original photo: Compressed Air Haulage, 2nd ed, p 29 Select your discs.

   
 
 
 
 
 

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      Air Car Hall of Fame Compressed Air Power Secrets Contributions    

 

copyright © 2011 Scott Robertson

 

 

PNEUMATIC OPTIONS RESEARCH LIBRARY 2011 CATALOG

Compressed Air Textbooks

Contents

 

Compressed Air Haulage, 1st edition, by the H. K. Porter Company, Builders of Light Locomotives, Steam & Compressed Air.  This trade catalog from the early years of the 20th century is extremely rare and was very hard to find.  Many thanks to the librarian who stepped forward with a photocopy for us to distribute--probably the only copy we will ever see.  This is the only air car catalog that has ever been published.  Porter's air locomotives were used mainly in coal mines in the Eastern U.S.  Technical details and information on the advantages of compressed air.  Also: I've added a handwritten essay from a rare books library entitled "A Comparison of Compressed Air and Electricity as Motive Powers for Mine Haulage," by W. F. Roberts, 1902.  This is a real collector's item.

Item #52-05

 

Compressed Air Haulage, 2nd edition, by the H. K. Porter Company, Builders of Light Locomotives, Steam & Compressed Air.  This edition covers the two-stage engines based on the patents of Charles W. Hodges, which increased their range by absorbing ambient heat from the air surrounding the engine--that's free fuel.  This trade catalog from the early years of the 20th century is extremely rare and was very hard to find.  Many thanks to the great humanitarian who slaved over a hot scanner to make this full-color facsimile edition available to the world.  This is the only air car catalog that has ever been published.  Porter's air locomotives were used mainly in coal mines in the Eastern U.S. but this design was taken to Europe where a few thousand air powered locomotives were being used until World War II apparently destroyed most of them. Technical details and information on the advantages of compressed air.  This is a real collector's item.  A few pages are missing.

Item #53-07

 

 

Street Railway Motors, by General Herman Haupt, C.E.  We are proud to present this rare book to the public for the first time since it was published in 1893.  Haupt was the General in charge of the railroads for the Union army during the civil war, and he was the first full-time air car advocate.  He was instrumental in all the air trolley projects that were tested on the streets of New York City.  This book compares the relative advantages of air cars to steam, electric, and others.  Little-known properties of compressed air are exposed for consideration like they haven't been done before or since.

Item #51-05

 

 

Compressed Air, by Theodore Simons.  From the introduction: “The author’s chief aim was to provide the student, who is interested in...compressors and air engines, with a background of understanding that will enable him...to make independent research into the seemingly unlimited possibilities of compressed air.  The territory still unexplored is vast and full of promises to the intrepid explorer...the author has endeavored to bring the work well within the comprehension of the average technical student...”  This book provides detailed mathematical proof that all compression work is lost as heat.

Item #21-95

 

Compressed Air, by Gardner Denver Hiscox.  The biggest compressed air textbook ever, written from the viewpoint of an air engine man and thermodynamicist.

Item #22-95

 

A Practical Treatise on Compressed Air and Pneumatic Machinery, by Edward A. Rix and  A. E. Chodzko.  Rix obtained many patents on compressed air equipment and founded a company that still makes high-tech pneumatic machinery.  He has been known to add the title “He of the Compressed Wind” to his signature, and designed pneumatic locomotives that were once used at the Empire Gold Mine in Grass Valley, California.  The sections on air engines and the theory of compression, expansion and internal (intrinsic) energy are detailed and understandable.  Charts not found in other books give data for air consumption, power output, and temperature changes of single- and two-stage air engines with various cut-off ratios.

Item #26-95

 

 

Compressed Air Plant, by Robert Peele.  Peele was a mining engineer, and it was in coal mining that the compressed air locomotive excelled commercially till World War II.  This was the last textbook ever published that mentioned compressed air locomotives and offered instruction in the design of efficient air engines.  This book came out during the compound air engine boom when it looked like compressed air could turn into a gentle giant and quietly provide us all with a cheap, clean form of energy storage for moving vehicles.

Item #23-95

 

 

Compressed Air Practice, by Frank Richards.  I have a copy of this book that the author had autographed and presented to W. R. Grace, a big industrialist of the olden days, whose company was featured in John Travolta’s movie A Civil Action.  The book cost me a lot, and I didn’t even know who Grace was at the time, but it was the only copy I could find.  A few weeks after I bought it, I found the same book in a store for $10.  I bought it too.

Item #33-98

 

Air Compression and Transmission, by H. J. Thorkelson.  Contains a description of rotary lobe (Roots) blowers, which are rotary piston compressors as called for in the Leibow patent.  Roots blowers have no rubbing parts, so they’re the most efficient way to positively displace air with a solid wall of force; though they can’t produce more than 10-15 psi, they move very large quantities of air in a completely different way than other devices that move a lot of air fast, and at a lower energy cost than conventional piston compressors.

Item #24-95

 

 

Compressed Air, by Elmo G. Harris.  From the introduction: “It is the author’s opinion that prerequisite to a successful study of compressed air is a thorough training in mathematics, including calculus, and the mathematical sciences, such as physics, mechanics, hydraulics and thermodynamics.  Therefore no attempt has been made to adapt this volume to the use of the self-made mechanic... Many phases of the subject are elusive and difficult to see clearly even by the thoroughly trained; and serious blunders are liable to occur when an installation is designed by one not well versed in the technicalities of the subject...the author has prepared this volume for college-bred men, believing that such only, and only the best of such, should be entrusted with the designing of compressed-air installations...”

Item #25-95

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copyright © 2011 Scott Robertson