Recently, I came into possession of an unusual item: a collection of 1928 TIME magazines. I began flipping through the pages out of sheer curiosity—and was soon astonished by the scale and the depth of their physics coverage. Back then, TIME had a special “Science” section in almost every issue and devoted quite a bit of space to the events that would hardly be mentioned in any popular magazine these days. Some of them were fleeting and merely curious, some truly timeless. Many of the articles and notes were devoted to physics: the people, the discoveries, the inventions, the conventions. I found the reading both entertaining and enlightening and would like to offer a sampler here.1 I hope that these little tidbits of history will lighten up the classroom discussions and help inspire your students by reminding them that physics is a dynamic, ever-changing field to which they may well contribute one day. I have found that my own students love it when a little bit of history is brought up; it always generates interesting questions and seems to spark the students' interest in the topic.

Topics
Speech communication, Musical instruments, Chemical elements, Organic compounds, Educational assessment, Universities, News and events, Awards and Prizes, Patents, Physicists
1.
All direct quotes in this article, unless otherwise noted, are from the various issues of TIME
, Vol.
XI
and XII (
1928
).
2.
Italicized in the original.
3.
Italicized in the original.
4.
Michelson, an avid player, must have been upset, having lost a doubles match to Compton the year before —see “Exclusive Contest of Tennis Planned,”
 
Prescott Evening Courier
(
April 26, 1928
).
5.
Again, this is written in 1928. Obviously, Einstein must have beaten the “heart trouble”; he lived on for more than a quarter-century.
© 2014 American Association of Physics Teachers.
2014
American Association of Physics Teachers
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