enginehistory.org

[jwells]

I picked up a copy of an odd engine book from EBay recently. It is American, circa 1930, 7.5" X 5" with dark green hard cover on which is printed in gold, "Aviation Engines" and "J. C. Butler". Spine has no markings at all.
The book is 473 pages and has no title page and no contents page (or index).
The volume is made up of segments which appear to be learn-by-mail installments as the reader is invited to send in the answers to the end-of-chapter questions promptly.
Some pages have a copyright claim by the "International Textbook Co."
The book has 17 fold-out drawings/photos which are of outstanding quality. Never seen better.
Never seen a copy advertised for sale on the net.
Anybody know anything about the origins of this work?

[wallan]

Until 1969 they published compilations of ICS (International Correspondence Schools) courses. (ICS are still going today, and are based in Glasgow, Scotland) I have some segments of the course in the book you have, but they are very dirty. They are part of a distance learning package, sort of a trade version of the Open University. My next-door neighbour taught himself television repair in the 1960's using ICS. The Aviation Engines course has three volumes and most copies available on www.addall.com are for 1938 and are stamped ICS Staff.

[jwells]

Thanks for that, Bill.
I did a search on addall but nothing comes up either for title or author.

[wallan]

I put Aviation Engines into the Title search with ICS for a keyword and got this. Hope it helps.

http://used.addall.com/SuperRare/submitRare.cgi?author=&title=aviation+engines&keyword=ICS&isbn=&order=TITLE&ordering=ASC&dispCurr=USD&binding=Any+Binding&min=&max=&timeout=20&match=Y&store=Abebooks&store=AbebooksDE&store=AbebooksFR&store=AbebooksUK&store=Alibris&store=Amazon&store=AmazonCA&store=AmazonUK&store=AmazonDE&store=AmazonFR&store=Antiqbook&store=Biblio&store=Biblion&store=Bibliophile&store=Bibliopoly&store=Booksandcollectibles&store=Half&store=ILAB&store=LivreRareBook&store=Powells&store=Strandbooks&store=ZVAB

[jwells]

OK, finally got on to it though it doesn't say much for the Addall search engine if that's what it takes to find a book!
Looks as if, at some stage, the ITC decided to put the three volumes together as a single publication. Presumably J.C. Butler was the author or perhaps, editor.
It's a quaint little book, well worth having.