... I recently read Rodney Peppe's "Automata and Mechanical Toys" and was so enthralled with the subject that I searched the Web and bought more books on the subject. I am an experienced craftsman, and wanted to build an automaton, so I collected some books on the subject.
Since the Cabaret Mechanical Theater is famous, I assumed that this book published by them would be definitive. Boy, was I wrong.
The subject is presented in an extremely elementary manner. Anyone who needs this level of handholding should not be allowed near power tools. The lack of detail is astounding.
For example, the chapter on shafts pointed out that if the hole is too small, the shaft will bind, and if it is too large, the shaft will wobble, so you've got to get it just right. Duh. Then it says nothing about how to do this, while other books talk about humidity changes, lateral grain expansion/contraction, the use of nylon bushings, et cetera.
I was really looking forward to the chapter on gears, since this is a difficult subject. Peppe's book didn't go much beyond templates and a rough discussion of meshing. Well, this book said "The design of gear teeth is a complex subject, beyond the scope of this book." AAAGH!!!
It was particularly frustrating that the numerous drawings of sample automata always had key parts of the movement obscured. There mght be a support post hiding things, or sometimes they were drawn from a perspective that put a huge gear in front, hiding everything else. Given the obvious skill of the artist, I can only conclude that this was a deliberate attempt to conceal details from the reader to prevent duplication. This is in sharp contrast to Peppe's book, which goes to great lengths to make sure that everything is presently clearly.
I was also annoyed at the huge waste of space on elementary cartoons at about a first-grade level. If the authors ever come out with a revised edition, I strongly suggest that they remove every one of the stupid, pointless cat cartoons that litter the pages, and fill the space with material that might actually be useful to the reader.
In summary, if this were the only book on the subject, I would reluctantly recommend it. However, given the fact that there are other books that present the same material in a vastly superior manner, I can find nothing whatsoever to recommend this book. ...
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