The Evolution of the Heat Engine [Spiral-bound]

Ivo Kolin (Author)

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 106 pages
• Publisher: Moriya Pr (April 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965245527
• ISBN-13: 978-0965245524
• Product Dimensions: 14 x 8.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,813,055 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thermodynamics for pleasure, May 8, 2000

By 

Roy Nicholls (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Evolution of the Heat Engine (Spiral-bound)

What could be drier than "The Evolution of the Heat Engine" (Thermodynamic Atlas 2, when it was first published)? Perhaps "Thermodynamics Atlas 1" by the same author. As it turns out both are completely engrossing and completely original. Atlas 1 does need a little grounding in classical thermodynamics for the reader (viewer?) to make progress but The Evolution of the Heat Engine tells a wonderful story to any inquisitive reader.

Both books exploit pictures, diagrams and graphs to the full - in Atlas 1 almost to the complete exclusion of text, in this volume the sparse text is used to complement the illustrations. These illustrations are not the empty, space filling bubbles and arrows from business guru texts, they are the meat of the work. They deliver real information and understanding, enormous amounts of it. More than that all the graphs, drawings and calculations are in Kolin's own hand, immaculately executed and composed. When you find yourself spending a long time on one page, it is not because it is difficult to understand, it is because there is so much to learn from it.

This book tells the story of one of the most important of man's self made artefacts, picking its way elegantly and informatively through the science needed to explain the behaviour (often anti-intuitive) of guns and rockets, steam engines and Sterling engines and many, many more, whilst giving a carefully distilled description of their mechanical manifestation. I know of no other book with which to compare it. (Wainwright's famous Guides to the English Lake District have a similar flavour, perhaps, but in a very different field.)

There cannot be many books about thermodynamics which can be read for pure pleasure, perhaps this is the only one.

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, October 12, 2011

By 

Justin Turner - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Evolution of the Heat Engine (Spiral-bound)

I'd like to start out by saying that I'm not an engineer. I bought this book more out of interest. This book has some very interesting designs of older heat engines, including the wests historical fascination with vacuum power rather than pressure power. The work is well illustrated and the engines are presented in an easy to understand fashion. Highly recommended for anyone with a technical bent.

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Heat Engine Book, January 27, 2008

By 

J. Macnaghten - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Evolution of the Heat Engine (Spiral-bound)

Probably the most comprehensive book on different heat engine designs that you can find. Very well researched and an invaluable reference for those that are interested in this field. The shape is awkward, but that is a small price to pay!