Rob writes – “The Mad Science library has several PDF’s of vintage science books including a 1960 volume of the Scientific American Book of Projects For The Amateur Scientist. The rest of the site is full of interesting info too.” – Link.
We collect a lot of these old publications and books at MAKE, it’s incredibly interesting to note the contrast of what was published for amateur scientists, and everyone just 30, 40, 50+ years ago compared to now, which really isn’t a lot. Wired has an interesting article “Don’t Try This at Home” it talks about a shrinking hobbyist market and why this is happening – liability, terrorism and all sorts of things, but the more you read these texts, the more it’s clear, we were not intended to be a “nanny nation” we’re a nation founded on tinkering, inventing and ingenuity – check out the PDFs, find these old books, look at our archives of older texts, they’re inspiring, the projects are a lot fun with a relentlessly consistent theme of “Do try this at home…”
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