Popular Science, Digitized

137 years of human curiosity, or what lawnmowers have to do with nuclear detectives in China.

Thousands of magazines have stuffed our mailboxes and collected dust on our coffee tables over the years, but very few have captivated the attention of geeks and dreamers as long as Popular Science.

A hundred and thirty-seven years ago, Edward L. Youmans founded the publication to help bring scientific knowledge to the educated layman. Topics ranged the scientific gamut from the birth of electricity to the mystery of the brain. In addition to staff writers, our modern world of science has been covered by the likes of Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, T.H. Huxley, and Louis Pasteur.

Luckily for historians and the ever-curious, Popular Science has teamed up with Google to archive all 137 years of the magazine. (You may remember Google’s groundbreaking similar partnership with LIFE Magazine in late 2008.) Not only is this spectacular treasure of information free, but it’s available in original format — which means that besides enjoying antique articles about human-powered flying machines, you can also enjoy the advertisements of eras past. (Cigarettes, whiskey and riding lawnmowers seem to populate the 60’s.)

The archives aren’t indexed by volume. Instead, a fairly accurate search function brings up all the relevant articles from the past century for you to wade through. This time machine of science is beautiful to navigate, and even looks fantastic on the iPhone.

For those of you who are new to the archives, we’ve taken the liberty of finding a few nuggets of nostalgia to get you started:

The Moon — So Far (May, 1958): “Look hard, next full moon (April 3, May 3). Our oldest-established permanent satellite looms over the trees, familiar and close, yet mysterious and distant…We are ready to stretch across 240,000 miles to touch it…”

A nuclear detective looks at China’s atom bomb (Feb, 1965): “To an atomic scientist, what are the implications of China’s atomic bomb? We asked Dr. Ralph E. Lapp, a physicist who participated in the World War II Manhattan Project…”

Traveling telephones — new technology expands mobile service (Feb, 1978): “There’s a button labeled SND on Motorola’s futuristic –looking Pulsar II radiotelephone. I pushed it, and a number stored in its microcomputer memory began stepping, digit by digit, across the red LED handset display.

Go ahead, dive in.

Len Kendall is the cofounder of the3six5 project. (Featured on Brain Pickings here.) He enjoys being clever, quippy, and constructively grumpy.

Psst, we’ve launched a fancy weekly newsletter. It comes out on Sundays, offers the week’s articles, and features five more tasty bites of web-wide interestingness. Here’s an example. Like? Sign up.

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 5:30 am in culture, open-source, partnerships, science and was tagged culture, free, history, open-source, science.

One of my top 3 favorite blogs (BrainPickings.org) was kind enough to let me guest post today: http://bit.ly/b589gC

This comment was originally posted on Twitter

LenKendall on March 8th, 2010 at 6:30 am

The always considered — and always substantive — @LenKendall guest posts on BrainPickings.org today: http://bit.ly/b589gC

aliciakan on March 8th, 2010 at 6:33 am

Behold, 137 yrs of Popular Science archives go digital & free in a partnership with Google http://ow.ly/1fq9O @LenKendall for Brain Pickings

brainpicker on March 8th, 2010 at 6:50 am

RT @brainpicker: Behold, 137 yrs of Popular Science archives go digital & free in a partnership with Google http://ow.ly/1fq9O @LenKenda …

donna_carlsson on March 8th, 2010 at 6:50 am

retorta on March 8th, 2010 at 6:51 am

Behold, 137 yrs of Popular Science archives go digital & free in a partnership with GOOG http://ow.ly/1fq9O //via @LenKendall & @brainpicker

claynewton on March 8th, 2010 at 6:52 am

RT @brainpicker: Behold, 137 yrs of Popular Science archives go digital & free in a partnership with Google http://ow.ly/1fq9O

MsBookish on March 8th, 2010 at 6:52 am

2020_Innovation on March 8th, 2010 at 6:52 am

FriscoTheNavajo on March 8th, 2010 at 6:54 am

raskidaski on March 8th, 2010 at 6:56 am

RT @brainpicker Behold, 137 yrs of Popular Science archives go digital & free in a partnership with Google http://ow.ly/1fq9O @LenKendall

anniemmm on March 8th, 2010 at 7:11 am

elchilly on March 8th, 2010 at 7:22 am

RT @MsBookish: RT @brainpicker: Behold, 137 yrs of Popular Science archives go digital & free in a partnership with Google http://ow.ly/1fq9O

chorkie on March 8th, 2010 at 7:24 am

irfaan on March 8th, 2010 at 7:29 am

Only it’s not really the original ‘format,’ is it? Popular Science, Digitized http://bit.ly/baCWr7

