Practical Mechanics for Boys

There is no trade or occupation which calls forth the inventive faculty to a greater degree than the machinist's. Whether it be in the direction of making some new tool, needed...

A workman is able to select the right metals because he knows that each has some peculiar property which is best adapted for his particular use. These with their meaning will no...

In a work of this kind, dealing with the various elements, the boy should have at hand recipes or formulas for everything which comes within the province of his experiments. The...

The ability to read drawings is a necessary part of the boy's education. To know how to use the tools, is still more important. In conveying an idea about a piece of mechanism,...

Some simple directions in the holding and setting of tools may be of service to the novice. Practice has shown the most effective way of treating different materials, so that th...

If there is anything in the realm of mechanics which excites the wonder and admiration of man, it is the knowledge that the greatest inventions are the simplest, and that the in...

The most necessary tool in a machine shop is a file. It is one of the neglected tools, because the ordinary boy, or workman, sees nothing in it but a strip or a bar with a lot o...

LACING BELTS.--To properly lace a belt is quite an art, as many who have tried it know. If a belt runs off the pulley it is attributable to one of three causes: either the pulle...

THE LEVER.--The lever is the most wonderful mechanical element in the world. The expression, _lever_, is not employed in the sense of a stick or a bar which is used against a fu...

Judging from the favorable comments of educators, on the general arrangement of the subject matter in the work on "Carpentry for Boys," I am disposed to follow that plan in this...

ANNEALING.--A very important part of the novice's education is a knowledge pertaining to the annealing of metals. Unlike the artisan in wood, who works the materials as he finds...

If one pound should be lifted 550 feet in one second, or 550 pounds one foot in the same time, it would be designated as one horse-power. For that reason it is called a foot pou...

It is singular, that with the immense variety of tools set forth in the preceding chapter, how few, really, require the art of the workman to grind and sharpen. If we take the l...

When the shop is equipped, or partially so, sufficient, at least, to turn out simple jobs, the boy will find certain tools which are strangers to him. He must become acquainted...

==========+===================+==========+=================== | | | | Weight in Pounds | | Weight in Pounds Sizes in | | Sizes in | Inches +---------+---------+ Inches +--------...

The technical name for gears, the manner of measuring them, their pitch and like terms, are most confusing to the novice. As an aid to the understanding on this subject, the whe...

To find the speed of a driven pulley of a given diameter: Multiply the diameter of the driving pulley by its speed or number of revolutions. Divide this by the diameter of the d...