As a young guy I ran across this book and kept it all my life. I have referred to it from time to time and have always been amazed that someone wrote a book this in depth in 1907 and as technology has grown over my life this book is a good grounding point to what life in the turn of the century was like and how honorable skilled trades such as carpentry were to be involved in as a profession. When I read writing of today they seem to be filled with a lot of gobbledy gook with made up high tech words. For me its refreshing to read these old time books about the trades.
It was another thread that got me thinking about my old book where a member was trying to figure some cuts on hip rafters. I did a Google search on my book and found it has been archived for all to enjoy. I thought I would pass on the link. I dont expect anyone to read it cover to cover, but the preface and chapter 1 are a good read to go back in time with. I know just about everyone here have a couple of these squares in their shop or truck and I would guess most of us have touched on the abilities of this device but never really taken the time to master its usage.
This guy William A Radford was very prolific and did a number of books on the trades and also books of plans for barns and houses. I have only just found these but want to go thru them one by one.
Here is the link to the steel square book. There is a bunch of ways to read it on the left hand side. I have just been doing the read on line method.
https://archive.org/details/steelsquareandi01radfgoog
Here is a listing of his other books that have been archived.
https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Radford%2C+William+A.%2C+1865-%22
