The English Mechanic and World of Science
popular-science magazine
The English Mechanic and World of Science, commonly referred to as English Mechanic, was a popular-science magazine, published weekly from 1865 to 1926, generally consisting of 24 pages. It was aimed at people interested in inventions and gadgets and new discoveries in science, technology, and mathematics. A regular chess column was also included, written by James Pierce.
History
The magazine was founded as a 1d weekly The English Mechanic subtitled A Record of Mechanical Invention, Scientific and Industrial Progress, Building, Engineering, Manufactures, Arts &c. in 1865, and purchased in its first year of publication by John Passmore Edwards. Ebenezer J. Kibblewhite was a regular contributor, then became editor.
The publication featured a lively correspondence section, which occupied a quarter of its pages, each week headed by a quote from Montaigne.I would have everyone write what he knows, and as much as he knows but no more . . . for such a person may have some particular knowledge and experience of the nature of such a river or such a fountain, [but] as to other things knows no more than everybody does . . .
The size and content grew rapidly in size and quality, and as of the issue of 12 January 1866 its price was increased to 2d. and had new, rather elegant, banner art, with its title shortened to English Mechanic, subtitled and Mirror of Science and Art, but pages titled English Mechanic and Mirror of Science.
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This entry incorporates text from “The English Mechanic and World of Science” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.