Online Catalogue last updated 15th of September 2008
This book has been compiled from various sources, and shows you how you can make powerful permanent magnets.
The first natural magnets, lodestones, came from Magnesia, and, being rare and exotic, were extremely expensive. Before long experimenters found ways to use a lodestone to create "artificial" magnets of steel.
Several hundred years ago, steel was itself a rare, expensive metal but it was far easier to acquire than a natural magnet. By the early 1800's very strong magnets capable of lifting a thousand pounds were being fabricated by single-touch and double-touch methods together with compounding using soft-iron pole pieces.
Here you get a collection of chapters, articles, bits and pieces from early physics texts and Machinery magazine and a complete reproduction of a 1919 booklet on permanent magnets published by the Esterline Co. In addition you get additional explanation of magnetism terms, other books you may want to acquire, and additional terms you'll need to understand if you are to become a sophisticated magnet experimenter.
Two articles describe how magnetos were mass-produced by the Remy company for the exploding auto industry in 1910. Then a series of articles from Machinery magazine explores the manufacture of permanent magnets from carbon steel, the recharging of magnets, hardening, and experiments with different steels. Then you get chapters on magnets, their fabrication and use, from science texts written by Silliman and another by Frick. You also get select pages from "First Steps in Magnetism", along with the 31 page Esterline booklet.
Yes, you can make powerful permanent magnets. No, they're not going to be as efficient as modern samarium or neodymium magnets, or even the classic alnico types. But revealed are precisely the techniques used to create the powerful magnetic magazine used by Michael Faraday to invent his disc generator that so intrigues the perpetual motion and free energy crowd.
Code No. 010759, 120 pages, $25.00