author
Douglas T. (Douglas Thomas) Hamilton
1885–1956
A practical early-20th-century engineering writer, he produced clear, workshop-focused books on forging, screw machines, gaging, welding, and wartime munitions manufacture. His manuals were written for working machinists and manufacturers, with an emphasis on usable methods rather than theory alone.
1 Audiobook
Shrapnel shell manufacture : A comprehensive treatise on the forging, machining, and heat-treatment of shells, and the manufacture of cartridge cases and fuses for shrapnel used in field and mountain artillery, giving complete direction for tool equipment and methods of setting up machines, together with government specifications for this class of munitions
by Douglas T. (Douglas Thomas) Hamilton
About the author
Douglas T. Hamilton, sometimes listed as Douglas Thomas Hamilton, was a Canadian-born technical author born in 1885 and later active in the United States. Surviving bibliographic records connect him with a long run of industrial manuals published by Industrial Press in the 1910s, and one memorial record gives his life dates as June 20, 1885 to September 26, 1956.
His books show the kind of subjects he was known for: Machine Forging (1914), Shrapnel Shell Manufacture (1915), Cartridge Manufacture (1916), and Gages, Gaging and Inspection (1918). The title pages and catalog records also show that he wrote for a readership of engineers, toolmakers, and factory workers, and that he was described on one title page as an associate editor of Machinery.
Hamilton's writing is straightforward and intensely practical. Even today, his books stand out as detailed snapshots of early modern manufacturing, especially metalworking and munitions production during the First World War era.