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In 2003, I stopped in to visit my mom, and she gave me something interesting.
My Grandmother had passed away the previous October, and my Grandfather had died
late in 1985, so my mom had recently helped clean out their old house back in Illinois.

Various posessions were given away, auctioned off, given to relatives, or what have you.
Mom happened across this, and brought it back for me: a well-used Machinery's Handbook,
12th Edition, 1945. It's covered in something like wax paper, or plasticized paper,
presumably as a sort of waterproofing/stainproofing. Underneath, the original
"leatherette" cover is in very good shape.

Believe it or not, at the time I did not yet own a copy of MH. I have a few other, smaller, less complete
references for various things (the usual speeds & feeds, tap-drill sizes, etc.) but I'd been meaning to get
myself a MH since it's such a handy work. This one is not only an excellent-condition Handbook,
it was also my Grandfather's, as he worked in various industrial/manufacturing-level jobs.

It's obviously well-used, the greaseproof paper cover, or whatever it is, has been frayed and repaired with
long-since-yellowed Scotch tape, and again years later with a different type of tape, and again with yet another.
Under the cover is the original paper label/cover for the book, the "dust jacket" as it were, which has seen
its own wear but is still in remarkably good shape for a book printed in 1945.





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