137 years of Popular Science are now archived and available to the reader for free.  The magazine teemed up with Google to put its collection online.  You can scroll through the actual issues, which include advertisements from the time period.  There’s some fascinating information waiting for retrieval within this publication’s pages.

This September 1934 issue highlighted new and exciting inventions.  Folks of the time were jazzed about synthetic rubber tires, seeing it as a way to relieve the United States’ dependency on foreign powers.  The headline ‘Robot Plows While Farmer Rests’ certainly caught my eye.  Unfortunately,  the “robot” was really just a glorified radio-controlled tractor that debuted at the 1934 Chicago World’s Fair.

Right now, searching the archives is a bit clunky.  There’s no advanced search option, which leaves the searcher with only a keyword option.  According to Popular Science, advanced searching and browsing features will be added to the archive.  But, once the reader has selected an issue to peruse, there is an option available to search within that particular issue.  So, for example, if you have an abundance of wire hangers and wonder what to do with them all, a search within the September 1934 Popular Science gives you a surprising array of possibilities.  Anything from flower pot holder, to camp toasting fork, to a newspaper rack.  Happy searching.