Scientific American Magazine, Vintage issues, 1856 thru' 1899. Sold per issue.  All issues are complete.  Earliest issues contained only 8 pages, but most issues contain 16 pages, and a few issues contain more. 
These are large-format 11x15.5 inches, with only a few issues made smaller.
Each issue ends with 1 or more pages of advertising, which can be as interesting as the main content. 

Price:  $13. one issue;  $23. two issues;  $30. three issues.
Shipping:  $3. for one or more.


Condition:
Most issues are Good+ to Very Good Condition.  
These issues were all previously bound together in a hard cover, so well-protected.  Few or none show any wrinkling.  All show small tears or chips on left edge where separated from a sewn binding.  A minority show some small (typically less than 1 inch) edge tears...most taped up.  A few show addition edge tears and some edge chipping...(as noted below).
None show any marks, stains, sun-tanning, water-marks, or soiling....all are clean.  Most show a fold line across the center from being read before they were bound, but creases are faint and strong.

Typical Content in each issue (Full details of content for each issue can be found at the Scientific American Archives site on internet.

Scientific American: 1856, March 15: Machine for washing/separating gold, improved governor for saw mill blades.

Scientific American: 1856, July 12: Improved value motion for oscillating engines, improved corn planter, improved agricultural machine which can do 4 jobs.

Scientific American: 1860, Feb. 18: Bournes improved Gold separator, Front elevation of a country villa, Wax...its uses & colors, Testing wrought iron girders, Banks of the USA, Experiments to test strength of iron & steel, Railroad News items, Magnetized wheels of locomotives, Elastic hose for steam, Coal tar for fruit trees, Self-closing ink stand, Phelps envelope-opener string, Weekly summary of inventions, List of new Patent Claims.

Scientific American: 1863, Feb. 28: Farming equipment: New rotary spader, Air-tight deodorizing burial casket, Money currency machine.  (chipped corners)

Scientific American: 1863, Oct 3: Farming: Mowing machine, Lot-off motion for power looms.

Scientific American: 1864, May 28: Rich's seed planter, Lander's Millstone Bush, Catlin's Hoop Lock, Colburtn's bracket lamp chimney, Bodwell's improved arch for sorghum evaporators.

Scientific American: 1864, June 4: Hawley's steam plower spading machine, Hoffman's eyeless pick, Forbes' arrangement for lower ships' lifeboats, Gillette's ventilator for stoves, The Union Hay fork.  (chipped corners)

Scientific American: 1864, Oct 22: Economic method to make salt, Warren's deep well oil pump, Grain dryer, Spring-catch button,  (chipped corners)

Scientific American: 1865, March 4: Lathe for turning billiard balls, flour bolt duster and cooler, Supported walker for fractured legs.

Scientific American: 1870, Jan 29: Revolving sulky harrow & broadcast seeder, Machine to pull crank pins, Device for packing eggs, Improved oper fireplace grate, Improved lever watch escapement, Improved sliding stop valves.  (small tears along binding edge)

Scientific American: 1876, Aug 5: 4-passenger Steam Hand Rail Car, The Radiometer, Mekarskis device for using compressed air to move rail car, Alcohol & Tobacco increasing Nervous Diseases, Petroleum & natural gas in blast furnaces, New compound engine jack, Bartletts Ozone machine, New Lathe Chuck, Improved 'adding pencil', Fichts improved lifting machine, Improved horse check rein, Make gas for lighting from bituminous coal on the kitchen range, Well known British Moths, High producing gold mine in Colorado Territory, Chucks ...forms of Iron...Lubricators, Industries & Resources of Japan, Oceanic Circulation Controversy.   (small chips along binding edge)

Scientific American: 1876, Oct 7: Singer Book-sewing Machine, Prof. Huxley lectures on Dawin's 'Theory of Evolution' in America, Car/Truck Frame drilling machine, Success of Hell Gate explosion, NY., Medieval window grill, Practical molds for iron castings, Clemens new joint for transmitting mechanical rotation, Improved Stop Valve,

Scientific American: 1876, Aug 19: Hydraulic annex at Centennial Expo of 1876, Improved Gatling gun, Improved mortising machine, Silsby's rotary steam fire engine, New soldering machine, Sharpening Lathe tools, Lelands pipe coupler, Universal wood worker, The handy Palm.

