Since 1902, Popular Mechanics has been published as a monthly magazine that describes the wonders of twentieth-century technology for the lay reader in a "gee-whiz" style, with do-it-yourself home-workshop projects thrown in for good measure. Debuting just a year before the Wright Brothers' flight at Kitty Hawk, when automobiles and motion pictures were still recent innovations, Popular Mechanics has chronicled the breakthroughs of the most productive century in the history of science and mechanics. The periodical made its appearance in Chicago in January 1902 as Popular Mechanics and did not become Popular Mechanics Magazine until 1910, by which time it had already absorbed another small technical publication by the name of Technical World. Its readership grew from only five subscribers in 1902, plus a few readers paying five cents a copy at the newsstand, to a worldwide circulation of 1,428,356 by 1998. In 1947, a Spanish language edition (Mecanica Popular) was produced, along...