When I was a young, I used to spend a great deal of time at our local library, which was within two blocks of my grade school. They frequently gave away old books and magazines that were no longer determined to be valuable to the community. On one particular day, I scored several dozen copies of Scientific American, and being the geeky child I was, I carted them dutifully home in my book bag.

By far the most interesting thing about these magazines was the Amateur Scientist column. Through these pages I learned about ordinary Joes who pursued science as amateurs, strictly for the love of experimentation and learning. Many fabulous projects were detailed (including many very dangerous ones). Some of my favorites are:

1. Plasma Jet, Nov. 1961

2. How to make a nitrogen laser, Jun. 1974

3. How to make a Foucault pendulum, Jun 1958

4. Homemade X-ray, Jul 1956

I eventually had to discard my collection of Scientific Americans during the various moves that I’ve made, but recently the entire collection of Amateur Scientist
has been republished on
CDROM for only $19.99. Well worth owning, and considerably more compact than the originals.

Now, if only they would do the same for Martin Gardner’s Mathematical Games columns….