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Unusual Books About Odd Things

ne of the most unusual books that I’ve ever seen is Atomic (1 knot = approximately 2000 yards per hour). The depth charge sinks
Experiments for Boys published by Harper & Brothers in 1952. vertically at an average rate of 15 ft. per second and explodes at 130-ft
OIt has such chapters as “Discovering the Electron;” “Putting depth. What is the distance between the depth charge and the ship at
the Atom Together;” “Watching Atomic Bullets and Explosions;” the moment of explosion?” Give up? The answer is 384 ft.
“Miracle in a Pickle Jar;” “Making Your Own Geiger Counter;” And how about this one on p. 233, “An aircraft carrier is steaming
“Simple Experiments With Radiation;” “How The Atomic Bomb at 22 knots into a 28-knot wind. A plane comes downward over the
Works;” “The H Bomb;” and (last but not least) “Prospecting carrier with a speed relative to the carrier of 310 knots. He circles and
for Uranium.” cuts his airspeed (speed in still air) in half. He then lowers his flaps,
This was 1952 after all. Times when boys were expected to have slowing the plane so that he lands at 60 knots relative speed. What is
brains and use them. Also, unfortunately, times innocent of the dangers the change in airspeed produced by lowering the flaps?” And the answer
of things like radiation and D.D.T. is 20 knots.
If you are wondering how a boy could get hold These two problems make my brain hurt just
of the radioactive material to experiment with or reading them and god help us if I were the
make a homemade Geiger counter, that was easy. captain of a ship trying to make some distance
At least it was easy in 1952. All you’d need to do from the depth charge that I just dropped or
was find an old alarm clock or watch that had the pilot of a plane attempting a landing on an
radium painted onto the dial so that the numbers aircraft carrier in a 28-knot wind. I was an
would glow in the dark. English major in school and was and am
Or you could get radioactive material through admittedly mathematically challenged. My idea
the mail by sending $3.00 to the National of a math problem would be something simple
Bureau of Standards which would send you like if Dick had 10 apples and gave Jane four
some radioactive substance of known power. how many would he have left? And the answer
Or you could go prospecting for it with your would be three, no! I mean four. Four.
homemade Geiger counter. But boys were expected to be smart in 1919
Fortunately, the book stopped short of also. So, let’s not forget The Boy Mechanic Book
instructing a kid how to make a cyclotron or an 3 published by Popular Mechanics Co. which
H-bomb in his kitchen. That was probably in stated that it had 800 things for boys to do as the
the next volume. title page claimed, “Electric Locomotive Model
It did tell him how to make a spinthariscope and Stack System, Boy’s Motor Car, Parcel
to observe radioactive atoms exploding as they Delivery Bicycle, Aerial Cableway, Miniature
changed from uranium into radium made with Tank, Sailing Canoe, Houseboat, Submarine
radium scraped off a luminescent clock dial Camera, Diving Tower, Hammocks, Kitchen for
mixed with another substance into a paste Hikers, and an Ice Yacht.” An ice yacht was a
which was painted onto a piece of glass small sailboat mounted on ice skates. They can go
inserted into a cardboard box painted black on really fast.
the inside with a peephole in one side. Atomic Experiments for Boys published Mind you, these weren’t items you would send
The instructions did say to avoid touching by Harper & Brothers in 1952 away for or buy a kit for, these were things
the radioactive paste you made and to carefully that you would make yourself from scratch,
wash your hands afterward. We know much more now and so I will and this 476-page book told you how to do it all with drawings
add this WARNING: and diagrams.
And when you finished making all those things also included were
DO NOT PLAY WITH TOUCH OR EVEN COME CLOSE instructions on how to make an easily constructed ball-bearing
TO RADIUM OR ANY RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS! anemometer, woven reed furniture, revolving outdoor lunch table, and
much, much more.
Another unusual book is Wartime Refresher in Fundamental I guess my point to all of this is that things weren’t dumbed down
Mathematics by Eddy, Brolly, Oulliam, Upton, and Thomas; published then the way they seem to be now. Boys had brains and were expected
by Prentice-Hall Inc. in 1942 which not only gives you the answers to to use them. Sadly, it would be a few more years before girls were given
the problems inside but shows you how to do the calculations. a better education, too.
Here is an example from p. 105, “a depth charge is dropped over This is the fun part of old books. You never know what you are
the stern of the U.S.S. Pope which then continues on at 25 knots going to find!

James Dawson has owned and operated the Unicorn Bookshop in Trappe, MD since 1975, when he decided that it would be more fun to buy and sell old books
and maps than to get a “real” job. For a born collector like Jim, having a shop just might be another excuse to buy more books. He has about 30,000 second hand
and rare books on the shelves, and just about all subjects are represented. He can be contacted at P.O. Box 154; Trappe, MD 21673; 410-476-3838;
unicornbookshopMD@gmail.com; www.unicornbookshop.com

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