Since we recently had some assistance from an old 1976 copy of National Geographic which showed us some differences between temperature data then and now, it seems an opportune time to announce that Popular Science magazine archives are now online and totally free.
Check out the “one armed monster” on the right panel. Looks like a wind turbine nobody ever built.
Popular Science, in partnership with Google, just put its 137-year archive online, for free. Unfortunately, you can’t yet browse by issue. [Yes you can, I missed this on the first pass.] The interface is a keyword search box.
I need help from WUWT readers in locating something that may be found in the pages of Popular Science.
The entire magazine content is available, including ads. One specific ad I’ve been looking for for years (and I’m hoping someone will find it here) is from the late 60’s to early 70’s. It is an ad for nuclear energy, sponsored I think, by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). The ad has a picture of a lump of coal, and says something like “Nuclear Energy – the clean fuel” and it speaks of the pollution problems (and Co2 if I recall) associated with coal. If anyone finds it, please let me know, there’s an interesting historical backstory to it that I’ve been itching to write for years, but I have to have this ad as proof.
It may also be in other magazines of the era.
Also, maybe our readers can find some relevant things about climate in this newly available resource. If not, maybe somebody can tell me how many times we’ve been promised flying cars and basement nuclear reactors.
Link: Search the PopSci Archives
h/t to BoingBoing blog
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It wasn’t in ‘Our Friend the Atom’ was it?
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Follow the money folks:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/03/breaking_the_obama_code_the_gr.html
This one will be for sale late 2010;
http://www.martinjetpack.com/
Look at the movie!
Every time I try to tell people about my one-armed monster, I either get slapped or put in jail.
kwik (00:08:02) :
yep a kiwi was the first to split the atom, first to fly a motorised uncontrolled flight and also apparently developed a jetpack. But not sure how it’s gonna help Anthony find his advert.
Surely the best way to handle this is by central direction?
Our huge advantage over the warmists is that we have a large, skilled workforce willing to work for free. For doing this sort of work I suggest that someone sets up a long list of the Popular Science magazines which need looking into, divided up into work-sized chunks, so that volunteers can pick a chunk and cross it off the list.
Of course we will need multiple persons looking at each chunk, and should only confirm it as done once several independent people report back, to guard against anyone sabotaging the system by selecting work units and then not doing them, or intentionally reporting incorrect data …..
Oops – fly an uncontrolled motorized airoplane.
Nothing in the April 1973 mag from the AEC. There was an article on electric cars with something called an aluminum motor. Will scan more but we need a updatable list. Pukapedia?
Loved the smoking ads and everyone is so slim. Any connection?
There are, in fact, one-bladed turbines and, though the look strange, they are physically not much different to three-bladed ones. Three-bladed ones just look better.
http://www.popsci.com/results?query=can+science+solve+our+power+crisis
It’s strange how familiar looks this 1971 article today!
At school in the 70s I remember a lesson based around an article or short story entitled ‘Leisure Citizens of the Future’ which promised that by the time I was in my 30s I wouldn’t have to work because robots and machines would do everything for us. This would give us the enviable task of filling our lives trying to find something useful to do in our limitless leisure time. Seeing as I’m now 45 and 10-12 hrs days are the norm for me, I’d like a word with the author.
Anthony, I’ll peruse all of my old ’60’s and 70’s mags when I can find some spare time and look for one of those ads.
I recall that in the 1980’s, “Greenies” were in heavy opposition to nuclear power. “Greenies” also were in opposition to the waste sites being established in pristine wilderness, so instead the NRC sought to establish sites in rural populated areas. Pro-nuclear power advocates had a response to the “Greenies” that went like this:
“The more complicated the issue, the more simple-minded the opposition”.
Then when the “Greenies” later decided that CO2 was a more important issue than nukes, many changed their position.
I’ve always been luke warm to nuclear power. Nuclear power is a mixed bag. There is always the “Chernobyl factor” to be feared. An adequate (and fool proof) long term method to deal with disposal of radioactive waste has not yet been found, and the best radioactive waste disposal sites are often blocked by politicians using “NIMBY”. A quarantined area with a fixed perimeter is imposed by the NRC, in league with the USDA around any radioactive waste site, where the production of certain foods, including certain dairy products are prohibited. Property values plummet within the perimeter area once a waste site is established. On the other hand, nuclear power is very efficient, and can be quite successful if done properly. For example, France operates 59 nuclear power plants, which provides most of its electricity.
As has been said many times on this site, nature tends to do better when it isn’t quite so cold.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8575537.stm
Here’s one you might find interesting from 1972. Its about unlimited clean solar energy.
http://www.popsci.com/archive-viewer?id=WgO75jsrSkoC&pg=87
I’ve searched for the ad without success, using keywords like: aec, nuclear, co2 pollution, coal — no luck, sorry.
No, but i did find a story from June 1929, titled : A New Ice Age Might Bury Us.
You can find it here:
http://www.popsci.com/archive-viewer?id=XSgDAAAAMBAJ&pg=22&query=iceage
If you follow the link to the story, it has an interesting quote in it.
Guess these explanations from June 1929 doesn’t sound that much different than the explanations we hear today. History does repeat itself.
Only thing different in the quote I posted above.. CO2 is responsible for glacial invasions. Just thought Id clarify that.
Anthony, by the 60s, “Our Friend The Atom” was already being demonized. Sure it wasn’t from the 50s?
There has long been a controversy about when the first homebrew (JATO strap-on) rocket car was created. There’s an urban legend about how the feckless inventor supposedly couldn’t make the first turn in the road and continued straight, airborne, into the side of a mountain.
I saw and tore out a page from a 1946 or 1948 magazine of the Pop. Sci. type (includes Pop.Mech. & Mech. Il.) that described (with a photo) a black boxy old car with two JATO jets strapped to its sides. I sent the page to a Darwin Awards honcho in London about 15 (??) years ago, but got no response.
If anyone finds this item (it was about a half a page long), please update the Wikipedia article on the topic, here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JATO_Rocket_Car
PS: I believe the locale of the photo was the Southwest, and that the military may have been involved in some way. (E.g., the inventor may have been a retired serviceman.)
PPS: Hmmm … check if that location was near Roswell …
Very interesting item on sun spots in 1872.
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Popular_Science_Monthly/Volume_1/June_1872/The_Spots_on_the_Sun
Great article on “The Carbon Dioxide Dilemma” from Feb 1982 page 76.
“Will we keep fiddling until the planet burns”
“Most scientists think the scenario will be more complex than catastrophic. Global temperatures will probably go up a few degrees. Climate and weather patterns will change. Some people will be hurt, some will benefit, som nations will adjust better than others.”
Descriptions of problems with GCMs of the day sound familiar.
PPPS: Well I’ve searched the Pop. Sci. archive for “JATO” and “Rocket Car” and haven’t found my item in the years I recall it being in. So the magazine must have been PM or MI.
“Unfortunately, you can’t yet browse by issue.”
You can if you go to Google Books and type in Popular Science. Thirty three pages going back to the Dec 1925 issue.