The First look at 1957 Ford, reminds me of that photos of a lowered Chrysler. I love all these covers, creativity for the future. Our future seals to be bleak plastic junk.
I mentioned in the feature that covers during WWII got darker... and had less hope... I didn't post any because I was limiting it to cars and frankly, I don't care for the WWII era covers as much, but here's some examples of that.
Not every one, some just were not fiscally viable. And "Popular Science" as a title, well science is actually 1 long huge experiment right? Took 40 times/formulas to get WD40 to work. Science itself is one giant conglomeration of did arnd didn't. Just easing negativity here. While not the fan some have been they were always interesting and as @Ryan said about the possibilities. I never saw them as an instruction manual.
Dad got me a subscription and it was a great teaching aid, the articles were informative and easy to understand and the multi-faceted content gave me a good solid foundation in many topics. Haven’t seen an issue in years but I always read it cover to cover.
Sounds like my Dad. It was a good day when Popular Science and/or Popular Mechanics came in the mail. Always got Remco (in the round can) and Gilbert Science kits for birthdays/Christmas. My Dad was big on education/learning...seems like I should have ended up being smarter than this.
When I was young, we usually had the latest issue of Scientific American laying on the coffee table. Not nearly as wild of pictures on the cover!
A lot of the early illustrated covers had almost the same appeal as some of the older "girlie" magazines, mashed up with "True Crime" and "American Detective" type cover art. Some of the artwork seemed to have been done by a few of the lesser known pin-up artists of the age. The "not quite your A-list" guys like Vargas or Elvgren. Do most of the online magazines even bother with "cover art" anymore?
A gift subscription to Popular Science when I was a teenager forever changed my life, and the path that I was to follow. Not the content of the magazine, but an ad. Mark O. Haroldson took out a full page ad for his book "How to Wake Up the Financial Genius Inside You". It had a money back guarantee. Me, being a 17 year old gas pump jockey with absolutely no idea what I was going to do after high school and no guidance, was gullible enough to buy the book. Well, I was also gullible enough to believe every word in the book and started following the instructions on how to enter the world of business and real estate investing with little to nothing down. By the time my relatives found out and told me not to do it, it was too late, I was already buying rentals at age 19. And I'm still in it 45 years later. Thanks to Popular Science!
Getting to work should never be boring...it's a toboggan portage of course...them things did fly down the slopes...my tailbone aches thinking about it...
Ryan, nice send off to the now digital edition...bet they forecasted that in one of their issues in the past...at least they're surviving...but yeah talk about a stunning array of gorgeous Graphic Art of wild ideas... I have shared some offshoots inspired by these designs here...the fan powered car...I'll see if I can dig it up... Mechanix Illustrated comes to mind seeing these...I guess they were after a similar market...and equally colorful and Illustrated... I'm certainly not a big print person but it's still sad to see so many businesses struggling to meet the bottom line...and sad to see many former giants disappearing...but on a big screen Popular Science can still open the eyes for an experience in how, why, when, where and what...good luck to their future...
Back to post #6,,,,, yeah,,,,the war years were a lot darker and less hope . Actually,,,,,,,until about June 1944,,,,it was very conceivable we could lose . They anticipated losing about 7 out of 10 on DDay,,,,,but we had to try anyway! I still believe that there was Divine intervention in that landing . The weather should not have cleared that quickly,,,,,,thank the Lord it did ! The public was probably very interested about war machines then . And I guess there were not many cars to put in magazine articles at that time,,,,,the factories were making everything but cars for the public . But,,,, when the GI s came home,,,,,,hot rodding and motorcycles took off ! By the 50s and 60s,,,,,,it was a wild time,,,and a lot of the greats came along then . Beautiful customs,,,,,serious racing horsepower,,,,,records being broken everywhere. The sky was the limit,,,,lol . Tommy
I love the art of those days. same style as what we see in auto brochures and advertising of the day.
As dark as war is, that wartime Art is impressive...the Machines, the Mass of them...I worked on an Avro Lancaster Heavy Bomber...a cruel machine but massively beautiful and technologically overwhelming really...so much tech for the hell that is war... But yes they didn't know which way things would go...In a quirky way feel that of today...we're not there yet but... I do more enjoy the non war related stuff that I feel the world would do better to revell in...and those vintage mags still bring a warm smile even today...
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...genized-hotrods.1002926/page-98#post-13039869 ... I'm letting you off easy with a fine for no propeller guard son...
The entire purpose of this periodical's (I feel old using that word) existence may have been for just that very reason-- inspiration. The desire for and comfort in things mechanical and hold-it-in-your-hands-and-touch-it has slowly decreased in subsequent generations (i.e. post-Baby Boomers), but this very forum is a testament to its perseverance, though the focus and scope are now much narrower. Not a bad thing really, just different.
Hey @Ryan Thanks for posting the incredible artwork from Popular Science. Back in the day, Popular Mechanics also had some pretty incredible artwork as well. I was always amazed at the wide range of stuff, that was advertised in such publications.
I'll bet many Artists work crossed all those Publications, Graphic art everywhere cover to cover...and a few photographs...Rockwells of a different hand really...
I started collecting these magazines and the other similar ones like Popular Mechanics, Mechanix illustrated, Science and mechanics, etc, many years ago, snapping up boxes of them at swap meets and second-hand stores. Having read them all a few times each, I would put a marker in the articles like "cutting glass" or "make an arc welder from scrap". I made a few of these projects, and you could see that the early issues were written when the average person had very little, and cast-off parts were re-used to make stuff - the origins of hot rodding I suppose. They had articles about hot rodding and some oddball stuff like a '32 with a war-surplus gas turbine installed and lots of other neat articles which could be applied to our hobby buried in there. I kept buying and reading these up until the early 80's, but by then they stopped showing you how to make things and just showed you how to buy things. I found the ads as interesting as the articles, but I'm still waiting for my "Make money by raising Mink" book to arrive.
Several years ago when I was in tech school, the boxes of old Popular Science magazines was set aside to go to the dump...I brought them home. I only have a scant few left. There used to be an online repository of back issues, I haven't looked for it in a long, LONG while, but it made me feel better about throwing out most of the old ones I had that were damaged by moisture from a tornado a decade or so back *sigh* I still have one from 1917 that escaped the fate of the rest.
I saw that site recently...seriously awesome really...I looked up an old Thread and found the issue and reposted the lost page because I was curious of the theme...
The Jalopy Journal
