19th Century Scientific American Online

The Scientific American of the 19th century bears little resemblance its 20th century sibling. The first volume was a four page 15 x 20 newspaper that provided the reader poetry, religious news, interesting tid-bits from around the country and technical news and instruction.

The founder Rufus Porter (May 1, 1792-Aug. 13,1884) was a real jack of all trades whose inquiring mind had him moving from project to project. He founded Scientific American in 1845 while experimenting with electrotyping process and ten months latter sold it for a eight hundred dollars to twenty-two-year-old Orson Desaix Munn (Jun. 11, 1824-Feb. 28, 1907) and nineteen-year-old Alfred Ely Beach (Sep 1, 1826-Jan. 1, 1896). These two young men and been school mates and complimented each other. Beach's father was an editor and publisher of the New York Sun and an inventor of importance. Beach had inherited his father's mechanical interests and ability and he had been exposed to the mechanics of putting a newspaper together. Munn had the business experience and his focus was on making Scientific American a commercial success, together they founded Munn & Company.

The most obvious change to the paper can be seen when they published Volume II. Scientific American was now a eight page four column tabloid, missing from its pages was the reporting on temperance and religion. Beach and Munn did not think this subject matter proper for the columns of a scientific journal. It took a little longer for the poetry columns to completely disappear.