Engineering Books

"Technology of the Gods" documents many examples of ancient technologies including sophisticated use of optics, magnetism, and electricity.

What I found even more interesting was a special section of some of Tesla's research into similar avenues of research.

It could have used a few more references or explanation of sources, but all in all a very enjoyable introduction into OOPARTS.

The topics are covered in a Ripley's Believe It Or Not Breathless Rush that leaves the reader wondering where it all will lead. Because there is no index, you will find it difficult to go back and find the inscrutible passages. Because there are virtually no margins (1/4 inch instead of a standard 1 inch) there is no place to write notes or even put stickums without affecting the text. The lines are closely leaded (too close together for comfortable reading) perhaps to save paper or cut costs, but regardless, a less-than-comfortable reading experience. Numerous anecdotes and examples are repeated, as if nobody bothered to edit the text, but rather just wrote it down from a transcribed tape or video. The lack of attention to these basics of book-reader's expectations makes you wonder about the validity of the contents. Good info, but bad format.

I feel this is a great starter book to get a person going in the alternative history/ancient technology direction.
I have personally given away several of these books to good friends.
If nothing else it's a great read.
Buy this book and begin the adventure.

For those not researching much of what is written in Technology of the Gods, the stories would appear to be so fascinatingly convincing and wild and, for the most part, they are! However, if one were to REALLY do a little research and see how much of what Childress write is actually TRUE, they would find that much (and I would say, most) of it is just plain science fiction. Period. As I read Technology of the Gods, wanted badly to verify the accuracy of what Childress claimed, because as it turned out, the book made ever more outrageous claims as you get deeper and deeper into the book.

I wouldn't know where to start with a review, but a few facts stand out. For one, Childress quotes very extensively (and almost to the point of making his own analysis mute) several authors, such as Andrew Tomas, who have been known to write falsities themselves. Tomas is a good example. Most of what Tomas writes about cannot be tracked down mostly because he never left any sources for his outrageous claims. The "Vedic UFO's" from which Childress gets most of his ancient Indian Vimana ideas from (including illustrations of them) were inspired by a book, Vaimanika Shastra, that was claimed to have been "channeled" by the transcribed author, Pandit Subbaraya Shastry. Childress performs these same erroncies in which claims cannot be traced, verified, or researched. This is not science...this is pseudoscience. Or better yet: science fiction. This is a type of religion, in which you must simply believe what is said and leave it at that.

Another problem I found with Technology of the Gods is that there were half-truths (in which the whole explanation or alternative, and more realistic, answer seems to be ignored and not written about) or there were outright lies associated with many of Childress' claims. Quick examples:

-the Mitchell-Hedges crystal skull: was actually bought at an auction by Mitchell himself...not found at an archeological dig, as he claimed. But this explanation is never written about by Childress,

-the "metallic vessel" from Dorchester, MA was found near a mine in loose rubble, not, as Childress claims, "blown out of solid rock",

-the Coso Artifact, was found inside of a ball of hard clay, not, as Childress claims, a geode. Also, the object was found, under intense investigation, to be identical to a, then current, 1920's Champion spark plug, probably from mining equipment of the area. Of course none of this is ever mentioned or written about by Childress,

-the Iron Pillar of Delhi: not rusted due, possibly, to the high content of phosphorus film on its surface from the manufacture of it and also to its thickness. (None mentioned in Technology of the Gods),

and many more! In short, a book would need to be written that described the many inaccuracies and missleading information contained in Technology of the Gods. The book makes for some great science fiction, but not knowing anything about the subject matters written about and not researching any of the claims made by the author will lead one into believing a false religion.

I clearly expected a more reliable, truly scientific book. Don't shoot the messenger, this is yellow press at its "best". You expect to read about "ancient computers" and find out meant is Stonehenge, only because astronomy can be predicted with it... The "best-selling" (as in sell the headline best) author - and yes, he's a journalist - hardly leaves anything out, which makes a fine sensation: flying carpets, Perseus' invisible making helmet, manbird Garuda's space travel to the Pole Star 58 lights years away, Icarus flying to close to the sun, King Solomon traveling in aircrafts, an ancient H-bomb knocking out the power plant in a pyramid (still standing).... you name it, and David Hatcher Childress will tell you, it's all true.

