Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/15

 •XI

��The Vision of a Blind Man

�industry, come within its scope. It tells how to make and use the simplest things that make life and work easier and reports the great advances in abstract science in words any intelligent reader can understand without effort, explain- ing the meaning of these discover- ies and just what work they will do.

�The Scientific American, one of the most exact journals, he proved himself the ablest man in America in this work.

He has surrounded himself with specialists who know how to write simply, how to be interesting.

The contributors to the maga- zine continue to be "the ablest sci- entific men of different countries," to use Youmans' words. For every- thing that appears in The Popular Science Monthly has the stamp of authority. This is the law.

�Kaempffert, the editor, is scientist and interpreter

�This can be done only under the direction of an editor who is him- self a scientist. He must have full knowledge, complete understand- ing of the language in which sci- ence speaks, and be able to inter- pret and explain it to meet human needs^ — needs he must understand and sympathize with.

Edward L. Youmans had this capacity ; so has Waldemar Kaempf- fert, the present editor of The Popular Science Monthly.

Youmans had this gift for the people of his day; Kaempffert has it for the people of this day.

Kaempffert has been interpret- ing abstract science, chemistry, engineering and invention for twen- ty years. As managing editor of

�This is the first law: It must be interesting

�There is only one way to make science appeal to non-scientific people and that is to make it in- teresting.

It is the law that The Popular Science Monthly must be inter- esting.

Most of us are not given to con- centrated thought. We are in- clined to feel and act. Our mind speeds from one topic to another, finding interest in a hundred things that really do not concern us, but seeking always for ideas.

Ideas make life worth while. All

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