Customers should note that all the modern books which follow on electricity come from America, and are based on American practice and voltages, not British or European ones - in particular the voltages differ, and allowance should be made for this (otherwise you might get a nasty shock....).

Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics Gibilisco • £ 20.99 • (A) NEW Fourth Edition of this popular book. As is well known, electricity is beyond me, but I suspect I could learn a lot from this book - if I could find the time. Theory and practice look to be very well and exhaustively explained throughout its 699 pages, loaded with diagrams, photos etc. Larger format paperback. McGraw-Hill. Add to shopping basket

Generators and Inverters Chastain • £21.95 • (D) See main entry in ‘Alternative Technology’ chapter. Add to shopping basket

Electrical Things Boys Like to Make 1954 • £ 7.30 • (E) Presumably this book was never sold in the U.K. otherwise, much as I hate to admit it, there is a good chance I would have seen it. Despite the fact that it is younger than any of the similar books we sell, the projects are very similar: bells, torches, telegraph key, crystal sets, telephones and circuits, chimes, motors and the like, plus here the rather more dangerous Burning Pencil, Arcing Pencil, Table Stove and a Corn Popper. What does make this book different is is the layout, with a lot more photographs, and the last 50 or so pages, which mainly consist of good instruction on basic construction techniques - coil winding, soldering, building a punching jig, the general use of hand tools and much more. So this is well worth considering even if you have the other books. 205 heavily illustrated pages. Paperback. Lindsay Publications Add to shopping basket

Electromechanical Building Blocks for the Model Engineer Addy • £12.95 • (C) Here you have the theoretical and practical details of electronic circuits that can be used to control machinery used by the model engineer, plus information that will enable him to build his own control units using a modular, or ‘Building block’, approach. For those not heavily into electronics, there is a very good and useful chapter on basic electromagnetic theory. 187 pages, numerous and very clear circuit diagrams, plus some photos. Paperback. Special Interest Model Books. Add to shopping basket

The Boy Electrician Morgan • 1940 • £ 16.60 • (D) The first edition of this book appeared in 1913, here you have the 1940 one reprinted, which will give you an idea of just how good it is. In these transistorised days, the idea of actually building your own electric battery, using a tin can, iron filings and caustic soda, may seem odd, but this wonderful book also includes, inter-alia, a Wimshurst Machine, galvanometers, induction coils, crystal sets, an electric train etc, etc. A wonderful book! Stir up the (childrens') grey matter! 403 page heavily illustrated paperback. Lindsay Publications Add to shopping basket

How to Run Three Phase Motors on Single Phase Power £ 2.85 • (H) Shows how this can be done by the capacitor, the autoformer or the dynamic converter methods. Also includes basic three phase and induction motor theory. Complete with drawings, diagrams and capacitor values. 18 pages. Softbound. Lindsay Publications Add to shopping basket

Alternator Secrets Lindsay • £ 2.85 • (H) The common car alternator can be modified very successfully to produce large amounts of power. This booklet is just 16 pages, but they are jammed full with modifications you can make, and what you can produce. Useful stuff! Softbound. Lindsay Publications Add to shopping basket

Build a Universal Coil Winder Gingery • £ 7.95 • (G) Coils and the inductance they provide are almost always needed whenever you assemble or experiment with electrical circuits. How to get the correct coil is another matter, but now much easier, thanks to this great design from Dave Gingery, which you can make quite simply. It will produce most types of coil,including “honeycomb” ones, simply and accurately. Interesting project, which delivers the results. All drawings, plus some assembly illustrations. Softbound. Published by the author. Add to shopping basket

Solenoids, Electromagnets and Electromagnetic Windings 1921 • £ 12.85 • (E) Creating an electromagnet is quite easy, as Faraday discovered, but creating one that generates a field of needed intensity, drawing minimal amperage at available voltage without over-heating isn’t so simple. Few people know how it is done, but this book shows the secrets of creating working electromagnets. It is a practical book; the maths, the charts and the information are all just right. Since 1921 better insulation and higher-permeability iron have become available, but Amps and Oersteds are the same. 342 page well illustrated paperback. Lindsay Publications Add to shopping basket

Design, Construction & Operating Principles of Electromagnets for attracting Copper, Aluminium & other Non-Ferrous Metals 1951 • Crow • £ 8.10 • (G) Heck of a title, but this is an interesting book showing how to do exactly what it says - design and build an electro-magnet which will attract non-ferrous metals. The electrics are beyond me, even at a second and third glance, but I have no doubt an experienced “sparks” could make them all work. 38 pages, illustrated with photos, wiring diagrams etc. Paperback. Ben Fleming Add to shopping basket

Dynamos and Electric Motors - How to Make and Run Them 1901 • Hasluck • £ 7.85 • (F) Electricity was cutting edge technology when this book was written, but motors and dynamos were expensive, so this Paul Hasluck book must have been a best-seller in its day. You get chapters on the various types and then a whole series of motors and dynamos you can build, mostly, but not all, small. Essentially the technicalities haven’t changed much over 100 years, so this is a good place to start if you fancy building your own motor or dynamo. 160 pages, well illustrated with drawings, diagrams & etchings. Paperback. Lindsay Publications. Add to shopping basket

Ignition Equipment 1948 • Westbury • £ 12.50 • (E) Looks at the history and development of ignition equipment, then in detail at spark generators and the various types of magnetos. Also includes a useful chapter on working principles and an appendix with assorted other useful info. 192 page smaller format paperback, illustrated with photos and drawings. TEE. Add to shopping basket