His proof is usually a bit lacking. Either in the tune of: "I once saw a levitating lama"; via free spaces in ancient cities around the world without further circumstantial hints have to be nothing else, but landing grounds for air and space ships; to the causal relationship string of thought that the A-bomb on Hiroshima caused some sand to turn crystally salty, the SIMILAR LOOKING salty area around the Dead Sea must have been caused by the ancient nuking of Sodom and Gomorrha, which turned organic material (Lot's wife) into the very same salt, too (but her family could escape the blast, I presume...). His credo by his very own (quoted) words: "The absence of proof is no proof of the proof's absence." Oh, I forgot: The usual unusual item to have been found by private citizens have been lost by now (Including the biggest megaliths ever known, which couldn't get transported by modern means!) or the owners refuse any examination... He's not shying away to present pictures supporting his theory, captioning them with the small print "POSSIBLE secret chambers beneath the Sphinx" (highlight by myself). Mentioning the pictures: Most of them are depicted twice or even four times without any apparent reason, which remains one of the biggest mysteries in this book.

In principle I know that "the ancients" had been MUCH more sophisticated than presented and/or believed by orthodox "science". This book simply is not the way to present that knowledge, for hardly any real knowledge gets included. The author himself terms it "speculation" once in a while. Some curious phenomena are merely mentioned in a sentence, a paragraph or a sub chapter of 2 or 3 pages. The only somewhat in depth analysis by comparison is a lengthy some 30 page quote from a another book, The Giza Power Plant : Technologies of Ancient Egypt, which at least offers a cohesive theory to work with. Some true discoveries, such as the very real antikythera mechanism device found in an ancient Greek ship wreck, are intermingled with fantasy. Also the ancient Egyptian source for the word "soap" is revealed, which is nice. However, most unsolved mysteries are hilariously distorted by wild fiction fevers. The thing with speculation is: Nearly always, it will lead to the realization later that it was a very funny imagination, even should the direction of thought have been somewhat based on reality. For that, in depth science has to get applied, usually over many years to come to worthy conclusions, usually not expected from the start. The author, however, doesn't engage in science. He merely compiles sensationalist stories, concocted for the Atlantis and UFO philes. He is actually doing a mighty disservice to progressive/alternative science.

Take the title page as an example. The Egyptians depicted are supposed to hold light bulbs. The cover image has been distorted, within the book it becomes clear that these light bulbs are human sized. Why that huge? The symbolic Djed-pillars they are resting on are supposed to be electric generators (yet holding the GLASS then, according to this interpretation on the back cover, i.e. no metal necessary for the electricity to flow). It is a bit bold to interpret ancient temple wall paintings and hyroglyphs of what they remind of in the modern world. It would be even bold to interpret the really depicted things literally. To me, this looks like serpents in a container or symbolic flower, but I wouldn't dare to aver this impression as such. The author doesn't provide ANY context of that image. His knowledge about Egypt seems to be very limited anyway, as he terms the GODDESS Isis/Aset a priestess. She and other facets of the goddess(es) are supposed to wear very real electric light or crystal lenses on their heads. Now we know the reason for the distortion into a real life priestess, killing all the symbolism. In that row of "priestesses" depicted one has a lioness' head. He doesn't refer to how he blinds THAT literally...

Usually the book is about phenomena AS OF YET unexplained (= in 2000 when the book was published originally). Occasionally, it DEFIES any existing scientific knowledge. For example he avers the Mediterranean would have been a dry valley with some lakes, inhabited by an ancient ancient civilization he calls Osirian. (Even though the reference to the mythical first ruler of pre-dynastic Egypt having turned into a god tells the diametrically opposed story of Egypt coming OUT of the water - the growing Nile Delta). I call the Mediterranean a lake myself, yet, tectonics teach that it used to be an OCEAN getting closed. Unorthodox views describe that process a bit variated, yet, it never has been a dry valley, even though the sea level (all over the world) was a bit lower at times.

