Book of Trades

Originally published about 1865 as The Boy's Book of Trades, this book was obviously intended to provide a synopsis of a number of the more common trades so that potential apprentices might choose among them. As happened with so many books of that era, if an allied subject appeared to be interesting, it was tossed into the text somewhere. The portion of this book dealing with the manufacture of gas is a classic example of this tendency. The justification for including it was undoubtedly that it was related to the gas fitter's trade.