Re: Request for a recommendation.

On 10/5/2024 1:07 PM, William Hyde wrote:

Lynn McGuire wrote:

On 10/2/2024 1:46 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:

In article <vdk2tj$t76$1@panix2.panix.com>,
Scott Dorsey <kludge@panix.com> wrote:

William Hyde  <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:

>
I am looking for a book which will interest a 12 year old kid who is
fascinated by things mechanical.

>
A fiction book or nonfiction?
>
When I was... younger than 12, might have been about seven... I got my
father to buy me the Chilton's engine rebuilding annual.  I still have
it.  I spent months poring over it.
--scott

>
L. Sprague deCamp actually wrote a non-fiction book about engines.
>
Huh, it's actually called _Engines_:
>
    https://www.amazon.com/Engines-L-Sprague-Camp/dp/B0006BZMX8

>
That is a wild picture.  I can tell you from experience, working on a outboard engine in the middle of a lake or river is not fun when you drop whatever you were working on in the drink.  In my case, it was the propeller after we ran over a log and broke the prop key.  One should always have a spare prop and several keys on board.

 I had a similar experience but without the log (why it broke I do not know).
 It's amazing how long it takes to  move a 10 foot boat a mile with only one paddle.  If there had been any kind of current the other way I'd still be out there.
 I could have swum back faster.
 I never went out again without checking the spares, even if I absolutely knew they were there.
  William Hyde

We did a fifty mile fishing trip down the Missouri river in Montana with three 11 foot boats with double oars in the middle back in May over five days.  No motors.
There was a guide in the middle of each boat rowing.  Even going down river it was a struggle for him even with the two mile/hr current. Going up river was a serious effort for him if he was trying to save a fishing rig stuck in the rocks or a tree on the bank.
Lynn