The author also falls for historic legends (i.e. errors): One example would be the supposed burning of the library in Alexandria by Muslim conquerors. In reality, the re-built library had been re-burned the last time seven centuries before their arrival - by Christian fanatics. (The first time by Julius Caesar as punishment for not submitting quickly enough.) The poisoning of Alexander the Great is controversial at best. And Archimedes constructed a lot of (wooden) machines with which to destroy ships, yet no giant lenses were used to burn any fleet. None of the contemporary historians discribing his gadgets report such lenses, but many centuries later, this myth came to life. Hence it is funny reading this book averring (relatively) sophisticated technology involuntarily based on basically a fairy tale, exposing the very carelessness of the author's approach to scientific findings.

So why did I give any stars at all? Actually, I give 2.5 not 3. One star is obligatory. Half a star is for the principle of challenging orthodox believes, suggesting the ancients didn't know anything. An additional star is for providing information to be looked up independently with more trustworthy sources. For example I had never heard about the Iron Pillar of Delhi, which mysteriously has remained rost free and is some 97% pure iron, which is difficult or should be impossible to produce in these quantities. Two years after the publishing of the book, that mystery seems to have been solved: The ancient melting process of producing iron had been fundamentally different, leaving MUCH more phosphor in the product. That in turn caused a very thin, but very effective protective film to develop on the surface. So: Yes, we didn't know and the product is superior to modern corrosion stricken iron, yet the wild speculation in this book has proven to be just that. I am glad to have been introduced to the (lack of) knowledge about vitrified forts and Libyan Desert Glass (in Egypt), which obviously formed while exposing rock/sand to enormous heat. More theories exist than described in the book, which avers nuclear warfare, because no vulcanic or meteor crater has been found. Yet, as inconsistent as the book gets, existing craters elsewhere are supposed to be caused by nuclear bombs... By the way, the sinking of ships and planes in the Bermuda Triangle has been solved in the meanwhile as well. Gases breaking through the ocean floor temporarily cause such vessels not be supported any more by the transformed water and air. The referenced example of a squadron disappearing has been reconstructed by now as an error of judgement by the leading pilot flying in the wrong direction, though.

I have to close. If you are interested in REAL, in-depth and as of today judged unorthodox science revealing ancient ancient technology, forget this book and read instead the 1966 Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings: Evidence of Advanced Civilization in the Ice Age and the 2004 Civilization One: The World Is Not as You Thought It Was. Then you WON'T have to wonder wether in 2,000 years someone interprets Star Trek and Harry Potter as the real state of technology of today...

If you are planning to restore an old wooden boat this book is a must have.
Well written, large font and good content.

This is based on the older published version but with updated material like newer ignition and emission regulation. This book has more colored pictures than the previous edition.
I generally like the previous edition more because it was what I learned with. There is less color and it goes straight to the point. I have only skimmed through this book. Other than that, its a good book to learn about automotive technology.
If you really want to learn, go through each chapter throughly and do the review and questions. (and of course, do hands on)

The best book I ever read, very informative except that the author decided to delete the topic regarding the carburators in this edition. I think they should retain it as part of yesterday, today and future technology to aid new technician in case they ask to repair carburator a lot of car using carburator still running in our street specially in my country Philippines. The rest of the book are awesome!! great!!!!

This book is so complete and exhaustive that it could be called the Automotive technology Bible! But remember, this book is for the serious reader, not for the occasional reader! Buy this if you are serious about the subject.

I am glad that my money got its worth. Excellent book. Never makes you feel "LOST".It covers almost everything related to an automobile. Strongly recommeneded for everyone looking for saving time and money in automotive book search.

I've used this book for my Auto Tech classes and it is the most comprehensive auto tech manual out there. Very informative and highly detailed. Get the accompanying Tech Manual for hands on lessons and projects. No dissapointments!

Easy to use in wiring a boat or any 12 volt DC wiring. All the things you will need to know to safely wire any 12 volt system

This book is useless. It has no helpful information on how to wire up any 12 volt device. All this book does is explain the different parts of an electrical system and nothing else besides that. If your looking for a book that at least has wiring diagrams for 12 volt systems then I would suggest that look for a better book.

Very good basic guide for 12-volt systems. I'm not an expert and needed a little help doing some wiring on our cruiser. This fits the bill.

Good as advertised - a basic book. Turned out it wasn't really what I was looking for. As another reviewer wrote, if you already know how to use a multi-meter it's probably too basic.
Well done for its advertised purpose.

