I recently had the fortune of stumbling upon
Lindsay Publications, and have had so much fun I can't help but share. I'm sure some of you know about them, but those of you that don't and like technical goodies are in for a ride.
Lindsay's Catalogue sums it up as "Exceptional technical books published for the enlightment of experimenters, inventors, tinkerers, mad scientists, "Thomas-Edison-types," and individuals of high energy and intellect.
Essentially, the republish old books on interesting things, in addition to publishing more recent how-to books by authors like
Dave Gingery.
Their website has a partial listing of the books they currently have in stock, but your best bet is to
order a free catalog. Not only are there hundreds of books to drool over, it makes great coffee table material. The catalog spans every genre with sections on machine tools, windmills, automobiles, engines, cooking, model making, radio, chemistry, black smithing, casting, electricity, and much more. The best part is these are mostly reprints from the first half of the 1900s, so when the articles or books were written, it was intended that people would try these things on their own, not just read about them.
I have several of their machining manuals (How to Run a Lathe, Machine Shop Projects, etc) on my shelf, and several more on the way (Electric Vehicles 1922, The Charcoal Foundry, Harper's Aircraft Book 1912, Motorcycles of 1899, Build a Two Cylinder Stirling Engine).