How to Build a Magneto Magnetizer Gingery • £ 6.65 • (G) Here Dave Gingery describes how to build a machine to revitalise magnets from magnetos, or within limits, anything else, and how to create new magnets. The limitation is that this design is not really adequate for charging ALNICO magnets found in modern equipment. As usual with Dave, all you need to know is here! 36 illustrated pages. Large format softcover. Published by the Author. Add to shopping basket

Armature Winding and Motor Repair 1920 • Braymer • £ 16.25 • (B) Big, 515 page, book covering all sizes from industrial to automobile. My electrical knowledge doesn’t really come to this level, but I suspect that most of the information is valid today, and that this will be a useful book to add to your library. Well illustrated paperback. Lindsay Publications. Add to shopping basket

Generator Secrets 1935 • £ 4.50 • (H) We had this a while ago, when it was called by its original title - Autopower, and it is good. Here you get secrets from the 1930's about taking a generator and converting it into a 110 volt AC alternator that could power a farm or home; the opening chapters give detailed instructions for rewinding a Ford Model A, Model T, and Dodge Type G generators. Later chapters talk about the general principles that can be applied to almost any generator. That's where the real value of this small book lies. It is not applicable to modern alternators. You must start with an old generator and go from there. Obviously, you won't use a Ford Model A or T or even an early Dodge. You'll use what you can find. And generators are still available at scrap yards on old vehicles, even on eBay at reasonable cost. Useful information. 56 page, well illustrated paperback. Lindsay Publications Add to shopping basket

LeJay Manual 1945 • £ 7.35 • (G) Great BARGAIN book of 50 “designs” showing uses for car dynamos and batteries. Make spot welders, electric fences, electric scooters, bench drills, wind generators etc. Whilst the electrical parts of the design are specific, the rest is conceptual, and you will have to use your imagination. Useful and FUN! 45 pages. Softbound. Lindsay Publications Add to shopping basket

Homemade Lightning Ford • £ 18.99 • (C) Great mixture of scientific history, electronics theory, and practical projects covering some of the great electrostatic discoveries of the last 150 years. Build Wimshurst machines, Leyden jar condensers, and an electrophorus. Great book. Lots of information and lots of FUN! 198 large format paperback. TAB Books. Add to shopping basket

Magnetic Amplifiers 1951 • U.S. Navy • ed. Trinkaus • £ 6.50 • (H) Like George Trinkaus who has edited and re-set this little book, I always thought the world went from the vacuum tube to the transistor and that was that. But in between was a rugged little thing called a magnetic amplifier, which still has potential today. Read all about “another lost technology” in this illustrated 20 page brochure, published by George Trinkaus. Add to shopping basket

Tesla Coil Trinkaus • £ 6.50 • (H) Good basic introduction to the subject of Tesla and building Tesla Coils. Includes instructions for building a good sized coil using a neon transformer and a spark gap to drive the primary. The detail is not great, but is probably adequate. Also includes discussions on most aspects and techniques of coil building. 21 page illustrated booklet, published by the author. Add to shopping basket

The Ultimate Tesla Coil Design and Construction Guide Tilbury • £18.99 • (B) Really the title tells you all you need to know about this book - it takes you into the state of the art of Tesla Coil designing and making. But - it is highly technical, so if you are afraid of the simplest maths, or too lazy to work out your bank balance, this ain't for you. This is practical electrical engineering applied to Tesla Coils, and you need to be computer literate and understand terms such as skin effect, non-uniform electric fields, thermal rise from ambient and so on to get the best from this book. If you aren't, potentially you can still learn a lot, but you are going to have to stretch those old brain cells a lot. This is complicated and technical, but all the information you dreamt of about Tesla Coils appears to be in its pages. 413 page paperback, full of graphs, diagrams and some drawings. McGraw-Hill Add to shopping basket

Son of Tesla Coil Trinkaus • £ 6.50 • (H) This booklet looks at two questions: can Tesla Coils do real work? Can they power an alternative fluorescent lighting? In other words can they be of any real use. Leading to the possible answer are a lot of useful ideas for the Tesla buff - close coupling, precise pulsing, solid-state pulse generator and a load of others. Great ideas booklet! 28 illustrated pages. Published by the author. Add to shopping basket

Tesla: the Lost Inventions Trinkaus • £ 6.50 • (H) Tesla's later inventions, patented between 1890 and 1921, have never really been utilised as he intended, despite their seemingly obvious potential. A whole host of these are discussed here, often in frustratingly short chapters, including the disk-turbine rotary engine, the tesla-coil electric energy magnifier, high-frequency lighting systems, the magnifying transmitter and the free-energy receiver. All in a 34 page booklet with 42 illustrations. Published by the author. Add to shopping basket

Secrets of Lead Acid Batteries Lindsay • £ 4.85 • (H) New, updated and up-rated (ha! ha!) book, detailing how batteries are rated, built, the different types of charging, how they discharge, and why they fail, how to quick charge, equalise cells, rejuvenate a sick battery, test them and some applications. Much more than basic information, but without heavy mathematics and chemistry, and a cheap way to save yourself trouble when the car won’t start! 48 page softcover. Lindsay Publications Add to shopping basket

Gordon McComb’s Gadgeteer’s Goldmine £ 15.99 • (B) “55 Space Age Projects”, including a Plasma sphere generator, a Tesla coil, Kirlian camera, Van de Graaf generator, He-Ne laser pistol(?), Seismograph, Scooterbot, computer interface etc, etc etc. Great for the experimenter! 406 page paperback, full of drawings, plans, circuit diagrams and photographs. McGraw Hill Add to shopping basket