Even if you've never worked with electricity, but now need to because you have a boat, "The 12-Volt Bible for Boats" is a great introduction that covers more than just the basics. The early part of the book covers all of the beginner introduction to batteries and electricity. It also explains the differences between 12-Volt car systems and boat systems. This book helps you determine what gauge wire you need for what current demand of your new piece of equipment and length of the wire run. The later chapters cover specifics of how to hook up particular equipment such as solar panels and wind generators. The final section covers test equipment you can build yourself. This book is definitely worth the price.

Received shipment very promptly. The book is very thorough, though in my case I think assumes I know a bit more about diesel mechanics, especially the hardware involved, than I do. Some of the illustrations are too small for all of the minute detail or process diagramming they attempt to convey.

I Love this book. If you have trouble putting just the right colors together, this book will show you how subtle changes in shades within a color can make a difference, as well as how to put together whole color schemes. If you know what you like, but don't know how to "get there" this book will give you lots of ideas to experiment with before you even paint your first coat of color. It also made me think about combinations I wouldn't have put together on my own. I definitely recommend this book.

I love this book it is a great help for color coordination both inside the house and outside. It it is worth every penny I payed for it. I would highly recommend it to anyone, both amateur and professional decorators. It really helped me out, I can't say enough good things about it but to say I think is a great book.

Clothes may not make the man, but color sure makes the room, doesn't it?
If you respond intensely to color, as I do, but have no idea what turns you on or turns you off, this book is the handy guide you want (even the way it's bound, in a spiral, like every cookbook should be but isn't).
Amy Wax's book is indispensable for anyone choosing colors in decorating or, especially, as we used it for, to guide you through a major renovation. After all, you spend thousands to redo a room, so why not spring for 13 bucks (now at Amazon) to guide you through the crucial decisions on color? After all, isn't that what everyone comments on?

This book isn't what we expected. It was like a color chart you can pick up at the paint shop. It did not tell us what colors go well together, However there were pictures of rooms and they explained what were in the pictures. We were still confused about what to choose for our home. Eventually we looked at the nice pictures and ended up getting a paint chart at the paint shop and doing it the old way!

This book is an excellent resource for people who enjoy colors but are afraid to decorate their homes with color. Can't Fail Color Schemes is a great tool for amateur decorators, homeowners who don't want to make mistakes painting their homes and professional decorators who are looking for an update in their traditional color palets. This volume is easy to use, is chocked full of wonderful illustrative room settings and a "must-have" for anyone looking to transform their house into their home.

Good book, easy read and to follow. A good way to learn about the chemistry and the science of foods.

This book will teach you the chemical secrets of the techniques that usually are used in gastronomy, from the basic concepts to most complex. Knowing the scientific basis of the culinary processes, Peter Barham describes kitchen recipes in detail, of this way, will not fail any more.
This book also has some very interesting experiments to do at home, and that will offer help to understand of more practical way, the physical-chemistries concepts that try to explain.
If you are interested in cooking, and science doesn't bore to you, read this book!

A little to heavy on the science for my liking!...but there are some useful theories for beginners!

Ian

http://www.bragazzis.com

A review for science teachers:

Peter Barnam's The Science of Cooking (Springer, 2000) is a classic, much quoted in New Scientist and The Science of Christmas. After a general introduction at about a year 9 chemistry level it quickly moves on to Maillard reactions (which develop the flavours in cooked meat), the formation of insoluble gluten (from the proteins gliadin and glutenin) when flour is hydrated and kneaded, and the role of fats and oils in carrying aromatics (or emulsifying finely ground cocoa to make chocolate).

Most of all I enjoyed this book for the experiments it suggested (adaptable to inquiry learning). For example: How could you prove fructose is sweeter than glucose? Easy: Use a control, such as an artificial sweetener. But not all people will give the same interpretation when faced with the sugars. How can we show that they are detecting the control in a consistent way? And so on...Secondly, the text is punctuated with anecdotes about demonstration lectures on the Physics of the Black Forest Gateau or Soufflé Chemistry ...you can almost hear this born teacher, winner of the Institute of Physics Prize for Promoting the Public Awareness of Physics, script a unique lesson for your students.

This little recipe book promises a few mouthwatering improvements to my own kitchen alchemy, and comes highly recommended.

