I've had an ATM bookset for years and years, since they were retired from my local library in a booksale -- hmm... about $3 I think! No way will I part with them. They are a memento of the origin af the ATM movement, and still packed with unique data, even for optics designers like me. Willman Bell had better not "edit" them, for heavens sake. All that one could usefully do would be to *add* a volume containing the advances of the last half century.
Science is the lamp which man has himself kindled: it has built him lighthouses on the dark shores of the unknown: but his dreams, his quests for truth, lead him beyond the waters which his little lamp of knowledge illumines; and if he would venture on the farther ocean he must set his course by a star. S. R. Lysaght, "A reading of life".
David Beach, Scientist, Machine Vision Team, Industrial Research Limited, POBox 2225, Auckland, New Zealand. +64 9 303 4116 (Voice), +64 9 302 8106 (Fax), http://www.irl.cri.nz (Web).