I grew up with Scientific American, especially the Amateur Scientist column. Home made cyclotrons, van de Graaff generators, high power lasers, all kinds of good stuff. Always wanted to contribute a project.
The time came in the early 70s. Well, things had changed. I was informed that my little high energy plasma project was too dangerous for the revamped column. (This was after the passing of C.L. Stong). I had another chance in the late 1990s. This time I was informed that any project had be able to be replicated for no more than $100 and had to make use of commonly available items.
After a fashion, it sort of got folded into a column. Shortly thereafter the column died. Wonder why.
I still refer to the columns of the 1950s and 60s.
My father was a regular reader of Scientific American. He described it to me as a magazine where he could read any article with perfect comprehension--until he got to the 2/3 mark, and the higher math steadily started blowing him away. But he loved it, especially the Amateur Scientist.
I was home sick from school one day, and he was working at home. He decided we would make the Vortex Generator from The Amateur Scientist together. It was an empty coffee can. You cut a 1" diameter hole in the center of the bottom with a drill. You put the plastic lid on the top, so you had an empty chamber with a hole at the center of one end. The column explained the physics of why, when you just tapped on the plastic lid, you could put out a candle 15 feet away with an invisible blast of concentrated air. It was a hoot. We were popping each other with it in the face from across the room.
What a great day. Someone can probably explain how it would be discovered to be too dangerous in today's SciAm, which as I recall is a dumbed-down, climate-change dweeb-fest.
But I'm eternally grateful for that column, and for my father for turning a boring day into an adventure that's still vivid to me a half-century later.
I took the magazine for 30+ years, before it was taken over by the left and it's loonies.