Electronic Music from “How Things Work” c.1970

On a recent outing to a local bookshop I encountered a 4 volume set of books titled “How Things Work.”  It is a wonderful compendium of knowledge in simple but not simplistic language with really great illustrations.  The four volumes cover everything from knitting to jet engines.  Naturally what caught my eye were all of the electronic devices and processes; everything from how tape recorders, phonographs, and records (LPs) are made and function to broadcast television and electronic music.  I here submit them to you for your enjoyment. The pages are available in two ways, a scanned pdf of the entire section and the individual pages as jpegs.  You can download the pdf from Scribd, and the jpegs you can download by clicking on them to bring up the image page.  Enjoy!

[scribd id=67166901 key=key-okb2kvytt4emxapbqon mode=slideshow]

Here is the electronic music section (pg.s 202-214 in volume IV) as jpegs.

I have not researched the origins of the book, but they are obscure.  From a review on Amazon:

It is a 4 volume set, originally published in Germany or Switerzland around 1970. It was translated into English soon thereafter and is now out of print, but you can buy it used on EBay, or Amazon, or ABE Books.com.

A puzzling thing about the English edition of the book is that it does not include the name of the editor or author(s), nor does it include the publication or copyright date. Odd. The only name mentioned is the illustrator, R.J. Segalat.

In this case the reviewer is mistaken.  The illustrations were only “researched by” monsieur Segalat according to the forward of the English edition.  Any comments with information about these volumes are appreciated!