Early 19th Century Handwritten Mechanic's Lesson Book by Unknown Author - 1830

Eastern Pennsylvania, 1830. Manuscript. Very Good. Folio. 40 pages, 33 of which have been written upon. No cover. Appears to be missing the first page of text, perhaps it was written inside the front of the missing cover. Sound string binding. Light wear and soiling to the first and last pages. The text is written in a very attractive hand with ornate calligraphic headers. Beautiful, detailed mechanical drawings throughout, two in color. This copybook is divided into three sections, "Mechanical Power," "Mechanics," and "Machinery". Theoretical lessons begin with the lever and progress through simple machines, forces, dynamics, hydrostatics, hydrodynamics, and pneumatics. This is followed by lessons on various categories of machinery: steam, water, wind, gravity, etc. An exceptionally scarce piece of educational Americana. From an eastern Pennsylvania estate and said perhaps to have been created by an early student of Philadelphia's Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts which was founded in 1824. Engineering education was virtually non-existent before the Industrial Revolution and didn't begin in earnest until 1821 when the first Mechanic's Institute (the predecessor of Heriot-Watt University) was established in Scotland.