137 Years of Popular Science

[Jules76]

I saw this on another forum and figured it would interest like minded people here.



Amazing time capsule of science over the last 137 years. I find the ideas people had for the future fascinating. It's a real glimpse into what people were thinking at the time would be possible.

Enjoy. :thumbsup:

http://www.popsci.com.au/announcements/article/2010-03/new-browse-137-years-popsci-archive-free

[GrahamL]

Thats great , my father gave me a half dozen copies from the 30's a while back , a good read , lots of tobbaco adds ,there is the odd referance to astronomy in the few I have ,nothing major though .. there owners last copy was not long after war broke out in europe as he went off to fight and didn't buy anymore.

[Kal]

Nice find - I'll bookmark that for rainy days :thumbsup:

[gary]

Thanks for the link!

I also have a collection of Popular Science from the 1920's/1930's.

In my youth, we'd spend countless hours reading these. For every hundred
wacky ideas or inventions, now and then you would come across the one
invention, that with the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, you would appreciate went
on to being a winner.

Whereas the magazine then would devote entire pages to some lunatic
idea, some ground breaking developments were often only given a couple
of obscure column inches, yet they would stick out like gems in the dust.

However, it was the wacky idea articles we enjoyed reading the most, many so
crazy that tears would stream down our faces with laughter. :rofl:

When one browses the magazines from the late 1920's through to the late
1930's, one cannot help come away with the feeling that war is almost
inevitable. There is a preoccupation with new weaponry.

Here are some scans I just made of a August 1938 edition.
Check out the Knapsack Radio compared to today's iPod. :thumbsup:

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi
If you go to www.nzmeccano.com (http://www.nzmeccano.com) you will find an online (or downloadable) a complete set of Meccano magazines from 1916 to 1980. These also had lots of interesting stories of how we viewed science, discoveries, inventions and topics of the day.

Another source of interesting material is in the "Silicon Chip" DVD of the complete set of Radio and Hobbies from its beginning in 1939 to its end in 1964. One interesting article there was a a description on building a giant solar cell in space and beaming the energy down as microwave link to be converted back into electricity. There was a recent mention in the press of this idea as a new invention.

Barry

[GrahamL]

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2009/03/03/german-telescope-is-unique-in-design/?Qwd=./ModernMechanix/8-1930/german_telescope&Qif=german_telescope_0.jpg&Qiv=thumbs&Qis=XL#qdig

:eyepop: