I did not come from a “maker” household, so I was restricted to window-shopping. I was fascinated by the hand-drawn illustrations and black-and-white photographs. No Illustrator or Photoshop for another 50 years, thank you! The gorgeous “Rakish Privateer Clipper of 1812” was intricate beyond all hope, requiring milling, woodwork, and fittings. But the “Mayan Throwing Sticks” looked possible, and the kids in the illustration were having a great time.
number of hours I pored over this book as a kid. Published in 1937 by Popular Science Publishing Company, Inc., it was obsolete decades before I was born, yet it is captivating in the glimpse it provides into the pre-WWII maker’s world. At 330-plus pages and one to five projects per page, it is filled with projects that range from simple to elaborate, from relevant to bizarre. A few are even politically insensitive in our era.
While several of the projects make little sense today, such as “Comical Coconut Bird Serves as an Ash-tray” or “Eight Scoop Popcorn Server,” there are Instructions for mak- ing a small furnace that hundreds that are still appropriate and approachable, can melt aluminum, good e. g., “Lathe Gear Cutting,” “Glass Cutting Jig for making castings of Removes Bottle Tops,” “Homemade Furnace Melts “attractive novelties.” Aluminum,” “Homemade Tool Shapes Metal Tubing,” Copies of Amateur and “An Easy Way to Turn True Wooden Balls.” Craftsman’s Cyclopedia It was the games and toys that drew me in again of Things to Make appear and again — the “Walking Top Game,” the “Magic frequently on Amazon and Knives for Trick Surgery,” the “Rubber Bulb Toy eBay for about $10. Submarine,” and especially the “Ticket-Dropping Airplane,” which offered assurances to “start a party off with a bang.” I had no lack of toys as a kid, but it was mind-blowing that someone could make Make sure to recite an “appropriate airplane these. verse” before setting this The scary ones are fun as well. No dust masks, tiny payload-delivering air- gloves, safety goggles, saw guards, or warnings in craft aloft over the heads sight. Were some lives shortened while “Making of a “gathering of young folks ... The resulting con- a Mercury Barometer,” or a “Simple Hygrometer fusion and laughter will Made with Carbon Tetrachloride,” or the double- break the ice and start the whammy of “Smoker’s Set Made of Thin Sheet party off in the right spirit Lead”? What are we blithely making now that will of hilarity.” horrify our grandchildren?
There’s something for everyone in this book. It H.B. Siegel is technology director for IMDb.com (part of demonstrates recycling and reuse way before it was Amazon.com). He has been CTO for ILM and in management cool. Recommended. at Pixar, Wavefront, and SGI.
Images courtesy of H.B. Siegel
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