Resources to broaden knowledge of basic engineering

[ISamson]

Hello.
On a family holiday which we came home from a few hours ago, our friend was a retired engineer and mechanic. In his house in the countryside he has built himself a cool motor bike (average mountain bike with motor), an electrical quad bike... He has a very big workshop where he has all these old circuit boards, tools and much more. I could not get out of there!
So, I asked my father to explain to me how the one-gear motor bike functions, so he briefly explained to me.
This two-day holiday enriched my interest in engineering and electronics.
I want to now start (early!:) to get myself around some basic concepts in mechanical engineering, but I don't know where to start. What concepts to google first?
Could anybody kindly assist me with this spark inside me ready to explode into a bright career opportunity and future?
Thank you.

 

[scottdave]

I would recommend "Basic Machines and How They Work" by Naval Education. I am on my phone right now, so it's hard to see. It is available on Amazon digital for about $8 and I also saw a link to scribd which I think may be free, not sure.

 

[scottdave]

The book, published by the US Navy, is in the public domain. I found a site which hosts the PDF. http://www.constructionknowledge.net/public_domain_documents/Div_1_General/Basic_Skills/Basic Machines NAVEDTRA 14037 1994.pdf

For Electricity/electronics, take a look at the Navy's Electronics series. 24 modules from basic circuits to amplifiers, semiconductors, transmission circuits/antennas, RADAR and more.
Davidson College conveniently hosts the public domain PDFs. I made a BitLy link for ease of remembering.

NOTE: this link to Davidson College is broken, so I linked to the Wayback Machine archive of it. http://bit.ly/NEETSarch

 

[ISamson]

Thanks @scottdave, very useful.

 

[Asymptotic]

Mark's Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers (first edition in 1916, now in the 11th edition) comes in handy.

Searching "mechanical engineering" at archive.org has nearly 12,000 returns. Older volumes (many of the first returns are from the late 1800 to early 1900s) can usually be downloaded while other, more modern textbooks such as Shigley's Mechanical Engineering Design, 9th edition are available for online viewing.