To Our Supporters
When Kdward Livingston Younians founded the Popular Science Monthly in 1 872, he had a very clear purpose in mind. "Science is not the mystery of a class," he put it, "but the com- mon interest of rational human beings." And so he would tell a contributor: "Keep in your mind's eye a person of common intelligence and quite unacquainted with the subject you arc seeking to explain."
When I assumed the editorship of the Popular Science Monthl\ a year ago, I made up my mind that we must never lose sight of Youman's ideal. The opportunity was rich. Wireless telegraphy, aeroplanes, automobiles, radium, X-Rays, all were unknown in his day. In a single vear more scientific discoveries and important inventions are now made than in a whole decade fort)' years ago. And then, the technique of printing and illustrating has developed mar\'elously. There was no half-tone process when the Popular Science Monthly was founded, no rapid and effective waj' of driving home a point by picture.
With this wealth of modern material and with wonderful modern facilities, the Popular Science Monthly entered upon a new phase of its career a year ago. In that brief space of time its circulation has more than doubled. Ov^er two hundred thousand copies are now printed. And the circulation is growing by leaps and bounds.
I wish to thank the man\^ thousands of sup- porters who have made this success possible and, above all, the hundreds of contributors who have helped me to present the facts of current sci- ence, engineering and invention interestingly and truthfully.
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