Postal Service by Projectile: Delivering Mail With Rockets
Long before email, it was predicted that traditional letters would be dropped off using the ever-advancing technology of the Space Age.
Matt Novak
How to Conjure a Ghost to Get a Murderer to Confess
All you need is a projector and a willing prisoner.
The Electric Directory: the Google Maps of 1917
Before Mapquest and Google, there was the "electric directory."
Thinking Cap: A Helmet That Seals Out External Sounds and Sights
Never worry about distractions again.
The History of the Audiobook
Before they started playing music, LPs were used to play books for those who couldn't see.
Radios Had 'Like' Buttons Before the Internet Existed
This one was actually a real button, too.
The Dream Recorder (of 1926)
Scientists are getting closer than ever to capturing the contents of our dreams, a goal since at least the 1920s.
Nikola Tesla and the Myth of the Lone Inventor
We like our inventors to be lone geniuses, but it's almost always the case that today's giant is standing on the shoulders of yesterday's.
Will California Build an Earthquake Warning System?
We're a long way from being able to predict temblors, but what if we had even a few moments of warning before the shaking started?
Adding a Horse to the Horseless Carriage of Yore
Nostalgic for the nostalgia of yesterday? Popular Science had a thriving enterprise in the 1930s that looked back at wacky inventions from earlier years.
Tired of Annoying Ads When You're Listening to Music?
Inventors have been trying to find a way to silence ads since way before Spotify, Pandora and Grooveshark
Visions of Futuristic Air Travel (And Plenty of Leg Room!) in 1946
The vision of post-war air travel isn't all that different from what well-heeled fliers can get today, but what a long, strange trip it's been.
How a Mine in South Africa Used X-Rays to Scan Workers for Diamonds
One mine in 1919 South Africa had a foolproof way to see whether its miners were smuggling out raw diamonds: it gave them a radiation-laden scan at the end of every shift.
Distracted Drivers Are Nothing New
Forget cellphones. The real danger from distracted driving is the car radio—according to observers in the days before Sirius, in-car DVD players, and even web browsers.
Steam-Powered Cars: California's 1970s Smog Solution
Steam-powered cars may sound like a shout-out to the early 1900s, but in 1970s California the idea was building up a real head of, umm, steam.
Driving a Dead Horse: Making Cars Less Frightening in 1904
The traffic safety department is trying to get the nation used to today's silent cars. Something similar happened at the beginning of the 20th century.
Push-Button Promises
Big thinkers have been selling the push-button as the key to the future since way before the Jetsons. Try the 19th century.
Corn of Ill Repute: How Butterkist Helped Make Movie Popcorn Respectable
How a salt-of-the-Earth Midwest manufacturer learned to butter up customers and see its sales explode.
Who Owns the Books You Read?
The Supreme Court may soon rule on how the first sale doctrine applies to textbooks. But what about the ebook on your iPad? Who owns that?
Pretty Much the Scariest Way to Give Kids Their Medicine
Bunny needles, puppy spoons, squirrel otoscopes. Here are some great, well-meaning ways to make children fear doctors AND cute fuzzy animals.
What Uber, Lyft and Sidecar Can Learn From the Jitney Cars of the 1910s
Ride-sharing took off in Los Angeles at the beginning of the 20th century, but it couldn't beat City Hall.
When Santa Traded His Sleigh for an Automobile
The American Santa of the end of the 19th century was a lot fatter and in a car—much like the average American a century later.
Life Hacks from 1946
Popular Mechanics' 1950s DIY "home kinks" for picnic tables, paint cans, medicine bottles and more.
Dazzle Shoppe: Animated Window Advertising In The Pre-TV Age
Before viewing the retail experience became the province of TVs and tablets, if you wanted to see possible presents dancing around you had to head to the windows of downtown department stores.
The Sound Effects of Silence: SFX Before There Were Talkies
Before silent movies evolved into talkies, various efforts to create the aural ambiance depicted onscreen included this roomful of noise-making contraptions.
Bobbing Machine for Amusement Parks
Today's amusement park rides thrill with the frisson of danger, but for the rides of the last century the risk was more real than imagined.
The Great Depression and the Rise of the Refrigerator
How the gleaming white fridge changed our relationship to food.
'Speeches Must Be Short': Radio and the Birth of the Modern Presidential Campaign
The origin of the soundbite can be traced to the 1924 U.S. presidential election, the first one ever covered heavily by a broadcast medium, radio.
The TVs Are Coming! Station ID Cards From 1951
In the early days of television, before homogenization set in, the identification graphics each station used broadcast a flash of regional personality for the viewer.
The World's First Earbud Headphones
Apple may have popularized the earbud, but these ear-mounted speakers have roots to the Roaring '20s.
Electric Glove Helps Police Quell Rioters
The taser has proved a popular modern way to subdue a suspect, but in 1930s New York the men in blue were a little more shockingly hands-on in their approach.
DIY Police Scanner of 1935
In simpler times the mere presence of a home-built police scanner was lauded as a home course in law enforcement. But has Twitter killed the police radio star?
The First Golden Age of Electric Car Advertising
In an age when horses might still be found on Madison Avenue, electric and gas-powered cars battled for supremacy on the ad pages of the elite publications of the day.
How Rube Goldberg Would Have Watered the West
Who needs pipelines when massive hydro-cannons could blast water across California’s deserts?