Fred H. Colvin

Fred Herbert Colvin (1867–1965) was an American machinist, journalist, author, and editor. He wrote, co-wrote, edited, or co-edited many periodical articles, handbooks, and textbooks related to engineering, machining, and manufacturing. His autobiography, "Sixty Years with Men and Machines", provides a look into the decades 1880–1950, decades that could be considered the peak decades of the machine age.

Overview of career

Over the years, Colvin worked on both Alexander Luchars's journal "Machinery" (of which he was chief editor from its beginning in 1894 until 1897) and John A. Hill's journal "American Machinist" (which he worked on from 1907 until retirement in 1937, having been co-editor for many years). He came to the Hill Publishing Company (soon to become McGraw-Hill) in 1907 to work on the "American Machinist", and in the subsequent decades, besides his work on the journal, he authored or coauthored dozens of McGraw-Hill monographs, textbooks, and reference books in the field of machining. His principal coauthor was Frank A. Stanley; their first book series together was the "Hill Kink Books" series of 1908, a collection of handy, practical advice for the machinist on the shop floor. (The word "kinks" in this context was used in the sense of "tips and tricks"; that sense of the word is rather obsolescent today and merits glossing.)

From 1908 to 1945, Colvin and Stanley coedited eight editions of "American Machinists' Handbook", a McGraw-Hill reference book similar to Industrial Press's "Machinery's Handbook". (The latter title, still in print and regularly revised, is the one that machinists today are usually referring to when they speak imprecisely of "the machinist's handbook" or "the machinists' handbook".)

Colvin was retired and in his 70s when World War II started, but he came out of retirement in order to help with the war production effort.

Colvin was the 1942 recipient of the Worcester Reed Warner Medal. In 1944 the Stevens Institute of Technology awarded him an honorary M.E. degree for his life's work in advancing the field.

Near the end of his life, Colvin worked on a history of the American machine tool industry, but very unfortunately for historians of technology, he died before finishing.

Memoir, poetry, and labor-relations titles by Colvin

Memoir

* cite book
last = Colvin
first = Fred H.
title = Sixty Years with Men and Machines
publisher = McGraw-Hill
year = 1947
location = New York and London
id = (Available as a reprint from Lindsay Publications in paperback (ISBN 978-0-917914-86-7) and cloth (ISBN 978-0-917914-87-4).) (Foreword by Ralph Flanders.)

Poetry

* cite book
last = Colvin
first = Fred H.
title = Safety valve: poems
edition = 1st ed
publisher = Exposition Press
year = 1952
location = New York

* cite book
last = Colvin
first = Fred H.
title = Safety valve: poems
edition = 2nd ed
publisher = Exposition Press
year = 1965
location = New York

Labor-relations monographs

* cite book
last = Colvin
first = Fred H.
title = Labor turnover, loyalty and output: a consideration of the trend of the times as shown by the results of war activities in the machine shops and elsewhere
publisher = McGraw-Hill
year = 1919
location = New York and London [http://books.google.com/books?id=sZo2AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=Colvin+%22Labor+turnover,+loyalty+and+output%22#PPR3,M1 Available online.]

* cite book
last = Colvin
first = Fred H.
title = The industrial triangle
publisher = Columbia Graphs
year = 1955
location = Columbia, Connecticut

Machining monographs, textbooks, and reference books by Colvin himself, Colvin & Stanley, or Colvin & others

The following table has been compiled using information from:
* the U.S. Library of Congress online catalog; [cite web | title = U.S. Library of Congress online catalog | publisher = U.S. Library of Congress | url = http://catalog.loc.gov/ | accessdate = 2006-07-24 ]
* information from Colvin's memoir "Sixty Years with Men and Machines;" [cite book | last = Colvin | first = Fred H. | title = Sixty Years with Men and Machines | publisher = McGraw-Hill | year = 1947 | location = New York and London | id = (Available as a reprint from Lindsay Publications in paperback (ISBN 978-0-917914-86-7) and cloth (ISBN 978-0-917914-87-4).) (Foreword by Ralph Flanders.)] and
* digitized images of the books themselves, available via Google Book Search.

References

External links

* [http://library.case.edu/ksl/speccoll/colvin/ Fred H. Colvin Collection, Department of Special Collections, Case Western Reserve University Library, Cleveland, Ohio, USA]
* [http://www.lindsaybks.com Lindsay Publications] , a publisher specializing in the republishing of useful technical books from decades and centuries past. Several books by Colvin are available from Lindsay.
* [http://books.google.com/ Google Book Search] , which makes many of Colvin's oldest books (copyrights expired) available online.

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