This is a collection of 4 DVD-ROMs containing high-resolution scans of ALL TWENTY-TWO editions of A.L. Dyke's Automobile and Gasoline Engine Encyclopedia, dating from 1911 to 1951. Mr. Dyke was determined to document the details of the rise of the automobile and internal combustion use in this country through the 20th century. This follows America's love with the automobile, with each edition lovingly assembled. From the Preface to the 1914 edition: "This Auto Instruction was prepared with the idea of presenting in clear, simple form, the principle upon which Gasoline Engines and Automobiles are operated and built, and to explain in detail all that an operator must understand in order that he may run and care for any make of car or gasoline engine". Any student or researcher into the changing technology of the automobile over the 20th century will need to refer to these volumes. This collection includes twenty-two editions, each scanned at high quality (400 lpi) using full color for all color illustrations, and large-format scanners for the fold-out pages. There is one Adobe PDF file for each edition. This collection is COMPLETE with one run/printing of ALL PUBLISHED EDITIONS. There is a full-text index across ALL editions. For instance, you can search for "fuel injection" and find each and every reference (hint: every edition from #4 in 1915 to edition #22 in 1951 has a reference to fuel injection, mostly in discussing diesel engines).

As I have edited every page of every manual to remove blemishes and scanning problems, the images in these files  differ from the original manuals. My changes are all copyright 2004-2020. Permission is given for personal, educational, and research use only.

Editions included are as follows:

1911 edition, 402 pages. First Edition.

1912 edition, 511 pages. Second Edition.

1914 edition, 612 pages. Third Edition.

1915 edition, 708 pages. Fourth Edition.

1916 edition, 842 pages. Fifth Edition.

1918 edition, 920 pages. Sixth Edition.

1918 edition, 940 pages. Seventh Edition.

1918 edition, 940 pages. Eighth Edition.

1919 edition, 966 pages. Ninth Edition.

1919 edition, 977 pages. Tenth Edition

1920 edition, 984 pages. Eleventh Edition.

1920 edition, 985 pages. Twelfth Edition.

1924 edition, 1257 pages. Thirteenth Edition.

1925 edition, 1285 pages. Fourteenth Edition.

1928 edition, 1307 pages, Fifteenth Edition.

1932 edition, 1392 pages, Sixteenth Edition.

1936 edition, 1452 pages, Seventeenth Edition.

1938 edition, 1938 pages, Eighteenth Edition.

1940 edition, 1514 pages, Nineteenth Edition.

1943 edition, 1516 pages, Twentieth Edition.

1949 edition, 1431 pages, Twenty-First Edition.

1951 edition, 1530 pages, Twenty-Second Edition.

Note that there was not an edition every year. For instance, the Fifteenth Edition was printed in 1927, 1928 and 1929. These were distinguished as "run 1", "run 2" and "run 3". Some of the advertising pages differ among the different runs of a particular edition, but they are otherwise identical. Only one "run" of each edition is included in this collection. Similarly, some years had more than one edition (1918, 1919 and 1920).

There was a big jump in the size of the books between the Twelfth (1920) and Thirteenth (1924) editions of a bit over 200 pages, possibly due to the explosion of the auto industry at that time. The Eighteenth edition (1938) seems to be the largest one with almost 2000 pages. Any follower of the FBI and Elliot Ness will recall the Hudsons they were so fond of. There is a special section on the Hudson in these volumes that gives a hint as to how rugged the construction was for the era.