Practical Mechanics for Boys

Levers, pulleys, gears, screws and the machines built from them, explained to boys with the arithmetic kept and the mathematics left out. Zerbe wrote a shelf of these practical books when a workbench was ordinary household equipment. The drawings carry the argument, and the exercises assume a reader who will actually build the thing. Thirty-nine plates after painters including Thomas Gainsborough and Thomas Eakins widen the book's world of work into harbours, fields and studies, showing the tasks and tools of an older workshop age.