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Mechanical: I was thinking more Meccano and home built steam engines - cars came later. Chemical: I was thinking chemistry sets and the age when Chemistry was
by robocat 2y ago
Mechanical: I was thinking more Meccano and home built steam engines - cars came later.
Chemical: I was thinking chemistry sets and the age when Chemistry was geeky cool (Du Pont, Uncle Tungsten).
My grand father was a structural engineer, my father studied chemical engineering, I studied electronic engineering (but got a job programming). So perhaps I was thinking more of the frontier of engineering shifting rather than technical hobbies.
It would be interesting to look at geeky hobby adverts in a magazine over time and see how the advert focus shifted.
- godelski 2y ago> I was thinking chemistry sets I don't think those chemistry sets were ever widely popular. We see them and look back thinking how cool and dangerous, but every one I'm aware of was insanely expensive. Same with the atomic kit. On the other hand, most mechanical things were relatively cheap. Cars were worked on since cars existed. People also worked on everything in their homes. There was the tradesman who takes a specific skill like being able to fix a washing machine, but a lot of these people had hobbies of building and making. So we have a direct connection to the death of the repairman and death of the handyman. These were quite popular things even up through the 90's. You'll even see this in shows and movies. Plus, you forgot the most popular hobby of them all: woodworking. Still alive, but nowhere near as popular as a few decades ago.