China was the last bastion of the steam railway, with construction of new steam locomotives for industrial use continuing up to the end of 1999. Even now a few locomotives struggle on at collieries and other industrial premises, but this is likely to end very soon as boiler overhauls are almost impossible to obtain at an economical price. As the steam era was drawing to a close in China, steam enthusiasts visited the remaining operational locations in an increasingly desperate attempt to r...

Bricks are all around us, yet we seldom stop to look at them. There is an almost infinite range of bricks and, likewise, brick colours. Years ago every small district had its own brickworks to meet local demand, and larger businesses began to develop alongside better transport links that allowed them to supply regionally. Many of these local works left a record of their existence in the form of their name, pressed into the frog of the bricks they made – in some cases, the only sign that th...

Since 1973, Storey's Country Wisdom Bulletins have offered practical, hands-on instructions designed to help readers master dozens of country living skills quickly and easily. There are now more than 170 titles in this series, and their remarkable popularity reflects the common desire of country and city dwellers alike to cultivate personal independence in everyday life.

An in-depth look at the strategies employed in sustainable home design.

Thanks to the decreasing cost of prototyping, it's more feasible for professional makers and first-time entrepreneurs to launch a hardware startup. But exactly how do you go about it? This book provides the roadmap and best practices you need for turning a product idea into a full-fledged business.Written by three experts from the field, The Hardware Startup takes you from idea validation to launch, complete with practical strategies for funding, market research, branding,...

No other book covers CNC control setup in such practical detail. This unique reference from the author of the best-selling CNC Programming Handbook features nearly all of the activities a typical CNC operator performs on a daily basis. Starting with overall descriptions and in-depth explanations of various features, it goes much further and is sure to be a valuable resource for anyone involved in CNC.Describes working with all types of offsets for milling and turning applicat...

Briefing is not just presenting a set of documents to the design team; it is a process of developing a deep understanding about client needs. This book provides both inspiration to clients and a framework for practitioners. The coverage extends beyond new build, covering briefing for services and fit-outs. Written by an experienced and well-known team of authors, this new edition clearly explains how important the briefing process is to both the construction industry, in delivering well-de...

Tony covers the process of visualising and designing a house through to the practical side of lifting the living roof, infilling the walls. laying out rooms and adding renewable, autonomous technology. He offers advice on roofs, floors, walls, compost toilets, wood stoves, kitchens, windows and on planning permissions. There are photographs of the dwelling and illustrations from the construction plans for this, one of the UK's most unique homes. Includes updates which bring the building and p...

Practical techniques for optimizing compressor performanceWritten by experts with more than 100 combined years of industry experience in machinery failure avoidance, Compressors: How to Achieve High Reliability & Availability offers proven solutions to a pervasive and expensive problem in modern industry--compressor failure. This succinct, on-the-job guide addresses elusive causes of compressor failure and clearly maps out permanent remedies you can put to use right away...

Gripping forensic tales explain how and why trains crash.Trains are massive—with some weighing 15,000 tons or more. When these metal monsters collide or go off the rails, their destructive power becomes clear. In this book, George Bibel presents riveting tales of trains gone wrong, the detective work of finding out why, and the safety improvements that were born of tragedy.Train Wreck details numerous crashes, including 17 in which more than 200 pe...

A Handbook of Laboratory Glass-Blowing by Bernard D. Bolas.To cover the whole field of glass-blowing in a small handbook would be impossible. To attempt even a complete outline of the methods used in making commercial apparatus would involve more than could be undertaken without omitting the essential details of manipulation that a novice needs. I have, therefore, confined myself as far as possible to such work as will find practical application in the laboratory and will, I hope, ...

Drawing together case studies from all over Europe, this text explores the relationship between the overall idea of the landscape architecture for a site and the design of details.Examining concept sketches and design development drawings in relation to the details of the design, the book offers a more profound understanding of decision making through all stages of the design process.The book includes the study of the choice of materials and techniques of construction, and ...