Second Anniversary (Aug, 1934)
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Aug, 1934
| Buy on Ebay
Today is the second anniversary of this site. Below I’ve included the first article I posted on October 18, 2005. It’s still one of my favorites. I thought it might be interesting to our regular readers to explain how this site came into being and evolved into what it is today.
I want to give a huge thanks to my roommate Simone for all of her help on this site. Without her there really would not be a Modern Mechanix blog. When I met Simone my magazine collection consisted of a few old Popular Science and Popular Mechanics magazines from the 1950’s. I had bought them simply because I loved reading them. Originally my idea for the blog was only to post early articles about things that had become everyday. Basically, the whole blog was meant to be what is now the Origins category. I was thinking of naming the blog “Prior Art” or “You heard it here first”, both pretty lame. Simone and I had talked about my idea for the site and for my birthday she got me a pile of Modern Mechanix mags from ebay and Modern Mechanix the blog was born. Later she came up with a name I liked a lot better, “Retrospectacle” but we had already developed a small following and I didn’t really want to change the name midstream. I noticed recently that someone else came up with that name as well. I actually still own the domain.
For the first few months of the blog I read magazines and marked them up with post-its, then scanned the articles I wanted. I was pretty specific in the kind of stuff I wanted for the site. Science, technology, inventions, origins, stuff like that. I wasn’t really a big fan of scanning and I was pretty lazy about it. Out of a whole magazine I would usually scan maybe 20 pages. Simone offered to take over the scanning for me, and I soon noticed that she was scanning a lot more pages than I had marked. Usually 50-80 pages. I’d come home and she’d yell something at me like “I can’t believe you missed the robot that yodels!”. She found tons of great stuff that I hadn’t even noticed. Sometime last year she got to know my taste in articles so well that I just stopped marking them. I’d read the magazines when I bought them, but I knew she’d catch pretty much everything. I can’t tell you how much fun we have going over whatever she scanned from a particular magazine.
Our current division of labor is: I find the magazines I want on eBay and buy them. Simone scans them, then I edit, straighten, crop, name and organize the files. Then on any particular day I browse through our collection and figure out a nice collection of articles to post. I OCR the article, possibly comment on it, then post it. I try to mix it up a bit, so some of the articles I’ve posted this week are from magazines we scanned over a year ago. It seems to work really well and it keeps it fun for both of us. It’s a lot of work and I know I would never be able to do it on my own, so thank you Simone for all your hard work.
I’d also like to give a huge shout out to all of our regular commenters. The details and back stories, the life experiences and the just plain funny comments you guys post are wonderful. I think I can speak for Simone when I tell you that reading your comments are our favorite part of having this site.
I have lots of ideas for new features of the site and I am planning on doing a new design for it as well. I realize I’ve been saying this for the last year or so, but this time I mean it! If you’re a talented designer looking for a challenge, please drop me an email. I really have no aesthetic ability and while I am a programmer by trade, my HTML skill set stopped evolving sometime around 1998.
In case you’re interested, here’s a few statistics about the site:
- We have posted 3,342 articles from 338 magazine issues.
- We have had approximately 8 million page views and about 2.5 million unique visitors.
- We generally get around 500,000 page views a month.
- We currently have approximately 16,000 scanned images in our library, so don’t worry about us running out.
- We currently serve about 300 gigabytes of images a month.
- Our spam filter has caught 1,231,893 pieces of comment spam.
It is a terrific site that I have used as a resource for many posts relating to housing, solar and the environment. Congratulations and keep it up!!!
Comment by Lloyd Alter — October 18, 2007 @ 9:07 am
You could not have created a site more suited toward my fascination with how we got where we are today. (And how we didn’t get how we are today.) Thank you so much for all your work!
Comment by glindsey — October 18, 2007 @ 9:26 am
I grew up reading my Dad’s collection of these magazines. That experience was lost until I found this website. Your blog has become one of my favorite stops on the net. Thanks for the last two years and we’ll be looking forward to many more.
Comment by Firebrand38 — October 18, 2007 @ 10:38 am
Congratulations Both! Keep it up!
Comment by sweavo — October 18, 2007 @ 10:47 am
I found this site not too long ago when I was looking for futuristic house prototypes from the early 20th C. and I’ve subscribed to the RSS feed ever since. Love the inventor/visionary/futurist spirit that permeates all of this stuff. All the hard work you two put into getting these out here in the information commons is definitely appreciated. Thanks!
Comment by Jen — October 18, 2007 @ 10:47 am
You have brought a tremendous enjoyment to thousands of readers, young and old. I remember some of the articles from my childhood browsing my dad’s collection from the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. They bring back many good memories. I particularly enjoy the DIY articles from an age before litigation and fear of liability put an end to anything more adventurous than painting a table or building a shelf.
Thank you and I wish you both all the best!
