A sunnier clime would presumably require a larger crystal ball — "London's sunshine measured by small glass ball."  From Popular Mechanics, 1930.

"Donkey used to express national hatred."  From Popular Mechanics, 1913.

"Modern flying carpet visits city of Bagdad" (1932).  Turns out that the flying carpet is just an airplane, but here's the crucial question: why call an airplane a flying carpet?  Why, as vintage Popular Mechanics did in every issue, refer to scientists as "wizards" and their work as "magical"?  The answer is simple: they co-opt mythology and magical lore so as to demystify the world into a very cold place, devoid of metaphor.  Sad, colorless, and shallow.

"Feather-covered dirigibles predicted for the future."  From Popular Mechanics, 1930.  Big Science back then (as now) can't see the forest for the trees.  The naiveté would almost be charming, if not for the smugness behind everything in vintage Popular Mechanics.  (We daren't look at more modern issues.  The white-coat New Inquisition, as Robert Anton Wilson called them, terrifies us.)

"Rubber 'muscles' enable wood doll to walk."  From Popular Mechanics, 1919.

Here's a precursor to the "selfie" phenomenon.  "Butterfly wings photograph selves."  From Popular Mechanics, 1930.

My humble eyeglasses bare new invisible worlds, too, and at a tiny fraction of the budget that others demand.  "Most powerful lens bares new invisible worlds."  From Popular Mechanics, 1932.

As above, so below: Looking Skyward and the Earth by Isaac Newton Snyder, 1911.

"Lighthouse to talk and sing."  From Popular Mechanics, 1931.

"Earth moans like an animal and is heard on phone."  (One of the very few headlines we've believed in Popular Mechanics.)  From 1931.

It's been said that silence cannot be translated, but here's an exception.

How a diamond turns pale with fright.  From Popular Mechanics, 1925.

"'Wheels' of brain are heard as thoughts formulate."  From Popular Mechanics, 1930.

This is as good an example as any of why vintage Popular Mechanics horrifies us.  The story isn't about how this glass-blowing maniac seals kittens into prison globes.  Rather, it glorifies his so-called "expertise."  Utterly disgusting, as per usual.  From 1932.

"Bungalow hat."  From Popular Mechanics, 1919. 

When Big Science follows the Hermetic maxim: "Riddle of the stars sought in depth of earth."  As above, so below.  From Popular Mechanics, 1930.

"Chimpanzee repels trainer with cowboy tactics."  From Popular Mechanics, 1919.

"Optical illusion is menace to open-water bathers."  From Popular Mechanics, 1919. 

"Earth is ahead of schedule in its rotation."  From Popular Mechanics, 1930.

"How I sought solitude and found it — a tragedy of the Cornish coast."  From The Sketch, 1901.  (We personally found the Cornish coast neither comic nor tragic but rather more like a Shakespearean romance.)