brainwagon

Today is the Ides of March, and as such, it seems appropriate to place a link to Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, and to remind everyone that all of Shakespeare’s works are in the public domain and available from Project Gutenberg. [tags]Julius Caesar,William Shakespeare,Ides of March[/tags] Addendum: Okay, here’s a slightly more personal story to […]

Want some cute animal pictures?  Try checking out this minor gem: Animal Children by Edith Brown Kirkwood from Project Gutenberg.   It’s got lots of really strange pictures that look like conventional animal pictures cut up and then clothing drawn around them.  Strange stuff, but oddly kind of fun too, might be fun for a kid’s […]

Well, “gem” is perhaps not the right term. Perhaps I should start a new category: Gutenberg Coal. I’ve been interested in (and have from time to time posted here about) the seemingly never ending conflict between science and creationism. I found this book to be an interesting glimpse 80 years into the past, to see […]

It’s been a while since I posted a link to a Gutenberg Gem, so here’s to help make up for lost time. This neat little book includes thirty-something nice watercolors of flowers that can be turned into useful clipart. I mucked around a little bit with the picture of the Siberian Iris, and came up […]

A seasonal Gutenberg Gem: A Visit From Saint Nicholas, by Clement C. Moore. Enjoy the classic with illustrations.

Earlier in life, I was quite a wargame fan: I had dozens of games by Avalon Hill, and even experimented a bit with miniature wargaming. I still have a few interesting old rulebooks for games, like Fletcher Pratt’s Naval Wargame. I recall reading back then that H.G. Wells had published a set of rules called […]

If you aspire to be an horologist, you don’t have to done fishnet stockings and hot pants, you merely need to study up on the design and manufacture of escapements. Luckily, there is a nifty illustrated book on the Project Gutenberg website that details some of what you’ll need to know: Watch and Clock Escapements, […]

Wow. Very cool to take this step back in time and see what young hackers in 1913 were doing. A lot of lame stuff, but some gems, like a line harmonograph, a “key card” for writing secret codes on post cards, handcutting gears and racks for models, a miniature “Pepper’s Ghost”, and a homemade water […]

The Haunted House, by Walter Hubbell begins amusingly with this introduction: The manifestations described in this story commenced one year ago. No person has yet been able to ascertain their cause. Scientific men from all parts of Canada and the United States have investigated them in vain. Some people think that electricity is the principal […]

Today’s Gutenberg Gem is a neat little astronomy book, published in 1873 by Richard A. Proctor. It lists a number of half hour tours of the sky, each highlighting either a set of constellations or planets. It’s pretty brief, and certainly better modern guides exist, but it’s still a neat little thing to peruse through, […]

A classic of puzzles (most of which I would call only marginally mathematical) Amusements In Mathematics, by Henry Ernest Dudeney. has been made available via Project Gutenberg. Lots of puzzles having to do with geometric dissection, board games, and a host of other topics. Very nice.

Need to brush up on your heraldry before donning your armor and traipsing off to the Rennaissance Fair? Try checking out Project Gutenberg’s illustrated version of The Manual of Heraldry; Fifth Edition, by Anonymous.

Okay, okay, it’s not really a gem, except in the sense that it’s interesting to read an early example of utter and complete mumbo jumbo. Occult Chemistry, by Annie Besant and Charles W. Leadbeater is an extensive, detailed, and complete description of chemistry as revealed to the authors through clairvoyance. Published in 1919, the exact […]

Today’s Gutenberg Gem is a detailed account of one of my favorite things in life: The Food of the Gods, by Brandon Head When one thinks of the marvellously nourishing and stimulating virtue of cocoa, and of the exquisite and irresistible dainties prepared from it, one cannot wonder that the great Linnæus should have named […]

A hacker’s project of old, perhaps as would have populated Make magazine had it existed in July of 1887: The Project Gutenberg eBook of Scientific American Supplement, July 9, 1887 HOW TO MAKE A STAR FINDER. Being all of wood, it is easily made by any one who can use a few tools, the only […]