Better Living Through Science: Highlights From The July 1953 Issue Of Popular Science

 

I was feeling a bit unmotivated so I turned around to my bookshelf and grabbed for some inspiration…the July 1953 Popular Science that’s been gathering dust there for some time. I’ve always loved these old rags from before my time—Popular Science, Mechanix Illustrated, Popular Mechanics—when I used to hook school, I’d go to the library and could spend the whole day with a stack of these.  I still could.

I decided that some of the highlights of this issue might be worth sharing, since we do tend to lean towards nostalgia as the mechanical side of life. I picked these two excerpts for the top shot, as they rather encapsulate the whole vibe. Yes, my back could use some of that neck-stretching therapy and I’d love to be able to ride this table saw around the block.

Unfortunately the cover is a bit underwhelming, compared to so many from the past that imagined amazing rockets, airplanes, cars, trains and such. Build your own diving lung? How prosaic. I wonder how many readers did? But there’s plenty of goodness inside…

The inside cover was invariably taken by a product to increase the mileage of your car by some remarkable amount. Keep in mind that cars back then were lucky to break 20 mpg. But sure, “Mix Water, Save Gas” was the scientifically proven way to get 35-50 mpg.

Vocational schools and correspondence courses were big advertisers. Everyone wanted to get ahead, and radio and TV sounded much more glamorous than working in the lumber mill.

And of course Charles Atlas always graced the pages of these magazines.

Lots of smaller ads too. “Illustrated Comic Booklets  – The Kind Men Like!” 20 different booklets sent in a plain wrapper for only $1.00.

Pages and pages of ads, then the “Classified Opportunities”, twelve pages of them. It was all about chasing the American dream, through a better job, a side gig or some mail order scam.

But the best parts were the new inventions. It’s always fun to see which one became something, which ones failed and which ones needed to be reinvented to be truly practical.

Here’s a really useful device for walking on water. Actually, the original intent by the inventor was to use roller skates to turn the rubber-coated roller, but when that failed he took them off and reverted to bare feet. No surprise: he lived in LA.

And not just inventions in the usual sense, but practical solutions. This gardener got tired of pushing a heavy lawn roller so he did the obvious…and yes, some folks were still driving Model As in 1953; they were only some 20 years old.

Why was Dr. William Shockley wearing this device at a banquet? It was a miniature radio, thanks to the transistors that he helped invent. He tricked his guests with it.

Speaking of radios, if your radio wasn’t getting good reception, the solution was to set your telephone in a pie tin and connect it to the radio. Maybe a tin foil hat would work too?

There was even a section titled “New Ideas From The Inventors”. Cladding old buildings with a new facade was a new invention, in 1953? Me thinks not.

I don’t seem to remember any of these going into production.

I’m afraid this rather complex 2-stroke valveless diesel airplane engine with an axial-flow compressor driven by a large exhaust turbine that also added thrust didn’t quite get off the ground either. Not to stereotype, but yes, it was British. The British aviation industry in the ’50s had a few high points, but there were lots of complex and questionable dead ends. Way too many.

There was a lot of automotive content, along with neck-stretching and such. Before I forget, anti-gravity Inversion Therapy for back pain is a real thing, and has been for quite a long time, but the devices are a bit less intimidating to look at, and less dependent on the mood of the operator.

In a preview of current frustrations with complex instrument panel controls and touch screens, these two pages document the growing complexity of car dashboards from the good old days to the then-present.

Food irradiation is a thing, and it’s quite effective (and harmless) but for one reason or another it’s never quite caught on.

Legendary three-time Indy 500 winner Wilbur Shaw reviewed cars for PS then, and this issue he looks at Bill Frick’s success in swapping Cadillac engines into the new ’53 Studebaker coupe, resulting in the legendary Studellac. Power was almost doubled and it could hit 125 mph. It was an ideal marriage, the low and aerodynamic Studebaker with the powerful Cadillac V8.  We have a full driving review by “Uncle” Tom Cahill here.

Tom Frick was quite the character, having had a too-successful career in midget racing, among other things. He started swapping Cadillac V8s into Fords, but when the beautiful Starlight coupe came along, it was an obvious fit, especially since the Studebaker V8 had a lot of similarities to the Caddy V8, except in the power department.

But it was hardly just a straight swap. The more powerful engine also called for a mercury rear axle with wider brake drums, among other changes.

Frick understood chassis dynamics very well. He was booted out of midget racing because he set up his racer with offset axles to optimize grip in the curves and thus won almost constantly. From that experience he devised this “Curve Master”, which was a very early form of active suspension. It worked by pulling down on the inside front wheel spring, to reduce leaning and increase grip on the inside tire. Very advanced for 1953!

He was also in the process of adding much bigger Cadillac front brakes too.

Here’s some new products for your car. Magnetic drain plugs very much became a thing, but using the seat belt to help keep the door from opening in a crash? Maybe not so much.

Wow; both the Messerschmitt and the Isetta make a first appearance here. Looks like Willy M. also had a rickshaw style contraption in mind too. And the Isetta was then a new design by Iso in Italy, which BMW would license shortly.

Oh yes, a gas-engine driven propeller for flattening hills on a bicycle, that makes more sense than using it to turn the wheels. He just needs a parasail.

And more brilliant ideas, something you can do yourself at home!

An Italian radiator with a food compartment? Hmm. A zip out convertible rear window? Well that was an obvious winner. But the table saw you can ride to work? Seriously? It was invented by Stanley Hiller, Jr., “boy wonder of the helicopter industry”. Maybe he should have just stuck to copters.

And then there’s the “I’d Like To See Them Make…” section where readers can mail in their wish list of new inventions. I can see a very obvious problem with the newspaper spring gun: newspapers were huge and heavy back then. How about a newspaper cannon?  And yes, spray on rubbers was so obvious. Maybe it could used on other body parts too?

And of course more ads, always touting miraculous cheap solutions to expensive problems.

A Hillman Minx rigged up for the 1,000 mile Monte Carlo Rally, with running hot and cold water, a sink, a bar (of course!), complete first aid kit, and more, including a tape recorder describing the route so as to make the navigator redundant. I wonder how well it did?

Here’s another handy solution to rapid heel wear on shoes: split copper rivets! I so remember getting my Bass Weejuns re-soled and heeled, but both in leather so we could run and slide, sometimes quite far on a sloping asphalt surface. Mom; my heels and soles are worn out again!

And of course towards the back was the inevitable Gus Wilson story. These were fixtures in PS for decades and the Model garage became legendary.

And the lessons Gus imparted weren’t just about cars’ breakdowns, but human frailties as well. Gus was a philosopher, and his imparted wisdom left an imprint on me as well as untold million others (I had a PS subscription in the ’60s).

Gus always solved the problem, or more than one.