Scientific American: 1877, Sept 22: Manufacture of covered buttons, Vertical gas engine, Registering thermometer, New hoisting clamp, Ball check valve for sewers, Auto-pots for Tea and Coffee, Scientific Expedition Steamer Ontario, Lontin electro-magneto machine.

Scientific American: 1879, July 12: Driving gears of mowers, Sphymograph for monitoring blood flow, New oscillating engine, Electrical induction balance, Catadiptric Telescope.

Scientific American: 1884, June 14: Paper manufacture, Improved saw arbor, Machine to make butter, Rail track cleaner, Sail wagon, Allen dense air ice machine, Portable electrical heater, Tiger by instant photography produced directly on wood, Water cooler, Improved claw bar.

Scientific American: 1896, May 18: Egyptian army vs Mahdist/Dervish & the Nile Campaign, Travels to Cambodia & Java by Tissander, Ancient toys, Mosaics in St Paul's Cathedral, Drainage canal for Mexico City, Chamonix Railway in Switzerland, Bazin Roller Boat, Chinese Railway from Tientsin.

Scientific American: Supplement: 1896, March 21: Invasion of Abyssinia by Italians...over 11 yrs fighting but failure to colonize, Nonsens polar expedition, Death of Maharaj of India, Today in Johannesburg, Transvaal Immigration, Chinese musical instruments, Miss Barlinis trained dogs, Liquification of air.

Scientific American: 1896, Nov 28: Counterweighted lift bridge, experimental Wire Gun, Space Telescope, Phonograph with 5 cylinders, Lab experiments to make rain, Mola Mola Sunfish.

Scientific American: Supplement, 1896, Oct 31: Timbuctoo (3 pages), Tidal wave hits Japan...laborers 2-4 cents per day, Costs in Japan, Life on the Moon, 42 inch metal lathe, Constructing a Tesla-Thompson Coil, Alternating current transformers.

Scientific American: Supplement: 1896, May 30: Nile Expedition, Egypt re-conquest in war, Largest armor plate ever tested, Old Roman vessel found in Lake Nemi, Giant dinosaur bird in Patagonia, Late and present Shahs of Persia, Austro-Hungarian fleet on Danube, Pipe construction mixed cement & steel, Hydraulic Bailer Riveting Machine, Direct acting centrifugal pump & engines, Kosch's proposed pedal flapping-wings flier, Auto-firing guns by Hiam Maxim, Repeating rifles...12 examples.

Scientific American: 1896, July 11: Testing parts of bicycle, Safety check for boilers, Railroad inspection car, Duct trolley rail, Siege of Vera Cruz, Benares ancient city of Ganges, Carnival of Venice, X-ray equipment, Music Box dancers.

Scientific American: 1896, May 9: Cyclone Rice thrasher on a plantation, Air brakes, Steam plow, Improved dental plugger, Berlin industrial Expo. Of 1896, Rising water level of the Great Lakes, Battleship Massachu., Illusion magic on stage, Haag's Turbine water wheel, California jack rabbit drive (20K killed), British excavations at Athens.

Scientific American: 1896, March 7: Manufacture of a Typewriter, Improved Electric Switch, Indoor/outdoor Thermometer, Portable Disinfecting Plant, Improved train car coupling, Pilot-Forward mechanism for piloting small boats, Adams Music Sheet auto turner, Fantastical Cabernet de Neant (Tavern of the Dead), Practical experiments for developing Human Flight..Double surface Gliding. X-Ray photographs,

Scientific American: Supplement: 1896, April 11: Morgans Mummy discoveries/treasures at Dahshur, Intermittent Springs, Northern Cheyenne Indians, Periodical Comets in 1896, Mineral resources of Transvaal (2 pp), Determining Carbon Dioxide in atmosphere, Radiography (Roentgens discovery), New discoveries in X-Ray photography, Perrot & Dussaud & Refraction of Sound, Mechanical Road Carriages: Prize awards in Paris, Chicago Engineers Motor vehicle tests: horsepower, traction, fuel, maximum pull, USA and Cuban belligerancy, Demonstrations against USA in Barcelona, Hydraulic Merry-Go-Round.

