Saturday, November 28, 2015

The Boys' Book of Submarines

A. Frederick Collins and Virgil D. Collins - The Boys' Book of Submarines (1917)

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A look at submarines for early 20th century boys, back when nobody thought twice about giving them instructions on building a model sub that involved sawing, extensive soldering and creating an electrical motor.  The bulk of the book, though, focuses on how actual subs operate from ballast to torpedoes to signalling methods to combat tactics.

Archie Frederick Collins (1869-1952) was an electrical engineer and prolific author on popular science topics, especially radio.  Titles include The Radio Amateur's Handbook (1922) and Experimental Television (1932).  He was jailed for mail fraud and wrote The Boys' Book of Submarines with his son Virgil Dewey shortly after release.