Hawkins Electrical Guide v. 07

Hawkins, N. (Nehemiah), 1833-1928Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.9

Word count: 436K words
Chapters: 44

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Hawkins Electrical Guide v. 07 (of 10) by N. HawkinsAuthor: Hawkins, N. (Nehemiah), 1833-1928,Language: English, Class: TK: Technology: Electrical, Electronics and Nuclear engineering, Release Date: Jun 21, 2015

Editor's review

This volume is the seventh of ten in the Hawkins Electrical Guide and serves as a practical reference work on early electrical engineering. As a public-domain ebook, its value lies not in narrative fluency but in showing how electrical knowledge was organized and situated technically in the early twentieth century. Readers can see the period's framework for explaining circuits, equipment, and engineering practice, making it suitable as primary material for the history of technology and engineering education. Its strength is clear organization and a practice-oriented approach, with the distinct character of a period reference book. It need not be read straight through; it is better consulted by topic and compared with modern textbooks to understand how concepts and terminology have evolved. For readers studying early electrification, science communication, or old technical literature, it is a usable foundational text; general readers will need some electrical background and patience.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Electrical engineering or history of technology researchers who need early primary sources for comparison
Science communication and technical literature researchers interested in how old technical texts were organized
Engineering enthusiasts with an electrical background willing to consult old terminology and practices
Libraries and public-domain ebook collectors adding basic technical reference materials

Not a good fit for

Complete beginners, who will struggle with terminology and diagrams without basic electrical knowledge
Practitioners seeking modern electrical codes or the latest technical content
General readers hoping for a coherent narrative or literary reading experience

Reading tips

Skim the table of contents and index first, select chapters by topic, and skip reading in sequence
Prepare a terminology comparison table mapping old terms to modern electrical concepts
After each section, check the principles and safety points against a modern textbook
For research, record version information and chapter structure for citation and comparison

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this a complete textbook or one volume of a set?

It is the seventh of ten volumes in the Hawkins Electrical Guide, part of a larger set rather than a self-contained textbook. Readers should understand its place in the set and avoid treating one volume as the whole.

Can someone with no electrical background read this book?

Not very easily. The text addresses the engineering practice of its time, and its terminology and explanations are period-specific, without groundwork in basic concepts. Readers without electrical knowledge will struggle with terms and diagrams and should build fundamentals first.

Can the technical content still be used directly today?

It should not be copied directly. It reflects an early electrical engineering knowledge framework, and some practices and standards differ from modern codes. Use it as material for the history of technology or for conceptual comparison; practical applications should follow current standards and textbooks.

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About the author

Hawkins, N. (Nehemiah), 1833-1928 Author

Public information about the life and nationality of N. Hawkins (1833–1928) is limited. Eleven of his works are held in the collection, mainly in the practical technical fields of electrical engineering, machinery, and boiler operation. His representative work, the multi-volume Hawkins Electrical Guide, explains electrical principles, equipment, and wiring in a systematic and clearly organized way and was once widely read as an introductory technical text. Pumps and Hydraulics and Maxims and Instructions for the Boiler Room focus on pumps and hydraulic systems and on boiler-room operating practices; their direct language emphasizes practical application. These works date mainly from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and served engineers, technicians, and self-learners, reflecting the typical character of technical popularization writing of the period.