Edison Would Have Loved This One
Written: Apr 15 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Very educational
Cons: It's too short
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| Rocketgirl's Full Review: American Heritage of Invention and Technology Mag... |
A friend of mine was leaving our company and gave me a stack of these magazines before he left. He knew I had an interest in history and thought I would enjoy these. He was right! I have recently picked up new editions at the newsstand and I am glad to see the magazine still retains its high quality.
If you enjoy American Heritage magazine you should also like this one. First, it is published by the same company, so you will get the same high quality and high standards of its parent magazine. Though it is a magazine about technology, it does not get bogged in down in scientific terminology and jargon. It is written for the layman. Many of the inventions discussed aren't what anybody would think of as "hi-tech." But some of the theories and testing it took to get there are. For example, one article in a past issue talked about "Botts Dots," those little dots pasted on the highway center line that reflect light. A very interesting story!
The Spring issue features stories on spy photography, the first calculators, violins, and car radios. The story on spy photography was especially interesting since it shows photos taken from actual cameras used and how the image quality steadily improved. The "Postfix" column is a regular feature about some brand-name product from the past. This one is about "Magic Fingers," the mattress with massage. Other stories from the past include: speech synthesizers, mainframe computers, ball-point pen, superliners, the "Monitor" ironclad, ice cream, ether, and the Model T.
Other regular features include letters, and notes from the field (a potpourri of short stories). A new feature, called Object Lessons, looks at the history of things we encounter in our everyday lives. This month's feature looks at the answering machine.
This is a quarterly magazine so it won't topple over your stack of unread magazines. It is only about 65 pages, which is a little short for the money that you pay. But considering that there are very few advertisements in the magazine, the price is probably worth it. I would recommend this magazine to anyone interested in history or who likes to know how we arrived at where we are today. The magazine is very educational and is one of very few I don't pitch into the garbage can when I am finished.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Rocketgirl
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 in Books |
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Member: Beth
Location: Tri-Cities, WA
Reviews written: 398
Trusted by: 224 members
About Me:
So many books, so little time.
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