_Lindiwe_ on March 8th, 2010 at 8:01 am

RT @brainpicker: Behold, 137 yrs of Popular Science archives go digital & free in a partnership with Google http://ow.ly/1fq9O @LenKendall for Brain Pickings

masoncwhite on March 8th, 2010 at 8:26 am

In case you missed it earlier, I penned today’s edition of Brain Pickings. http://bit.ly/b589gC

LenKendall on March 8th, 2010 at 12:52 pm

Pop Sci + GOOG goodness RT @LenKendall: In case you missed it earlier, I penned today’s edition of Brain Pickings. http://bit.ly/b589gC

thaz7 on March 8th, 2010 at 12:57 pm

RT @brainpicker: If you missed it – In a groundbreaking partnership with Google, 137 years of Popular Science archives go digital and free http://is.gd/9Z8XG

DaveAchkar on March 8th, 2010 at 1:31 pm

137 years of Popular Science magazine archives have been digitized and made public in a partnership with @Google. http://tinyurl.com/ydwshdr

El_Ave_Sin_Nido on March 8th, 2010 at 1:33 pm

RT @brainpicker: In a groundbreaking partnership with Google, 137 years of Popular Science archives go digital and free http://is.gd/9Z8XG

openculture on March 8th, 2010 at 1:33 pm

RT @ymmat: RT @brainpicker: 137 years of Popular Science archives go digital and free in Google partnership: http://is.gd/9Z8XG

nnaylime on March 8th, 2010 at 1:37 pm

tenaciousN on March 8th, 2010 at 1:37 pm

RT @openculture In a groundbreaking partnership with Google, 137 years of Popular Science archives go digital and free http://is.gd/9Z8XG

aishamo on March 8th, 2010 at 1:37 pm

jockr on March 8th, 2010 at 1:43 pm

In a groundbreaking partnership with Google, 137 years of Popular Science archives go digital and free http://is.gd/9Z8XG (via @brainpicker)

michellek107 on March 8th, 2010 at 1:44 pm

RT: openculture – In a groundbreaking partnership with Google, 137 years of Popular Science archives go digital and free http://is.gd/9Z8XG

mattngtv on March 8th, 2010 at 1:49 pm

so cool RT @brainpicker: In groundbreaking partnership w/Google, 137 years of Popular Science archives go digital & free http://is.gd/9Z8XG

irwinfelddesign on March 8th, 2010 at 1:50 pm

SuellenWags on March 8th, 2010 at 1:53 pm

willy6shoes on March 8th, 2010 at 2:03 pm

RT @brainpicker Popular Science, Digitized http://ow.ly/1pWIcP

PurplePenning on March 8th, 2010 at 2:21 pm

RT @DJSoup: RT @brainpicker: 137 years of Popular Science archives go digital & free http://is.gd/9Z8XG (via @openculture)

ElrikMerlin on March 8th, 2010 at 2:42 pm

RT @brainpicker: if u missed it-groundbreaking partnership with Google, 137 yrs of Popular Science archives digital&free http://is.gd/9Z8XG

ninarieke on March 8th, 2010 at 3:01 pm

RT In groundbreaking partnership with Google 137 years of Popular Science archives go digital and free http://is.gd/9Z8XG /via @brainpicker

wmjohn on March 8th, 2010 at 3:22 pm

RT @ninarieke: RT @brainpicker: if u missed it-partnership with Google, 137 yrs of Popular Science archives digital&free http://is.gd/9Z8XG

mindcaffeine on March 8th, 2010 at 3:24 pm

RT @openculture: RT @brainpicker: In a groundbreaking partnership with Google, 137 years of Popular Science archives go digital and free http://is.gd/9Z8XG

YannisNenes on March 8th, 2010 at 3:56 pm

gbynumpds on March 8th, 2010 at 4:28 pm

roundtrip on March 8th, 2010 at 10:15 pm

monksdream on March 9th, 2010 at 12:10 am

rankinw on March 9th, 2010 at 4:34 am

carolinavallejo on March 9th, 2010 at 4:11 pm

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?????? ?? ????????????? ????? ??? 137 ???? ??? Popular Science « AplosPolitis Blog on March 10th, 2010 at 1:59 pm

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pauladaunt on March 16th, 2010 at 1:21 pm

RT @pauladaunt: RT @brainpicker Popular Science, Digitized http://ow.ly/1pWIcP

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