Popular Mechanics and the Viewmaster
I'm a bit bored with politics right now so here's something completely different for a change.
Popular Mechanics was first published on January 11th 1902. Fifty years later, when I was about 6 or 7, my father started letting me read his copies as soon as he was finished with them but I had to promise not to damage them because he collected them. I can remember getting almost as enraptured by these magazines as I was by my father's science fiction novels that he also let me read.
This has taken me on quite a little trip down memory lane. The 1950s sure was an exciting time to be a boy. The world was poised on the brink of a technological revolution. It seemed that every problem could be solved. No wonder that I've never had time for doom and gloom pessimists. I was raised in an era when the possibilities were endless and America was busy enthusiastically inventing the future. I blame Technicolor movies, Popular Mechanics and sci-fi for making me think like an American decades before becoming one.
The cover of a 1945 edition:
The cover of a 1951 issue which is round about the time I discovered the magazine:
The cover from a 1957 edition:
The cover from a 1959 edition:
And a picture from a 1954 issue.
The caption reads:
Scientists from the RAND Corporation have created this model to illustrate how a "home computer" could look like in the year 2004. However the needed technology will not be economically feasible for the average home. Also the scientists readily admit that the cpmputer will require not yet invented technology to actually work. But 50 years from now scientific progress is expected to solve these problems. With teletype interface and the Fortran language, the computer will be easy to use.
I said that I blame Technicolor movies, Popular Mechanics and sci-fi for making me think like an American decades before becoming one. There was one other thing that helped: a 3D Viewmaster. You put a disc of photographic slides into it and watched - mouth agape - 3D pictures.
I was given one for my 7th birthday. It came with 5 slide shows: the Grand Canyon, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and (my favorite) scenery of the mountains, forests and wildlife of Oregon and California. So, by the time that I came to the USA, I already felt like I was at home. I still have my Viewmaster to this day.
From Wikipedia:
Now, I've gone on another trip down memory lane and I can feel another post about being a lucky and happy boy in the 1950s starting to bubble up in my brain.
Popular Mechanics was first published on January 11th 1902. Fifty years later, when I was about 6 or 7, my father started letting me read his copies as soon as he was finished with them but I had to promise not to damage them because he collected them. I can remember getting almost as enraptured by these magazines as I was by my father's science fiction novels that he also let me read.
This has taken me on quite a little trip down memory lane. The 1950s sure was an exciting time to be a boy. The world was poised on the brink of a technological revolution. It seemed that every problem could be solved. No wonder that I've never had time for doom and gloom pessimists. I was raised in an era when the possibilities were endless and America was busy enthusiastically inventing the future. I blame Technicolor movies, Popular Mechanics and sci-fi for making me think like an American decades before becoming one.
The cover of a 1945 edition:
The cover of a 1951 issue which is round about the time I discovered the magazine:
The cover from a 1957 edition:
The cover from a 1959 edition:
And a picture from a 1954 issue.
The caption reads:
Scientists from the RAND Corporation have created this model to illustrate how a "home computer" could look like in the year 2004. However the needed technology will not be economically feasible for the average home. Also the scientists readily admit that the cpmputer will require not yet invented technology to actually work. But 50 years from now scientific progress is expected to solve these problems. With teletype interface and the Fortran language, the computer will be easy to use.
I said that I blame Technicolor movies, Popular Mechanics and sci-fi for making me think like an American decades before becoming one. There was one other thing that helped: a 3D Viewmaster. You put a disc of photographic slides into it and watched - mouth agape - 3D pictures.
I was given one for my 7th birthday. It came with 5 slide shows: the Grand Canyon, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and (my favorite) scenery of the mountains, forests and wildlife of Oregon and California. So, by the time that I came to the USA, I already felt like I was at home. I still have my Viewmaster to this day.
From Wikipedia:
The View-Master system was invented by William Gruber, an organ maker and avid photographer who lived in Portland, Oregon. He had the idea of updating the old-fashioned stereoscope by using the new Kodachrome color film that had recently become available. While a View-Master reel holds 14 film slides, there are really only seven stereoscopic images; two film slides are viewed simultaneously - one for each eye - thus simulating binocular depth perception.
When on vacation with his wife in 1938, Gruber literally almost ran into Harold Graves, the president of Sawyer's, Inc.(a company that specialized in picture postcards), and the two men struck up a conversation about Mr. Gruber’s invention that lasted well into the night. Shortly thereafter, Gruber and Graves formed a partnership in 1939 which lead to the retail sales of View-Master viewers and reels. Within a very short time, the View-Master quickly took over the postcard business at Sawyer's.
Later that year, View-Master was first introduced at the New York World's Fair. It was intended as an alternative to the scenic postcard, and was originally sold at photography shops, stationery stores and scenic attraction gift shops. The main subjects of View-Master reels were Carlsbad Caverns and the Grand Canyon.
In the 1940s, the U.S. military recognized the potential for using View-Master products for personnel training, purchasing 100,000 viewers and nearly six million reels between 1942 and the end of World War II in 1945.
Now, I've gone on another trip down memory lane and I can feel another post about being a lucky and happy boy in the 1950s starting to bubble up in my brain.
posted by Joubert at 1:09 PM
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