piece there
can't take the place of a good book.
I see what you mean. I am pretty much self taught, in the arts, for
the first 20 years of my life and some of those old books were a big
part of my education. The one that got me started was "Elements of
Radio" by A. Marcus and Wm. Marcus. I must have checked it out of the
library a dozen times before I could really understand most of it. I
recently bought a copy of it for sentimental reasons.
|
But isn't the issue really that there is far less being published
for the hobbyist? The books that are found today may be aimed at
a very different market, so they read like "engineers have written
them" because they are aimed at engineers, or engineers in training.
Michael |
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Richard
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Nov 28, 2005 5:35 pm Post subject:
Re: I miss the basic books |
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"Vey" <junker@ericvvey.com> wrote in message
news:Ckuif.9798$aA2.5853@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net...
| Quote: | I grew up in the 60's.
Back in the '50's there were books written about basic electricity by
big corporations, like AT&T, GM and GE, for the "ordinary Joe." The big
companies knew that they needed to educate their workforce and they took
it upon themselves to do it rather than waiting for the school boards to
get around to it.
Snipped |
| Quote: | When I meet a youngster these days and he is confused about A/C, I want
him to see those basic books I saw, but if I go to the bookstore what I
find are books written by engineers that say way more than they have to.
I can't recommend those books to a kid.
So what to do?
|
I, too, recall the basic series of electronics books from that era. I also
remember recieving electronics kits as part of the training materials; many
of them ordered from radio and television electronics magazines (which are
also in short supply today). Of course, everything required soldering - no
proto-boards in those days, so you learned electronics AND soldering skills
(the bigger the blob, the better the job??).
Check http://www.abebooks.com for some of those older books.
You may also be able to contact some of those companies. Some are still
training internally; others use the local community colleges. For instance,
Panasonic in southeatern Virginia was using Tidewater Community College to
provide some electricity/electronics training, and I recall hearing
Anheuser-Busch ran some basic electricity and electronics training for its
employees some years ago. Maybe the materials they used are still available.
The A-B Traiining and Development Group is in St. Louis.
I also invite your attention to http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/electricCircuits/
.. You may find Volume VI of particular interest. I have not looked at even a
tenth of this book, but those sections I have been into appear to be pretty
well written. That isn't to say it is error-free, but the author appears to
welcome feedback and continues to update all volumes. The cost is also very
reasonable!
Have you considered putting together a book in the format you remember?
Distribution may be a problem since you'll likely get lost in the ususal
internet noise, but you may get a bit of support, and plugs, from the
regular posters to this group.
Good luck in your search.
Richard Seriani |
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Charles Schuler
Guest
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| Posted:
Tue Nov 29, 2005 1:36 am Post subject:
Re: I miss the basic books |
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| Quote: | But isn't the issue really that there is far less being published
for the hobbyist? The books that are found today may be aimed at
a very different market, so they read like "engineers have written
them" because they are aimed at engineers, or engineers in training.
|
The technician, hobbyist, ham radio (as far as building stuff and
experimenting) markets have mostly evaporated. You won't find many young
folks interested in these things nowadays. |
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Rodney
Guest
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| Posted:
Tue Nov 29, 2005 1:36 am Post subject:
Re: I miss the basic books |
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"Vey" <junker@ericvvey.com> wrote in message
news:Ckuif.9798$aA2.5853@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net...
| Quote: | I grew up in the 60's.
Back in the '50's there were books written about basic electricity by big
corporations, like AT&T, GM and GE, for the "ordinary Joe." The big
companies knew that they needed to educate their workforce and they took
it upon themselves to do it rather than waiting for the school boards to
get around to it.
When I meet a youngster these days and he is confused about A/C, I want
him to see those basic books I saw, but if I go to the bookstore what I
find are books written by engineers that say way more than they have to. I
can't recommend those books to a kid.
I know that engineers think that the more known the better, but for simple
things, they can't understand the concept of "overkill."
We really need to educate our workforce again. They only need to know the
basics. I'm sorry if the engineers take offense, but they are the *last*
people that should be educating the "ordinary Joe."
So what to do?
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Second try. Go to http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/electricCircuits/index.htm
Rod |
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David F
Guest
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| Posted:
Wed Nov 30, 2005 7:58 am Post subject:
Re: I miss the basic books |
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On Mon, 28 Nov 2005 17:03:24 -0500, Charles Schuler
<charleschuler@comcast.net> wrote:
| Quote: | But isn't the issue really that there is far less being published
for the hobbyist? The books that are found today may be aimed at
a very different market, so they read like "engineers have written
them" because they are aimed at engineers, or engineers in training.
The technician, hobbyist, ham radio (as far as building stuff and
experimenting) markets have mostly evaporated. You won't find many young
folks interested in these things nowadays.
|
I think that a simple web search turns up many resources for someone who
*wants* to self-educate. Perhaps the issue is not so much of the
availability of resources to a curious "average Joe," but one of public
education and *advocacy* of the ideal of understanding of the physical
world.
I find that this lack of understanding of how the world around us works is
pervasive in today's developed societies; it is fueled in part by the
increasing complexity of our consumer products, in part by the design of
those products as "black boxes," impossible even to open the case without
breaking it and voiding the warranty, much less to modify or repair what
might be found inside, in the U.S. by the extreme deteriation in the
quality of the educational system, and partly by other social trends that
I cannot understand. But undeniably, to the "average Joe" (or Jane),
everything from the car driven to work to the computer on which he works
might as well operate via magic, and he is comfortable with that situation.
Thus, the hobbiest market has indeed evaporated, and there is little
interest in basic books by folks, young or old. |
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