Overview
Open the hood of your car and you’ll find a confusing mishmash of wires, tubes, and mechanical devices. What are all of those things? Written for mechanical novices who may not know their catalytic converters from their universal joints, A Field Guide to Automotive Technology will help them gain a basic understanding of how their automobiles function. How does an airbag know when to deploy? What is rack and pinion steering? And where exactly does a dipstick dip? Even seasoned gearheads will learn from this guide as it traces the history and development of mechanisms they may take for granted.
A Field Guide to Automotive Technology has more than 130 entries, each with a clear photo to make recognition easy. Devices are grouped according to their “habitats”—under the hood, inside the car, and more—to help the reader identify the technology in question. Once the “species” is discovered, the entry will tell you its “behavior”—what it does—and how it works, in detail. This guide also includes sidebars on related technical issues, such as how to mix up a batch of homemade windshield wiper fluid. It even discusses other vehicles found on our nation’s highways—buses, motorcycles, bicycles, and more—as well as a few off-road vehicles.
Editorials
School Library Journal
Adult/High School
In the format used in three previous field guides, Sobey once again provides easily digestible explanations of everyday things that are often taken for granted. In straightforward, nontechnical, often witty prose, he helps readers identify items on, inside, and under the car, as well as under the hood, and explains what they do and why. He also painlessly reviews a few principles of science and mechanics here and there. The 130 entries range from basic to complex, from bumper and windshield to differential and constant velocity joint boot. They are all accompanied by serviceable black-and-white photos to help readers identify the items under discussion. Perhaps the most enjoyable feature of the book is the inclusion of interesting facts for most of the entries. For example, at the end of the brief discussion concerning speedometers, readers are told that the first speeding ticket was given in 1896 to a driver in Great Britain who was guilty of zooming along at eight miles per hour in a two-mile-an-hour zone. Most of the material concerns passenger vehicles, but there are also sections on off-road vehicles, motorcycles, buses, and human-powered conveyances.-Robert Saunderson, formerly at Berkeley Public Library, CA