author
Harold P. (Harold Phillips) Manly
b. 1887
Best known for practical early 20th-century manuals on welding, automobiles, motorcycles, and tractors, this writer helped explain new machines to everyday readers in clear, usable terms. His books were aimed at people who wanted to understand how things worked and how to keep them running.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in 1887, Harold P. Manly wrote hands-on technical books during a period when cars, motorcycles, tractors, and modern metalworking were rapidly changing everyday life. Library and catalog records identify him as the author of works including Oxy-Acetylene Welding and Cutting (1916), The Automobile Handbook (1918), Automobile Starting and Lighting (1919), and The Motor Cycle Handbook (1920).
His writing seems to have focused on practical instruction rather than theory for its own sake. Titles associated with him repeatedly emphasize construction, care, operation, upkeep, and repair, suggesting he specialized in making complicated mechanical systems understandable for working readers, hobbyists, and owners.
A great deal of detailed biographical information about his personal life is hard to confirm from the sources I found. What is clear is that his books became part of the early how-to literature of the machine age, especially in fields related to transportation and metalworking.