Comment by Paul Carney — October 18, 2007 @ 11:09 am
I grew up reading old Popular Science amd Popular Mechanics as a child in India. Someone had donated a large set of bound volumes of these magazines to my school. Every lunch break, I used to spend a wonderful hour reading these magazines. Your web site brings back many happy memories.
Comment by Rangachari Anand — October 18, 2007 @ 11:59 am
Fun, fun, fun site — THANX!
Comment by Don — October 18, 2007 @ 12:16 pm
Keep up the great site. I now look every day to see what new articles are posted.
…and I always love seeing Willie Vocalite or any of the old Westinghouse robots.
By the way, Willie and his brothers are still on display here: http://www.mansfieldmuseum.org/exhibits.html
Comment by Thundercat — October 18, 2007 @ 12:28 pm
Thank you very much for your great labor, not only for scanning and posting whole articles but specially for the lively commentaries you write, enhancing the experience of reading this old material.
Thank you again, and keep up the good work!!!
Comment by Ergosum — October 18, 2007 @ 12:47 pm
Huge thanks for the daily fascination!
Comment by Julie — October 18, 2007 @ 4:36 pm
Thank you! I only discovered this blog this spring, but you’re the first on the Favorites list of the new computer!
Comment by nlpnt — October 18, 2007 @ 6:04 pm
You are one of my favorite sites. Thank you for the inspiration and happy anniversary!
Comment by Mary Robinette Kowal — October 18, 2007 @ 8:16 pm
Thanks so much for all the effort you put into this site. I look forward to reading it on a daily basis. Happy anniversary!!!
Comment by Mike Brisendine — October 19, 2007 @ 3:32 am
A wonderful work. Have you ever given the thought of posting a “want list” of publications presently missing from your collection with a mailing address for any that would like to donate to “keep the ball rolling”?
Comment by William Deering — October 19, 2007 @ 7:04 am
Thanks everyone, I’m really glad you like the site!
William: I have thought of that, but I actually have plenty of material to scan, it’s just getting the time to scan and edit it that’s the problem. Right now I have five really awesome issues of Modern Mechanix that Simone has scanned, but that I haven’t gotten a chance to edit yet.
Comment by Charlie — October 19, 2007 @ 8:54 am
CONGRATS! and as I have said before, thank you very much for the invaluable work you have been doing for all of us. This is a really precious initiative and that’s what makes all the web crap be worth it. PLEASE, DON’T STOP!
Comment by galessa — October 19, 2007 @ 1:01 pm
This is by far one of the best sites on the internet. I come here EVERY day to laugh and learn something. Please keep up the good work and thank you.
Comment by bloodfart — October 19, 2007 @ 1:17 pm
Congratulations and thanks for your great website–a daily read for me.
You need to do the radio train article!!
Comment by Randy — October 19, 2007 @ 1:22 pm
One of my favorites! Congratulations on two years of this amazing site. Thanks very much.
-B
Comment by Blazorge — October 19, 2007 @ 5:57 pm
Congratulations on your anniversary, and thanks for making the blog
Comment by Mike — October 19, 2007 @ 9:53 pm
Congratulations and thank you!
Comment by Blurgle — October 20, 2007 @ 12:23 am
Well, I didn’t post many comments and I guess this is the time to add another, like: please don’t stop, this is too good ! Others above have taken the words from my mouth: it makes the internet worthwile.
And if you go to a new design, please don’t make it to wild. I like this one. It’s clear, simple, and fits the contents alright.
Thanks again.
Comment by Ray B. — October 21, 2007 @ 8:29 am
I love your blog and whilst it has nothing to do with my work life (or really my personal) it’s a breath of fresh air into my online reading – congrats on getting to 2 and here’s to many more!
Comment by Mike Riversdale — October 21, 2007 @ 1:50 pm
I rarely comment, but I’ve been reading the site and stealing content for one of my sites regularly for well over a year now. Thanks to you and Simone for all the awesome work, and I hope you never stop doing this.
Comment by Randy — October 21, 2007 @ 2:17 pm
Yee-haw! Two years of one of the coolest sites on the Intarwebs! Congratulations, C&S. Keep the good stuff coming.
Comment by Jim Dunn — October 22, 2007 @ 10:09 am
Uh, didn’t they knew that there are only 3 devices to build a robot: a pulley, a lever and an inclined combustine engine
Comment by roflcopter — October 25, 2007 @ 1:04 am
I once had a stack of Popular Mechanics which I purposed to read cover-to-cover. None were so old as most of the magazines at this site, but I think the older ones are better, funnier, and more amazing. They are also good fodder for the creative mind to chew on… munch munch.
Thank you both for all your hard work!
Comment by blast — November 3, 2007 @ 7:46 am
great site- hours of fun !
Comment by james vaughan — January 2, 2008 @ 12:40 pm