Moxon's Mechanick Exercises, or The Doctrine of Handy-Works Applied to the Art of Printing
The pattern
This still is filed under Craft-argument book.
Define
A book or manual that sells a method by arguing it. Chapters as proof, not as decoration around a product.
Mechanism
Authority by treatise. The reader who accepts the argument has already accepted the seller as teacher.
Verdict
We can teach a craft in public and the teaching is the funnel.
Why it works
Every physical part is named in italic on first appearance and then reused in roman, so a reader accumulates the trade's vocabulary in the order he will need it instead of being handed a glossary. Each part is then given both a measurement and a plate coordinate - the Feet marked a a in Plate 5, two foot nine inches and a half long - which locks the prose to the drawing and removes the guesswork that kills a written procedure. Numbering everything down to the paragraph turns the book into something you look things up in rather than read through once. De Vinne's decision to reproduce the 1683 setting, long s and blackletter running heads included, makes the reprint function as evidence rather than as a retelling, and the signed limitation certificate converts that fidelity into scarcity the trade will pay for.
Steal this when
Reach for this when you are documenting a process other people must execute exactly - an SOP, a standards manual, an installation or build guide. Name each part once in a distinguishing style, give it a measurement and a figure reference, number the sections so they can be cited, and keep the page free of anything that is not a part, a number or a rule.