"The line is at the top of the page, right under the words Scientific American, declaring the publication's mission: The advocate of industry and enterprise, and journal of mechanical and other improvements. It grabs my attention because it reminds me that the first issue was created in large part to promote manufacturing and trade; it's pro-business, pro-capitalism, pro-wealth in ways that we don't see much in modern science journalism or in science as a whole."
"Of course, there are some good reasons that in the 180 years since that first issue, science and industry have developed a complicated relationship, just as there are good reasons for some people to have a complicated relationship with capitalism; remember, Scientific American has been around so long that it predates Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels's The Communist Manifesto by three years."
A poster-size front page of the magazine's first issue proclaims a mission as an advocate of industry and enterprise and a journal of mechanical improvements. The original mission emphasizes promotion of manufacturing, trade, and pro-capitalist values in ways less visible in contemporary science coverage. Over 180 years, science and industry developed a complex relationship, influenced by both collaboration and tension, with the magazine predating the Communist Manifesto. Private industry played a key role in creating new scientific fields, from electrical engineering to computing and pharmaceutical industrialization, yielding major technological and medical advances.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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