Today, let's invent the magazine. The University of
Houston's College of Engineering presents this
series about the machines that make our
civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity
created them.
In 1937 my father brought us
the first issue of Life magazine. It
was a big event. That wonderful new collection of
pictures and stories had the power to touch both
child and adult.
The format -- that sumptuous array of news,
features, pictures, and stories -- is now 260 years
old. The Arabic word makhazin means
storehouses. Edward Cave invented the medium in
1731, and he called it The Gentleman's
Magazine.
Cave was a commoner whose education had been cut
short. He was brash and rough-hewn. He lacked
social grace. Cave took up printing, and he rode
the crest of a new wave. Before the magazine,
specialized news, political, and literary journals
came into being. He was in the middle of all that.
Cave soon ran afoul of English law for publishing
news of Parliament actions. That was strictly
forbidden. He narrowly escaped prison, and that's
where our story begins.
Cave decided there might be more to journalism than
contention. He hit on a new kind of journal. He
would include news analysis, but he'd present both
sides. He'd include pictures and poetry. He would
hold up a mirror to the public's interest.
Perhaps the most important feature is one that grew
as Cave shaped his new magazine. He reported more
and more often -- in more and more detail -- on
advances in natural philosophy.
In 1751 his press published Ben Franklin's new
pamphlet, Experiments
and Observations in Electricity. He also
mounted a lightning rod on the print shop. It
worked. So he reported that in the
Gentleman's Magazine as well.
Before he died in 1754, he'd published the first
description of an electric telegraph system. He'd
published an article on submarines. It gave the
American, Bushnell, the design he used against the
English in 1776.
Cave was a superb organizer and a second-rate
writer. Yet he drew the best writers of his age.
One was Samuel Johnson.
Johnson had a real liking for this coarse,
imaginative man.
Today that first magazine is a window back into a
rich time in history. We read obituaries of Johann
Christian Bach and Robert Fulton. We read Ben
Franklin on revolutionary theory -- three years
before we declared our independence from England.
We emerge from this storehouse with a real sense of
what it was to live in days when the whole world
was being turned upside down. Once more we see the
transcendence of real creativity. For the first
magazine was not just old wine in a new bottle.
Cave gave us a whole new means for sorting out who
we are -- and what we think.
I'm John Lienhard, at the University of Houston,
where we're interested in the way inventive minds
work.
(Theme music)
Carlson, C.L. The First Magazine: A History of
the Gentleman's Magazine. Westport, CT:
Greenwood Press, Pubs., 1938.
Nichols, J., The Rise and Progress of the
Gentleman's Magazine. London: John Nichols
and Son, 1821. (reprinted in Literary London,
[Stephen Parks, ed.] New York: Garland Pub. co.,
1974.)
Nangle, B., The Gentleman's Magazine:
Biographical and Obituary Notices.
1781-1819, New York: Garland Pub. Co., 1980.
Kuist, J.M., The Nichols File of The
Gentleman's Magazine. Madison: The
University of Wisconsin Press, 1982.
Cave's advertisement for the first edition gives
the magazine's full title, and it clearly states
his intentions:
The Gentleman's Magazine; or Trader's Monthly
Intelligencer: Being a Collection of all Matters of
Information and Amusement: Compriz'd under the
following Heads, viz.
Publick Affairs, Foreign and Domestick, Births,
Marriages, and Deaths of Eminent Persons,
Preferments, Ecclesiastical and Civil. Prices of
Goods, Grain and Stocks. Bankrupts declar'd and
Books Publish'd. Pieces of Humour and Poetry.
Disputes in Politicks and Learning. Remarkable
Advertisements and Occurrences. Lists of the Civil
and Military Establishment. And whatever is worth
quoting from the Numerous Papers of News and
Entertainment, British and Foreign; or shall be
Communicated proper for Publication. With
instructions in gardening, and the Fairs for
February.
By Sylvanus Urban of Aldermanbury, Gent. Prodesse
et Declectare.
Printed for A. Dodd without Temple-Bar. Price 6d.
Image courtesy of Special
Collections, UH Library
Edward Cave
Image courtesy of Special
Collections, UH Library
An 18th century experiment in electromotive forces
from the Gentleman's Magazine
The Engines of Our Ingenuity is
Copyright © 1988-1997 by John H.
Lienhard.
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