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Popular Science Frees Its 137-Year Archives
DesScorp writes "Popular Science magazine has scanned every issue they've ever produced, and posted the archives at their website, at no charge. 'We've partnered with Google to offer our entire 137-year archive for free browsing. Each issue appears just as it did at its original time of publication, complete with period advertisements. It's an amazing resource that beautifully encapsulates our ongoing fascination with the future, and science and technology's incredible potential to improve our lives. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.'" First search: the history of the flying car.
This makes me seriously consider getting a subscription to their dead tree version again.
This should be tagged as sudden outbreak of common sense. The entire point of organized science is to let anyone read, comment and improve upon various theories and publications in science.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
I've taken a look and while it's very nice they put the issues online It'd be nice if you could download them. I haven't found an obvious way to do it. I guess that's the way the google displayed books work
This shows good sense on the part of the publications' editors and executives. There isn't much market for 130 past years of Popular Science. Bandwidth is cheap. Certainly making this move will get them brownie points. Brownie points mean good press. Brownie points mean more hits on their site... as does the actual archive. More hits on their website + good public image = guaranteed increase in subscriptions. Everyone wins.
I remember reading through all the bound volumes of Life Magazine in-between classes as an undergrad. That gave me a better sense of 20th century American history than anything I ever read in grade school. It would be wonderful for Time-Life to do the same as Popular Science.
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
Maybe it was Popular Mechanics in which you remember the roll-your-own sub. I've mixed up memories that I thought were ironclad from several decades ago.
Table-ized A.I.
The articles tend to hype stuff and leave out or fail to check for a lot of impracticalities. Few would buy the mag if they were quick to dent dreams. Current IT magazines do the same, and PHB's believe it and force their staff to adopt Agile Goat-Assisted Blindfolded Underwater Programming, etc. After 137 years, nothing's changed.
Table-ized A.I.
I bet the period advertisements alone will be priceless.
As much as we hate advertising on the web, there is definitely something to be said for ads as a window into history.
With so much content being dynamicly generated, we won't have period ads like we did with print.
Embedded advertising could solve this, and it wouldn't be a problem if it were done as still images and text analagous to a printed ad. Of course, online advertisers seem to have a habit of shooting themselves in the foot in this regard--the temptation to introduce obtrusive ads just ups the ante in the arms race.
Reading ads from pop sci might tell you that Ford has been in business for over 100 years. Reading web pages archived from today will tell you nothing of the sort. The ad will either be fetched and dynamicly generated (and thus be non-period) or it will be edited out by the archiver.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
But all you can do now is do a search. Only then you can select something you found and browse the magazine. It would be nice to be able to go to a certain issue and start browsing.
And all they need to do is index the IDs.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
NOOOOOOOO!! My manager walked by when I was reading your comment. He's putting in a request for a dozen goats as we speak.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
Relativity: June, 1914, page 434
Quantum mechanics: February 1927, page 22
Atomic bomb: October 1945, page 80
Integrated circuits: September 1966, page 96
Google Books. No download link at sight.
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I particularly like that they hyperlinked the split articles for ease of reading. Remember when magazines used to have a "(Continued on page 80)" at the end? Well, they've thought of that, and kudos for the extra effort!
Have him contact my company. We don't sell goats, but we do sell scapes, a very important accessory for the rising manager.
rewriting history since 2109
> It'd be nice if you could download them.
If you are viewing them you already have downloaded them: they're right there on your computer. You just haven't figured out how to save them to disk.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Oh how things have changed. The first issue from May 1872 has 128 pages of closely packed text and only a few scattered illustrations. I wonder if all magazines were like that in 1872 -- I get the impression that Playboy magazine wouldn't have been much fun back then.