Comments on: Popular Mechanics Magazine circa 1937

By: Howard Fink

Howard Fink — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:21:22 +0000

Take a look at hisibley.com for the kinds of things people who read shop notes might build. The bibliography on the right has a list of links.
Howard Fink´s last blog ..The Sibleys, 1955 and 1927

By: Howard Fink

Howard Fink — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:18:43 +0000

The book you have displayed is an Annual. Popular Mechanics was and is a monthly magazine. Twelve months of the Shop Notes section of the magazine were republished in an annual volume, Popular Mechanics Shop Notes, from 1905 to 1959.

1905-1923 have been republished by Lee Valley Tools,http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=42563&cat=1,46096,46100, as well as an index.

I own the complete collection, 1905-1959, collected over the years from antique stores, flea markets, and finally, ebay. They regularly appear on ebay. The quality of information is unsurpassed. The founder of Popular Mechanics, H. H. Windsor, and his son H. H. Windsor Jr., had on their masthead their mission statement: Easy Ways to Do Hard Things. Sometimes those easy ways involved welding, soldering, tapping, filing, chopping mortises, drilling glass. There was an assumption of competence that is scarce these days. Nevertheless, there are some astonishingly good ideas in every issue.

By: Justin Moore-Brown

Justin Moore-Brown — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 01:38:38 +0000

ha yea I believe that’s the one that you happened upon.

Why can’t advertising be like that now-a-days…. I might actually like ads in magazines then.

By: MexicanDude

MexicanDude — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 07:41:36 +0000

Did you find this in your garage? I got one of these from 1954. Most of it actually is advertising if you look completely through it. The difference is that the ads are there to educate readers as well as sell them on the product.