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Vintage Science Magazine Bundle 1942 1946 1950 Popular Science

You get three original vintage science and mechanics magazines dating from 1942 to 1950. The lot includes Popular Science, Mechanix Illustrated, and Science and Mechanics.

These are full period magazines rather than modern reproductions. Inside you will find the articles, illustrations, how to projects, advertisements, classified ads, and other material that readers saw when each issue was new.

Magazines Included

  1. Popular Science: January 1942, Volume 140, Number 1. Approximately 240 pages. The aviation cover features military aircraft and Air Corps career content. Inside are science, automobiles, aviation, defense, inventions, photography, and period advertisements.
  2. Mechanix Illustrated: October 1946. Fawcett Publications. Approximately 176 pages. Topics include aircraft, automobiles, science, crafts, home projects, inventions, wildlife, and mechanical projects.
  3. Science and Mechanics: April 1950. Approximately 224 pages. Cover stories include brush clearing equipment and a low cost uranium detector. The issue includes illustrated projects, mechanical articles, building ideas, and period advertising.

Details

What You Will Find Inside

The October 1946 Mechanix Illustrated includes articles about aircraft and postwar technology along with practical home and shop projects. The contents page lists topics such as a supersonic air force, atomic submarine versus atomic bomb, wildlife, automobiles, crafts, and inventions.

One interesting spread places instructions for building a cake server close to plans for an aircraft project, which gives you a good picture of how broad these magazines were. Other pages mix technical drawings, black and white photographs, color features, and advertisements.

The January 1942 Popular Science was published just after the United States entered World War II. The photographed pages include aviation, military equipment, defense related advertising, blueprint reading, automobiles, science, photography, and correspondence school advertisements.

The April 1950 Science and Mechanics includes mechanical projects and illustrated instructions, along with articles about equipment, cars, science, photography, and home workshop ideas.

Condition

These magazines show honest age and handling wear. Covers have rubbing, edge wear, softened corners, small creases, and age toning. The spines also show wear from use and storage.

All pages checked are clean and easy to read. The paper has the expected age toning for magazines from this period.

Page one of one issue is folded over, as shown in the photos. This affects appearance but the remaining photographed pages are readable.

The magazines are being sold together as one lot. Their strongest feature is the original period content, especially the aviation, wartime, mechanical, science, project, and advertising material still inside them.

Scroll in to view the photos for accurate condition. This is the actual book you are receiving.

This lot pairs a wartime January 1942 Popular Science with a 1946 Mechanix Illustrated and a 1950 Science and Mechanics, and it suits a vintage science or home workshop shelf. If it's the right copy for you, it's ready to come home.

  • Near Fine: Close to new. Any flaw is small and named above.
  • Very Good: Light use. Every flaw is named above, and none of them get in the way of reading or display.
  • Good: Complete and usable, with clear signs of use. Every flaw is named above.
  • Fair: Heavy wear or damage, named above. A reading or working copy, not a display piece.

Returns

You have 30 days from the delivery of the last item in your order to request a return. Items must come back in the condition they were sent, so please keep the original packaging and take photos before you open a package if it arrives damaged.

To start a return, email us at the address on your order confirmation. You are responsible for return shipping, and we recommend a tracked service, since we can only refund items that arrive back to us.

Refunds are issued to the original payment method within 5 business days of the item arriving back in the condition it was sent. Original shipping charges are not refunded.

Anything marked Final Sale cannot be returned.

Cancellations

You can cancel any order until it has been fulfilled. Once an order ships, please use the return process above.

Read the full Return and Refund 

  • Photo-verified condition, no surprises
  • Packed with care. Glass and fragile pieces get extra cushioning
  • Ships within 1 business day
  • Free Shipping on $35+ (U.S. only)

Questions buyers ask

Every listing spells it out and shows it in photos. Chips, hairlines, crazing, worn plating, old repairs. If I did not mention it, it is not there.

Yes. Every photo is the actual piece, taken by me. When it sells, it is gone.

I note maker, mark, era, and measurements when I can confirm them, and say so plainly when I cannot. Unmarked pieces get dated by what the piece itself shows.

I process your order within 1 business day, wrapped and boxed so it arrives the way it left here. Don't forget, free shipping on orders $35 and up.