It looks like Google has put up a bunch of old magazines on the Google Books site. Probably the most interseting to me is the entire collection of Popular Science — that’s 138 years of the magazine! (Though, they were mostly just text until about 1917 when they started doing full-color covers.) Facinating stuff. Take a look.

Popular Science Archives On Google Books

Update: With all that’s on the web page, it’s a little hard to figure out how to read the magazine. First, click on the issue you want in the left-right scroll area in the middle of the screen. When the cover appears in the upper-left, click on the “Read this magazine” button. It should open the Google Book Search page with a full-sized view of the entire magazine. Just scroll up and down.

You can also click on the Contents link to bring you to the table of contents. There you can click on anything with a blue underline and it will take you right to that page. Pretty cool!

Be sure to check out page 218 of the January 1950 issue. You can learn how to build a Labor-Saving Kitchen Designed By Doctors. It has great lines like “How much work is it for your wife to prepare your breakfast?” Ha-ha! The answer, NONE, because I do all the cooking.