Pros: Scientifically informative and solid. Knowing the chemical and physical facts behind cooking methods applied to certain group of food would definitely help one to produce constantly good cooking result. And the text is very well written, _no_ part of this book is boring to read.

Cons: This book is focused on western cooking methods, many highly interesting cooking methods which are very popular, even dominating in East Asia are not even mentioned in this book. For example, there is a chapter for sauces but soup was hardly mentioned in this book, as if soup is not a kind of dishes. However the art/science of soup cooking is very important for many people. I, for one, really looked for information for soup cooking in this book but was disappointed. And, the author seems think any sauce has to be at least a bit thick (containing reasonable amount of starch). But this is not true in Asia countries. We have many kinds of really tasty sauces which are totally fluid, almost as light as water. These light sauces are not only tasty but also have really nice aroma, nice colours, contains very little energy and they attach onto the main food very well. In the fish chapter, he said salted/dried fishes are very difficult to regain the good texture and taste, and wrote up 2 pages about a Norwegian disaster of fish making. But in east China, people steam salted sea eels and the result is so, so delicious. He should really have tried it out himself. In this book, the science of vegetable cooking is not mentioned. Nevertheless I think vegetable cooking is very important and I really want to learn the science of vegetable cooking from the author, I like his writing so much! And, in this book all doughs are baked but there are many people (mostly from East Asia) who steam doughs and the results are excellent too. For beef steak cooking, many professional cooks saute/shallow fry every side of a 2-3cm thick steak first (every side one minute) and then put it into pre-heated oven for 5-7 minutes. This cooking method is not mentioned in this book and actually I did want to know the advantage of the post-fry oven handling of a beef steak.

I really hope there will be a second edition of this book. I seriously suggest the author travel to Hong Kong and try out reasonably many different kinds of food in non-western restaurants in Hong Kong. Especially the famous soups, all kinds of vegetable dishes and all kinds of steamed dough-based snacks....

I have had two years of c++ programming courses and I still find Predko's explanations of the c programming language to be confusing. I would never recommend this book for a beginner.
However, there are many high quality projects in this book. If you are confident with c/c++ programming and are up to the challenge of decyphering Predko's explanations, then you may like this book and will enjoy the projects.

If you gave this book 5 stars, you obviously did not try to actually put the writ into action. There are coding and code-grammatical errors through-out his book that make it very frustrating if not impossible to use. The compiler and language use listed is out-of-date, and is impossible to use unless you've had previous coding experience. It lacks clear and concurrent BOM's , and the website listed for support apparently no longer exists.
This book ,as noted earlier,by another reviewer- has references to another book, "evil genius robotics" - It would have been nice to know that before I bought this one - as the author decides not to recover *that* information, but defers to the other book!
If you want to learn PIC / Embedded programming - avoid this- as it will leave you only more frustrated than it will be of help.

Even though there are few if none at all projects for the "evil genius", this book contains a pretty good course to learn about the PIC microcontrollers and their programming. Everything explained is in clear and simple language, even familiar most of the time. I found the content of it very helpful and I developed my own projects with a different PIC MCU, modified the code with little pain and finally everything worked fine. Unfortunately I could program only in assembler because the C compiler "HI-TECH PICC LITE" suggested by the book is too complicated and giving me a hard time to make it work properly.

This book is out of date. The Microchip Controller Kit it refers to has changed. Microchip Corp. could care less if you are using Predko's book to learn and its tech support is worthless. The C compiler that comes with Microchip Kit is crippled and unusable. Big waste of time. I returned the PICkit1 to Microchip but I am stuck with this stupid book. I tried to email Predko but his email address is blocked. Frustration after frustration. Amazon should not be selling this time wasting outdated book. Send me your address and mailing cost and you can have this book for free. Does anyone out there know another co's microcontroller that comes with C language programming that works?

There are some useful projects in this book, but it's mostly a waste of money. Many of the "experiments" aren't experiments at all, but just pages of information you're supposed to read. About 1/3 of the book is devoted to entry-level C programming, and has nothing to do with the PIC microcontroller. In addition to the coding errors mentioned by others, the C-language instruction is being done by someone who knows little or nothing about C programming standards and proper programming style. Even the correct examples are "weird looking" to an experienced C programmer.

Definitely not worth the money.