Long live American Science and Surplus (which needs your help)

Re:Long live American Science and Surplus (which needs your ... by MaDeuce on Wednesday May 28, 2025 @07:16PM (#44121456)

These were my go-to guys for sciencey stocking stuffers at Christmas for my kids. Their catalog was always a joy to read, with excellent puns.

Like the guy who wrote the linked article, a GoFundMe for a for-profit enterprise rubs me the wrong way. However, I just donated because of all the great memories they've provided me and my kids. Seems like those of us that like these things may need to pitch in from time to time.

I wonder if something like this could have helped Lindsay's Publications, who went out of business a decade ago. I have so many fantastic books from them. They're really worth a HN post all on their own.

https://makezine.com/article/workshop/lindsays-technical-boo...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Long live American Science and Surplus (which needs your ... by JKCalhoun on Wednesday May 28, 2025 @08:18PM (#44121795)

Scored a lot of Lindsay's books when you still could (lot of build-your-own regenerative receivers and similar, reprints of "The Boy Mechanic", "5 Acres and Independence", etc.).

I would suspect (hope) many have been "archived" at "the org".

(EDIT: I see for example "The Impoverished Radio Experimenter Vol. 4": https://archive.org/details/impoverishedradi0000lind/mode/2u...)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Long live American Science and Surplus (which needs your ... by kragen on Wednesday May 28, 2025 @11:35PM (#44122875)

This is a great recommendation, thanks! I've found a lot of interesting old radio hobbyist magazines on the Archive, whose copyright has expired. While it's great to see how people could get stuff done with the very limited electrical resources available in the 01910s and 01920s, many of the designs depend on materials that are now hard to find, while materials that are now easy to find (like PN2222s) didn't exist.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Long live American Science and Surplus (which needs your ... by jonah-archive on Wednesday May 28, 2025 @11:53PM (#44122966)

We have a big and ongoing focus on amateur radio right now thanks to a grant from ARDC and really hard work by our awesome Program Manager Kay Savetz. Worth checking out: https://blog.archive.org/2022/11/16/digital-library-of-amate... https://archive.org/details/dlarc

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Long live American Science and Surplus (which needs your ... by kragen on Thursday May 29, 2025 @06:35AM (#44124676)

Thanks! I had no idea! Your work is one of the three or four most important projects sustaining civilization right now; it will be profoundly missed when it's gone.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Long live American Science and Surplus (which needs your ... by bluGill on Wednesday May 28, 2025 @07:49PM (#44121637)

Lindsay retired. Not quite the same. I still miss them though, many interesting books and well currated

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Re:Long live American Science and Surplus (which needs your ... by jeff_carr on Wednesday May 28, 2025 @11:02PM (#44122723)

> a GoFundMe for a for-profit enterprise rubs me the wrong way

It should. They should be selling shares. The Green Bay Packers are similar.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Long live American Science and Surplus (which needs your ... by dr_dshiv on Thursday May 29, 2025 @02:44AM (#44123662)

Yeah, why aren’t they?

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Re:Long live American Science and Surplus (which needs your ... by immibis on Thursday May 29, 2025 @05:00AM (#44124242)

Maybe they don't want to be forced to run their store for maximum profit in the future.

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Re:Long live American Science and Surplus (which needs your ... by ForHackernews on Thursday May 29, 2025 @05:49AM (#44124474)

just issue non-voting shares like all the cool tech companies

[ Parent | on HN ]