When I was a teen, I applied to be an ATT lineman. At that time at least, they sent you a giant study guide that has everything one might want to know about electricity. I was actually blown away by the material.
I've since lost it, but wonder if it exists on the Internet somewhere. My cursory search didn't return anything.
This page lists several ATT publications and has a link to a 1953 publication that could fit your description (and could have been a subsequent editini).
Otherwise, maybe you'd recognize the name as one of the other publications?
Nice! I browsed through the 1953 edition quickly, and it's very similar. So probably some updated version of that.
I was just blown away they send you all that material for free by simply applying. This would have been before the internet was big, so probably isn't as exciting now.
Hear hear! I'm currently learning DIY synths from that very channel too, currently on episode 3, very good videos for laymen. Although some extra resources are needed if you want to have further understanding, as he doesn't go too deep into theory, but for being video instructions/tutorials, I find that the balance is good on that.
I learned from the 1st edition, in 1984. It's worth noting that the book was actually written for scientists rather than engineers. I was a math and physics major. By a long standing tradition, an electronics course is a standard part of the undergrad physics curriculum.
My dad had "Electronics for Scientists" by Malmstadt et al., 1962. His employer put a bunch of scientists through an electronics course.
The contrast was pretty remarkable. It's all about vacuum tubes, with some introduction of transistors. The 1st edition of AoE had a reasonable amount of material on digital circuits for back then, but I imagine a similar contrast between 1984 and today.
The span of 40+ years has certainly changed how I do electronics.
i don't recommend this book at all. I know nothing about electronics. Think blank slate and this book went straight over my head. I caught it from the comments of one such post on HN
AoE is not meant for people who are starting from zero. Pair it with some other
"popular electronics" kind of books and it will start making better sense. One recommendation is Practical Electronics for Inventors by Paul Scherz and Simon Monk. For theory see Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronic Circuits by Anant Agarwal and Jeffrey Lang.
I can see how that would happen. When I first read the book I was definitely not a blank slate. But it's still a good recommendation for those with a little bit of knowledge who want a deeper understanding. At least it was for me. You'll only get so far without knowing the things in the book which are also introductory in nature.
If you don't know Ohm's law. You don't know what a resistor is. You've never built a simple circuit. Then this book may not be for you. Or it may if you're willing to put in the effort.
I already knew something by the time I read it so that must have helped. I guess you do need a certain maturity level (in the subject) to get started but once you have it (maybe from somewhere else) I think it's great.
It reminds me of my first time trying to learn assembly language when I was in my early teens. I just could not make any sense of it. I knew a little bit of PASCAL and BASIC at the time and that was just alien territory. When I came back a few years later after some exposure then it all came together.
The best suggestion to get a core review of the basic concepts as starter, and that Dave from the EEVblog [1] recommended several times, is the section Fundamentals of Radio Electronics from [2] - "The Arrl Handbook for Radio Communications" . Plus you get all the other stuff around Radio.
It will cover all the basics. Old ones can be found on the intertubes. It is now a classical. Even used 2015 versions go for $300 dollars or more.
Is the top link just an advertisement for a book to be bought or is it something I'm missing with the link? There are countless of books and website with that kind of content, but Google is good enough to find them...
I don't know, it's hard for me to know what the author means by "fundamentals". I looked at the table of contents from the amazon website, and somethings that I consider pretty fundamental like Thevenin's Theorem didn't seem to be listed there. By comparison it's in Chapter 1, page 9 on my copy of "The Art of Electronics". I'm not trying to knock the book, it could be very handy, but I would use the term "basics" as opposed to "fundamentals" to describe the content as I understand it.
Back when I was about 12 (so 60 years ago, or so) you could get Phillips kits with a couple of transistors which allowed you to breadboard things like an amplifier, a radio, or a moisture detector. Had fun with them, but didn't really learn so much theory, and never have. Though I do know quite a bit about software.
Readit News
I've since lost it, but wonder if it exists on the Internet somewhere. My cursory search didn't return anything.
Otherwise, maybe you'd recognize the name as one of the other publications?
https://www.long-lines.net/sources/ATT_tech_books.html
I was just blown away they send you all that material for free by simply applying. This would have been before the internet was big, so probably isn't as exciting now.
https://www.youtube.com/@MoritzKlein0/playlists
My dad had "Electronics for Scientists" by Malmstadt et al., 1962. His employer put a bunch of scientists through an electronics course.
The contrast was pretty remarkable. It's all about vacuum tubes, with some introduction of transistors. The 1st edition of AoE had a reasonable amount of material on digital circuits for back then, but I imagine a similar contrast between 1984 and today.
The span of 40+ years has certainly changed how I do electronics.
Surely this is like recommending a Knuth book (TAoCP?) to someone wanting to learn 'CS fundamentals', which.. sure?
If you don't know Ohm's law. You don't know what a resistor is. You've never built a simple circuit. Then this book may not be for you. Or it may if you're willing to put in the effort.
It reminds me of my first time trying to learn assembly language when I was in my early teens. I just could not make any sense of it. I knew a little bit of PASCAL and BASIC at the time and that was just alien territory. When I came back a few years later after some exposure then it all came together.
Try going back to the book ;)
I’m definitely interested in more electronics books for self study though.
Applied Embedded Electronics: Design Essentials for Robust Systems by Jerry Twomey.
There are lots more with varying levels of basics/advanced but the above two are what came to my mind immediately for self study.
It will cover all the basics. Old ones can be found on the intertubes. It is now a classical. Even used 2015 versions go for $300 dollars or more.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/@EEVblog/playlists
{2] https://www.arrl.org/arrl-handbook-2023