Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Tinkering with Tools

What a great title for a book!


Copyright 1924 and 1942 by the Popular Science Publishing Co., Inc.

The author begins in his forward to the 1942 edition:

"This is not a book telling how to transform some object that is no longer wanted into some other object that has even less excuse for existence.  What it does attempt is to bring back something of the self-reliant craftsmanship of early America, when a man's chief pride and satisfaction lay in his ability to practice any of the common crafts.  To be ignorant of the use of tools, to be unable to work out for himself the varied problems about his own homestead, was an uncommon, even a shameful thing in those pioneer days. 
    "To know the joy of edged tools, to be able confidently to set one's hand to a mechanical task and leave it well done, to experience the quiet triumph of skilled craftsmanship--these things offer  a rock of refuge in our present whirlpool of manual incapacity." 

Below, other titles in the series, when America needed skilled workers.


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