War Era Jeep Innovations And Uses From The Pages Of Popular Mechanics

Over the course of the war, the jeep was used in many conventional ways as a troop transport and light scout vehicle. But it was soon discovered that it could be used as more than the simple scout it was designed as. Necessity being the mother of invention especially during wartime, the jeep was converted, armored, engineered to include all manner of supporting equipment and weapons, from light machine guns like the .30 cal to radio equipment as a method of transporting the wounded. The jeep could be a fast ‘shoot and scoot’ vehicle to disable tanks and other larger armored vehicles than it. The jeep floated and swam, was flown in and parachuted from gliders, used as a training vehicle and everyone from a lowly private to generals rode and drove one.

The pages of Popular Mechanics are filled with many of these innovations and ideas. From being armored to powering a buzz saw (way before a PTO was introduced for it for civilian use...) to pumping water to put out fires and fooling the enemy by masquerading as a tank the jeep has done it. It was even used to power a primitive washing machine in an article appropriately titled “Clever, These Yankees!” Keep coming back for more, I’ve found alot more articles and mentions of the jeep. I’ll be showing off alot of glider and other airborne jeeps, the amphibious abilities as well as other misc. appearances as well as alot of interesting early ads for surplus equipment and add-ons. You can view all of them here in the miscellaneous article section or click on the thumbnails above to view all of them full sized.

It’s that time of the year to be thinking of the holidays and I’m thinking ahead too. I’ll be introducing new t-shirt designs and other products in the This-Old-Jeep.com Zazzle marketplace soon and announcing them right here.

And if you’re on the east coast like myself, I wish you the best of luck with Hurricane Sandy coming for Halloween. Hold onto your hats and see you next week!

From War To Peace With The Jeep

From the wartime era for which it was designed to the post-war peace economy that it helped to build, the jeep has literally done it all. And nowhere else is it better illustrated than in the pages of Popular Mechanics. Today we continue to roll out pages and articles from the 1940’s pages of PM magazine. The first two articles date from 1943 and show off the many diverse ways in which the jeep was deployed from an aide to the Army Rangers (who were around as early as the American Revolution!) to an aide on the farm. One of the middle articles shows off a famous press photo of the early CJ-1, a modified MB at work on the CESOR farm. It details the new and increasing mechanical advantages and machinery that helped farmers drive the new economy of the post-war. Either way, jeeps led the way! (Thank you to the official slogan of the U.S. Army Rangers, “Rangers Lead The Way!” Also check out the other article in the Misc. section on a mobile jeep crane! I think that it has the longest reach of any crane that I’ve seen on a jeep thus far!

I’ve a ton more articles and ads that come from the pages of Popular Mechanics andPopular Science magazines that are collected and archived in the pages of Google Magazines. In the coming weeks I’ll be fleshing out the 1940’s and further decades.The This-Old-Jeep.com 2012 calendar page for September needs to be rolled out as well and soon new tee shirt and holiday hanger ornament designs will be shown off as well as a 2013 calendar and lots more in the Zazzle store for TOJ! Stay tuned, there’s ALOT more to come here at This-Old-Jeep.com!

1942 Popular Mechanics Articles- From The Miracle To Victory

From the miracle of the jeep to the post-war victory of the jeep, Popular Mechanics andPopular Science has caught up with all of its aspects over the years. I’ve found so manyPop Sci and Mech articles via Google Books for magazines that I have no idea when I’ll get caught up to presenting everything here. I’ve also decided to create a new category for just these articles, so if you’re looking for an older Pop Sci and Mech article, it’s been moved here.

I’ll be moving through the 40’s first with some of the obvious articles like “Miracle On Wheels” and the Brooks Stevens (who later designed the Willys station wagon among other jeeps...) piece “Your Victory Car,” of which I’ve referenced before but have not found the entire article before now. Its a fascinating read and very prescient about the changes coming down the road (so to speak...) of the car of the future, more molded body pieces, aerodynamics and the greater use of alternative materials such as aluminum and especially plastic in bumpers and knobs and such. It also touches on the role of the jeep as a possible basis for the “victory car” of the post-war future. You really owe it to yourself to read this if you are at all interested in the history behind the civilian jeep. And if you’re reading this, I bet you are!

As well as these more jeep-centric articles you can find alot of miscellaneous references to the jeep in the world of war and peace doing all manner of things in science, around the farm and in ads and photos that I had never seen before. You can find them in the miscellaneous section here. Come back next week, you can bet that I’ll have alot more!

Popular Mechanics/ Science Articles Through The 70’s And 80’s

Four more great articles from the pages of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics magazines today. From 1971 Pop Mech readers responded to a request on the durability and satisfaction that they had gotten from over 400,000 miles on their venerable CJ-5 Universals. Its an interesting read because as the jeep was still proving to be the undisputed king of the off-road and work worlds, it showed that tastes were changing as far as what the general public expected in an all around vehicle. The typical complaints were there, the noisiness of an uninsulated cabin, general rattles, an under-performing heater and defroster and no surprise that the CJ wasn’t a great highway vehicle, but that it was still a jeep and as such had a great reputation and the ability to back it up. The small blurb about a 2A or 3A mixing cement showed that that even 25 or 30 years later people were using the jeep as it was meant to be used as an all-around work horse and still coming up with unique ideas for it to perform. The 1985 PM article shows the winding down of the CJ line. Unfortunately the brief historical article isn’t complete in the Google archives. And lastly as the torch was passed to the YJ, Pop Sci brought a short one page article on the ‘new’ jeep. Now it seems that YJ’s are pretty rarely seen and are practically classics in their own right.

Check out these and many more magazine articles here and come back next week for lots more. I’ve found another treasure trove online and I’ll try to chronologically present the gems from the Pop Sci and Pop Mech magazines on the jeep starting in the 40’s.

Thinking about Xmas early? Well, its never too early! Check out our online marketplace here and stay tuned for new products and designs for the jeeper in your life! And this holiday weekend there’s a special 14.92% sale off everything!