Comments on: help me find an old book of science projects

Question: help me find an old book of science projects

Good Brain — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 23:16:58 -0800

Can you help me find an awesome old book of science projects. I remember many relevant details, but nothing handy like the author or title.

In the early 80's when I was growing up in Salt Lake City, I found an awesome book of science projects in the main branch of the public library. It was old, I'd guess late 50s, perhaps pre-sputnik, because I don't remember much space or rocketry content. A substantial portion of the original slip cover looked like it had probably been safety orange, though it was faded by the time I got my hands on it. Lettering on the covering was sans serif and there were various halftones of apparatus and experiments from the book.

I most clearly remember the chemistry experiments with luminol and other forms of chemiluminescece, and a variety of awesome electrical apparatus including Van de Graf generators, enormous transformers, tesla coils, induction coils and Jacobs ladders. There was also a section on kirlian photography. It may or may not have had a section on lasers and holography (which would place it into the 60s). There may also have been sections on radio transmitters and more, but they didn't make the same impression.

It was a pretty thick book, probably 2", the other dimensions were probably close to that of a typical trade hardback. Inside, the layout was pretty business-like. There were captioned halftone photos, illustrations and diagrams, interspersed with blocks of text. It did not mingle text with illustrations in the manner of the Golden Book of Chemistry.

It was not a kids book, I'd guess that it was targeted at teenagers, or even science instructors. I've looked through the online catalog and it looks like they've purged any science project books older than the late 60s from their collection.

I hope my description will ring a bell with someone. I'd love to pick up a used copy. It was a great book, and I think about it every time I open a new copy of Make magazine.

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 00:08:03 -0800

I wonder if you were looking at a reprint of articles from "The Amateur Scientist" column of "Scientific American"?

During the 50's, 60's, and 70's they used to publish some of the damndest things, like how to make your own sputtering chamber for putting metal onto glass mirrors. You used a nichrome wire to cut off the bottom of a 1-gallon glass jug. Rubber from an innertube was cut to make a seal. To evacuate the chamber, you used a compressor scavanged from a refrigerator. Then you had to muck with high voltage to make the metal deposition work, but that wasn't too tough as long as you don't mind screwing with hundreds of volts... All the articles from that period were like that; entirely too cool, right out of Tom Swift.

In the mid 1980's some time there was a change, and after that they stopped being fun. (They started writing articles about how to study a candle flame, and similarly prosaic stuff like that.)

The kinds of things you listed would be completely plausible as being from the golden age of The Amateur Scientist.

By: Good Brain

Good Brain — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 01:09:03 -0800

I think that the book was likely very much in the same tradition of the old amateur scientist column, but i don't think it was a compilation or other derivative work. I was well aware of SciAm at about the same time I was checking out this book and I think any connection would have been noted and remembered.

It wasa really cool book, and should probably be in the library of any aspiring techoindustrial performance artist today.

By: jkaczor

jkaczor — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 09:02:38 -0800

I had checked out a book like that as well (no slipcover, but the dimensions were about the same) - it even had instructions for getting chemicals from your local pharmacist - I think the one I saw was 40's-era.

Unfortunately I cannot recall the name.

By: iconomy

iconomy — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 10:55:35 -0800

Was it The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments?

By: iconomy

iconomy — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 11:01:34 -0800

If it is, it was banned in the 60s, but there's a torrent and a pdf so you can check and see if it's the book you remember.

By: iconomy

iconomy — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 11:05:11 -0800

Other possibilities:

a link at boing boing

make magazine 5 page list of good reference books

By: iconomy

iconomy — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 12:10:57 -0800

Ergh. Sorry, if I had thoroughly read your question I would know it wasn't the book about chemistry.

By: Wet Spot

Wet Spot — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 13:38:15 -0800

Could it be "Junior Science Projects," published by Arco Publishing (1967)? The slip cover is bright orange. The projects were articles originally published in Science Experimenter magazine, and includes the ones you mentioned.

I have a copy of it. Email in profile if you think this might be it.

By: Good Brain

Good Brain — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 01:33:22 -0800

That could well be he one, Wet Spot! I found a used copy and placed an order. I guess I'll know in a week.

By: Good Brain

Good Brain — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 11:01:40 -0800

Thanks for the scan of the cover and the index. That looks like the one I was thinking about. It will be interesting to see to what degree my memory of the book and the book itself differ.