JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post/Annual Image Series

I’ve posted many times on interesting  images that I’ve found in many different journals, my favorite and most commonly used sources being Scientific American (1845-1920), Journal of the Franklin Institute (1828-1960), Popular Mechanics (1920-1950), Science and Invention (1920-1940), Popular Science (1880-1920), and that sort, though I prefer those listed as I have them here and they’re a delight to browse…you learn something every time you open the volume. While saving and naming a scanned image just now, dropping it into place according to publication/year, it occurred to me that I could create a simple series of posts on selected images per given year by journal/magazine. This would give the images some context (or at least more so than as stand-alones) and it would also be very easy to do since the work is already done. 

The first of the series will be for Popular Mechanics, January-June, 1942. The volume is heavily war-related, and offhand I’d say the general impression is that most of that is defensive (coastal defense, air raid wardens, gas masks) than offensive (attack plans, fighter planes, warships, etc.).  Here’s a sample: