This issue was uncovered by Ray C. Wheeler, the Bikernet Performance Editor, and submitted to the Digital Discovery board of regents for consideration. They were bowled over by the line art illustrations and the creative imagination of 1948, the year Bandit was born in a dinghy off the coast of Catalina Island. Each illustration was hand drawn. Each page was laid out by hand with hot type. No computer lay-outs and pdf files in those days.
I got a kick out of “Fourteen Uses for an Old Garden Hose.” Here’s how the short blurb goes, “If you’ve bought some sleek new garden hose, don’t be too quick to throw out the leaky hold hose. Suggested above are some general applications, and you’ll find plenty of others. If you have to slit a length, as in getting it on a pail handle, a linoleum knife does the job nicely. Cement the hose on hardwood dowels in making window-lock cams or miniature toy wheels,” Ralph S. Wilkes, Keuka Park, N.Y.
This issue also contained “Dagwood Splits the Atom.” This is a tad tough to follow since the frame needed to be follow horizontally and I cropped the pages so you can click on them and blow them up. This art, by Joe Musial was created for New York City’s Golden Anniversary.
It was a collaborative effort with Dr. John R. Dunning, Nobel prize winner and Columbia University science director; Dr. Louis Heil of Cooper Union; Dr. Maxwell L. Eidinoff, author of “Atomics for the Millions”; representatives of “Puck”; and a group of science journalists.
Wow, Popular Science didn’t mess around in 1948.
–Wilburn Roach
