JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
My eyes didn't quite focus on this cover when I first saw it--I was in the process of reviewing several hundred pamphlets, and for some reason I saw mostly color and not so much form. When I focused, I hoped that it would be exactly what it was--a do-it-yourself (mostly) catalog of designs for wheeled recreational toys for kids. Sportub, le Jeu Reel, was composed by William Derlaz and printed in 1937 in Geneva, and held the key to the design for a host of soap-box-derby things many of which were assured to cause minor fun injury. It is complicated and simple at the same time, with enough information to shopw you how to build these things, with everything on one small page.
In its way this little pamphlet with its two dozen designs is nothing short of a little bit of sublime.
(As it turns out, this pamphlet is pretty rare--no copies show up in the massive WorldCat/First Search cataloging tool; and there are also no hits in Google. If you wanted this, you may certainly have it, findable for sale in our bookstore section.)
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