Dynamos, Motors, Alternators, and Rotary Converters ... with 200 illustrations

London: Biggs and Co, 1902. Cloth. Good. [8], 503, [1-blank], iii, [5-ads] pages. 8vo. Publisher's original maroon cloth with gilt titles. "D. Van Nostrand Company, New York" ink stamped below the London imprint at base of title page (probably the American distributor). A withdrawn ex-library example with cracked hinges (still sound), bookplate, rear pocket, and embossed stamp on the title page and scattered throughout the text. Boards slightly bowed, a touch of waving to a few front pages from damp. A decent working copy. Cloth. This 1902 edition (dated in the preface) was translated from the third German edition by Harold H. Simmons, A.M.I.E.E. It updates Gisbert's more common 1893 work "Dynamos, Alternators and Transformers." Simmons notes the content of this edition has been revised and much enlarged by the author, and "all references to stationary transformers were removed because of a separate work by the author". It adds a "more thorough treatment of sparking in direct-current machines, of magnetic leakage, of direct--current armature windings, and of the excitation and compounding of such machines." It is focused on technical readers, "and contains practical suggestions of great value, enabling the problems which present themselves in the design of machines to be dealt with with all the accuracy needed in practice." (from the preface)

In an apparent nod to the earlier work,all copies we've seen including this one still read "Dynamos, Alternators and Transformers" in gilt on the binding.

"Gisbert Johann Eduard Kapp (2 September 1852, Mauer, Vienna - 10 August 1922, Birmingham) was an Austrian-English electrical engineer. His parents were an Austrian counselor Gisbert Kapp and Luisa Kapp-Young. After finishing his studies in Austria, Kapp moved to England where he was naturalized in 1881. He was awarded a Telford Medal in 1885/6. In 1904 he was offered the position as the first Chair of Electrical Engineering at the University of Birmingham, a post he held until 1919.In 1909 he was elected the president of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. Kapp developed the basis for the calculation and construction of alternating current, dynamos and the transformer. The Electronic, Electrical & Systems Engineering Department at the University of Birmingham is situated in a building named after him." (Wikipedia)

A scarce work, with only a few physical copies in institutional collections and rarely seen in the trade. Gisbert's 1893 work is far more common.