Subject: Re: Off The Wall_Stuff In Old Magazines

From: [email-masked] (Wesley Brzozowski)
Date: 12 Sep 1996 14:02:32 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Len Turnbow) writes:
|> : I've been thinking about doing something like this with 
|> : my own collection for
|> : some time now. While I don't have a lot of free time, 
|> : a project like this one
|> : would be worth putting a good bit of that free time into. 
|> : This would be especially true if it meant getting my hands 
|> : on other people's article lists, as I greatly value my own 
|> : list of pointers and would treasure additional ones.
|> (Snip)
|> 
|> Does the 'Index of Periodical Literature' at the local library
|> contain the citations you need?

A reasonable idea; it could supply some of our information, in time. However,
many of the old magazines contain numerous subtopics in a monthly column. We
could find a citation for the columns in the index, but not the
subtopics, themselves. Nevertheless, your question does have much merit in
the long term. At present, we don't even have a list of likely topics to be
covered by such a list. Once a list were created, and the list of topics 
reasonably stable, it might be possible for a group  of individuals to go
through 80-90 years' worth of Indices, looking to fill in gaps that
we've missed on those topics.

But right now, there are lists in the hands of various collectors, representing
many, many hours of research that's already been done. They represent articles
or subtopics in a column that have been seen and judged worth going back to.
Admittedly, individual judgements are very subjective, but given a volume of
information that's so huge, and given the fact that most of us don't have the
spare time to check everything out there, it helps narrow the odds of finding
a winner. We want to collect whatever of those lists as may be made available
and compile them into something useful. Those lists will also contain references
to books, and one e-mail has suggested expanding it to other sources, like
videos, URLs, or whatever else. These all need to be discussed.

That's not to discourage your thought in any way. If someone wants to volunteer
for such an enormous job, once the list is large enough that we have a good
handle on its scope and so have defined the topics it covers, we'll be grateful
to put 'em to work.

At the moment, I don't know what's going to happen with the list. There have
been a couple of offers of help, and I'm very interested in producing 
something. Depending on the information that's contributed and what various
people are willing to do, the list could end up big or small. I hope it will
become big enough that we'll use your suggestion. Thanks for mentioning it.

Wes B. 

-- 

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*  Wes Brzozowski                 *                                         *
*  [email-masked]  *                                         *
*  [email-masked]              *                                         *
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From: [email-masked] (Michael D. Horgan)
Date: 12 Sep 1996 21:38:41 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>
[email-masked] (Edk4) wrote:

> About two decades ago, I accumulated over 800 issues of PM, 
> PS, S&M*  and MI, when people were bringing darn near *anything* 
> to flea markets here in NE. (*not the bondage one, they use cheap
> paper and it just doesn't hold up)
<snip>
> It's a shame no one has indexed or catalogued the rich resource 
> these magazines represent.       Or, have they?
> 
> ------------------
> Ed Kingsley
> 
Metal Web News, the website for this group, has a pointer to the
 Institute of Metal Research in Escondido, Ca.  At their address:
http://tbr.state.tn.us/~wgray/newsletters/imr/imr-main.html
they have a file with:

 "A listing of magazine articles showing plans for making your own
 metalworking tools and equipment. We reviewed all major U.S
 magazines from 1900 to 1980. You need a library with a good 
collection of old magazines. When you find it, you will be tapped
into the motherload of tool and equipment plans. "

I used their list at my local library to get some neat stuff, like the
 plans for building a Metal Shaper, you'll find on my website at 
http://users.aol.com/lughaid , that were in the November 1928 
edition of Popular Mechanics. The list isn't complete, because of 
the particular things they were looking for, but it's a good start.
Regards.

Michael D Horgan 
[email-masked]
http://users.aol.com/lughaid/
[email-masked] 
[email-masked],   
[email-masked]