Popular Science Monthly, 1948–1952

We have recently been donated fourteen issues of Popular Science Monthly magazine for between 1948 and 1952. This American magazine would have been a bargain at the time for the 25c cover price. It started in 1872 and, while still available now as a digital version, ceased in paper form in 2021. 

For our copies, the range of topics covered is immense. Taking the October 1952 edition as an example, articles include home-improvement articles such as making your basement more space efficient; whether anyone would ever climb Mount Everest (someone did, the following year…); gadgets for imaginary creatures on distant planets; a heads-up on next year’s cars; ‘new for the handy man, and more. The adverts are equally as diverse, from domestic welding equipment to body building. 

There is colour on the covers and duotone within, with the occasional colour photograph. The artist’s drawing is still also very much in evidence. The adverts range from full-page to small ads – like an Exchange and Mart but for science-y households – to full-pagers for model toys, motor mowers, cigarettes… truly something for everyone. 

We can see how it was evolving in the five-year span that we have. By 1951 there was a strapline ‘Mechanics and handicrafts’ under the main title, but the breadth of subject matter remained very wide. Curiously, the November 1951 issue had an article on what we’d now call the climate emergency: why are the winters getting warmer, it asked. The suggested explanation was due to very deep waves which disturbed polar currents. 

We didn’t already have any of this title in our collection and they will fit in here very well.