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Now, the whole run of columns from 1928 through 1999 has been collected on CD-ROM, edited by Shawn Carlson, founder of the Society for Amateur Scientists.
The columns were lovingly crafted by several writers. Amateur astronomer Albert Ingalls began the column in 1928; his collected columns became a bible for amateur telescope makers, and in later years he expanded his coverage to other fields. Engineer C. L. Strong took over after Ingalls died in 1954, and continued until his own death in 1977, mostly with hands-on experimental projects. Physicist Jearl Walker succeeded Strong, and wrote the column until he resigned in 1990. Walker shifted the focus more toward observations and explaining phenomena such as rainbows. The column ran erratically for several years until Carlson took it over in 1995.
The disk is an invitation into the attic of a brilliant engineer whose body is getting along in years, but whose mind retains its marvelous agility. Like many of the most gifted engineers, the column's interests are wide-ranging and at times quirky. The detailed designs for a copper-vapor laser are interesting, but they're also the sort of thing you know no one will ever build. Yet those odd excursions are offset by fascinating columns such as one on the phenomena to be seen from airplane windows -- yet another reason to squeeze into a window seat. (Note, the phenomena in question include the visual effects from the scratch patterns on the windows themselves, and how the shock front produced by the wing refracts light in odds ways, making roads on the ground appear to bend. See the article for more.)
Some articles offer their own windows into history. The 1957 launch of Sputnik sent amateur scientists outside looking for satellites, and the disk gives you the details of how it was done. Now, we look for the Space Shuttle or the International Space Station as bright, moving objects in the night sky; early satellite watchers tuned in to radio signals broadcast by smaller satellites as they celebrated their presence in orbit.
A single CD-ROM includes all 65 years' worth of the columns -- about 780 -- in html format. (Several hundred are available online.) The columns are readable with Netscape 4.0 or Internet Explorer 3.0 or higher. The interface isn't elegant, but it's functional. The diagrams generally are illegibly small on screen, but a click will show you a blown-up version that is easy to read. The format invites browsing, and a separate CD-ROM comes packed with a few dozen Mac and Windows freeware and shareware programs to play with.
In addition to the columns, the disk is also loaded with selected reprints, such as a guide to binoculars from Sky & Telescope magazine, and a classic article on using fused silica in the laboratory written by physicist John Strong. The main disk includes links to some websites, such as the American Association of Variable Star Observers, but no multimedia material. A separate CD-ROM includes freeware and shareware programs.]
The bad news is that the column is no more. Scientific American suffered a makeover, and the publishers announced earlier this year it would be dropping "The Amateur Scientist" as of the March 2001 issue in a quest for a larger audience. You can read that as the dumbing down of an American institution if you like. Whether that complaint is legitimate, it's sad that the venerable magazine no longer has room for a column that encourages some of its readers to play. Shawn Carlson, who was thrilled when he landed the job of writing the column, has vowed to find it a new home.
| -- Jeff Hecht (jeff@fiberhome.com) | From Byte On-Line, April 25, 2001 |