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[Phys-l] online texts via archive.org



[a similar message went out earlier, sent by mistake, with the
wrong Subject: line and unfinished contents]



There are getting to be a fair number of texts online.

The following returns 1000 hits:
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=physics+AND+mediatype:texts

The following returns 61 hits:
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=practical+physics+AND+mediatype:texts
which is how I found the Millikan & Gale book.

Many of the archived books are older, presumably because of copyright
issues. In many cases age reduces the value to near zero, but
-- there are a few newer things mixed in,
-- the older stuff appeals to history buffs, and
-- Sometimes you find timeless gems.

There is a sort-by-date option that theoretically would make the newer
items easy to find, but the index doesn't have reliable dates, so this
doesn't work very well.



BTW note that "practical physics" evidently means different things to
different people. There is a short "Practical Physics" book by Barton
& Black (1922) that covers what we would nowadays call "methods of
experimental physics"; it does not have much to do with the application
of physics to everyday situations. I'm not recommending Barton & Black;
the methods it describes are mostly quite out-of-date, so I reckon it
would appeal to history buffs only. It makes quite a contrast with
Millikan & Gale, which was published in the same year, but doesn't
seem nearly as out-of-date.