Book of Tables, Useful Information For Business Men, Mechanics And Engineers

This pocket-sized book, distributed by the firm of Jones and Laughlins of Pittsburgh, Pa., is particularly designed to assist customers of that manufacturer of “steel, iron, and nails, patent cold-rolled shafting, pulleys, hangers and couplings, &c.” The tables were compiled by mechanical engineer C. C. Briggs and, from 1898, revised by F. L. Garlinghouse. Surviving editions date from what may be the third edition of 1878 through the twentieth edition of 1942.

This volume is the eleventh edition, published in 1895. It includes some 487 pages of tables, listing such information for engineers as properties of various forms of iron and steel, material on the flow of water through pipes, formulae for the dimensions of small gears, information needed in the design of railroads, moments of inertia, bending moments and safe loads for beams, dimensions of columns, and strengths of bolts.

More mathematical tables deemed useful concern the circumference and area of circles of differing diameter; square, cubes, square roots, and cube roots of numbers; trigonometric functions; and the logarithms of trigonometric functions. More miscellaneous tables give rates of interest allowed in different states, interest tables, tables for conversions of weights and measures, the time in different places (neglecting the introduction of standard time), the amount of seed required to plant an acre of differing crops, and electoral votes cast in the presidential elections of 1884, 1888, and 1892.

The book of tables was received with a collection of drawing instruments. It is signed in ink inside the front cover: E. O. Hoffmann (/) 1573 - 30th St. N. W. (/) Washington, D. C. (/) 349 Carondelet St. (/) New Orleans, La. (/) U. S. Light House Service.

Currently not on view