"Radio Test Instruments" by Rufus P. Turner

[Opcom]

Found this great old book
"Radio Test Instruments" by Rufus P. Turner, 1945, with 2nd printing 1946.
This has a lot of great test instruments you can build. Pretty much all-Octal stuff for those who appreciate those. There are about 100 different instruments from ohmmeters to dc/ac/rf volt/other meters, generators, and even a couple of scopes.

    Hardcover
    Publisher: Ziff-Davis Publishing Co.; Second Printing edition (1946)
    Language: English
    ISBN-10: 1114654027
    ISBN-13: 978-1114654020

It smells great too!

There's one copy on amazon, and a free-to-read one online, but download is not made available.

read online:
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015023184446&view=1up&seq=1

Anyway it's worth a look. I'm having a great time reading it!

[Tom WA3KLR]

Interesting - never have seen this book.  I got a kick out of your comment "It smells great too!"

[Opcom]

I don't think it's mildew, more like a chemical odor, but odd unknown odors are all part of the 'old radio smell' thing.

Being in the public domain I wonder why the Hathi Trust there keeps the whole file back so people can't download a copy for personal offline use (except for their 'partners' which are apparently a group of institutions which can't be joined by Joe Random Public). - BTW I tried to download a page and got a blank. That was odd because it says it allows that much.

No way to pay for a download, looked into it. - that's what made me look for a hard copy, guess I was enamored of the knowledge. I'm sort of a book nerd.

I have no conspiracy theories; it's probably some simple reason that I overlook because I'm not in their shoes. 

Maybe someone working in that sort of profession / academia will know how it works, the possible reasons why the public domain historical or obsolete stuff seems to be restricted in trusts, .edu, and similar sites. Maybe the time's not right yet.

[Chuck SWL]

Rufus P Turner has quite a library of work:
https://www.amazon.com/Rufus-P.-Turner/e/B001HPORE2%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

There is a PDF of his Electronic Hobbyist Handbook and a treatise on Impedance availble:
https://www.americanradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Author-Groups/Rufus-Turner/Electronic-Hobbyists-Handbook-Rufus-Turner.pdf
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Author-Groups/Rufus-Turner/Impedance-Rufus-Turner.pdf&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwiS4IKAjL7qAhWsmuAKHYFQBosQFjACegQICRAB&usg=AOvVaw3K2WbSMJV557mXGlmCVU9q

[Tom WA3KLR]

Interesting biography (Thanks Chuck and Patrick.)

Rufus Paul Turner (December 25, 1907 – March 25, 1982)[1] was an academic, engineer, and author who published on semiconductor devices, technical writing style, and poet-novelist Charlotte Turner Smith. After three decades working with electronic devices – including developing the first practical transistor radio – he earned a doctorate in literature at age 52 and became an English professor.[1] He wrote over 40 books and 3000 articles during his six-decade career.[1]

Read the whole entry :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rufus_P._Turner

[Tom WA3KLR]

Some references say this is a landmark publication of his :

'Build a Transistor' article - Radio - Electronics magazine, May 1949, attached below.  Yes a transistor, not a transistor radio.

I saw another transistor radio schematic of his (CK703's) and it used a 45 Volt battery.  I thought it was a mistake but this article uses a 45 volt battery too!

And another article - https://hackaday.com/2016/02/15/do-you-know-rufus-turner/

[Opcom]

Quite a guy! Amazing work.

[AJ1G]

Boy that name sure rings a bell.  Probably from his writings in Popular Electronics, which I read the ink off the pages of, along with Electronics World, the 1964 ARRL Handbook, and the various other League publications in our Jr. High and High School libraries.

Interesting that he taught at my BSEE alma mater, URI.  Based on his bio on Wikipedia, that must have been early on in his career well before my time there.  Wonder what vocational school be taught at, maybe somewhere here in New England?

[Opcom]

I've been looking at his voltmeter schematics and impressed that he actually included linearity charts. These must have depended on the tube type called for. It's just nice that it gives a guy options. The thought of one tube making a quite linear hi-Z input voltmeter makes me excited about them.