Scientific American: Supplement: 1896, June 13: Coronation of Czar of Russia, Statistics of leading Universities...making Great Univ. for London, Modern Seeress: Henriette Couedon, Babylonian tablet from 4000 years ago, Coastal ocean Puffing Holes, Water analysis by pharmacists, Locomotive for Belgian Light Railways, An old press room, Novel Towboat on River Rhone, Automatic Firing Guns: Peabody/Martini., Andrees Polar Balloon, Carbon Autotype printing, Kinetoscope giving several views, Coast/Lighthouse illuminations in France.

Scientific American: Supplement: 1896, May 16: The Egyptian Army and Nile Campaign, Travels in Cambodia & Java, Ancient toys, Historical Chronicles of Froissart, Mosaic decorations of Choir of St Pauls Cathedral, New City Museum in Bremen, Preventing Halation in photographs, Mexican Drainage Canal, The Chamonix mountainous railway, Bazin Roller Boat.

Scientific American: Supplement: 1896, Feb 8: Transvaal Gold Mine, Boer War, Gold Crushing Machinery, The ZaZa Railway, Island of Torghatten Norway, The War in Cuba, The Arc-Light (2 pp), New Pumping Engines, Colchester Water Works, Incandescent Alcohol Lamp, Rohleders Fagot Refrigerator, New Colt automatic gun, Optical illusions, Dr Mareschals hypodermic syringe.

Scientific American: 1897, Jan 16: Irrigation canals near Yakima, Washington, Vinyards and orchards in Yakima, Mountain observatories, Explanation of Seri Land and its Cannibals in the Gulf of California, Zebras as carriage horse substitutes, Monolithic Churches, Quick-firing artillery guns, Marine Boiler, First horseless hack in Paris, Earthquake pulses.

Scientific American: 1897, Aug 7: Rapid-Fire naval and field guns with 3 breechload system, Collapsible boat propeller, New bridge at St. Louis, On-barge grain elevator for Russia, Steam traction engine for plowing, Electrically driven motor for agriculture vehicles, The Anchor Wagon plow, Polar expedition departure point: Spitz Bergen, Development of army worm, Insect powder gun, The Schwarzhorn avalanche.

Scientific American: 1897, July 3: Japanese cruisers built at San Francisco, Rapid settlement of US lands in the West, Qualities of Flooring materials, Tests of Parseval dirigible balloon, Yukiah Indians of Calif... a dying race.  (very elaborate cover...lovely)

Scientific American: 1897, Sep 18: Stringing telegraph in Soudan, Double Hydraulic press to bend armor plates, Perpetual motion machines, African Ashantees residing in Viennas zoological gardens, Changing map of Africa, Polar expeditions.

Scientific American: Supplement: 1897, Dec. 18: Electric locomotive of 12 to 100 HP, Glasgow cable tube/tunnel railway, Modern gas powered plant, Method to draw water from well to upper story., Pics of German SW Africa Hottentot & Herero peoples (2 pp), Mental evolution of man, Roller boats...limited success (2 pp), Laboring classes of Mexico.

Scientific American: Supplement: 1897, April 10: The Plague in Bombay India, Famine in India, Convenient arm chair for the lame, Milling machine for test specimens, Express locomotive Kaiser Ferdinand Nord Bahn, Gasoline & electric & petroleum carriages: Phaeton, Mors, Darracq, Pennington Flying Machine, Rotary Pumps & Engines (2 pp), Newest Vessels in German Navy, Schliemanns mausoleum at Athens, Making Rubber Stamps.

Scientific American: Supplement: 1897, Dec 11: Steam Yacht of British Ambassador at Constantinople with compound engines, American Naval Engineers, Manufacture of Briquette Fuel, Hydraulic Riveter, Machine for raising river water, Automatic Weapons, Electric towage on canals, Touring limits of Electric Motor Carriages: Test travel between charging stations, Menomini Indias building a Bark Canoe.

Scientific American: 1897, July 31: 25 Ton portable crane, Loading big guns onto ships, 6-pole & Kwt Dynamo, Electric Dynamos pumps and locomotives, Photographic amplifier/enlarger, Salmon rearing in Maine, Trout rearing in Michigan, Pirates of Morocco, Hypnotism and unconscious mind, Improved tree-grafting method.

Scientific American: 1898, Nov 2 (Supplement): Grand Opera House in Paris, Rotory Steam Engine, Spencer auto-screw machine, German fleet in storm on the Baltic Sea., US Naval operations against Spain around Cuba: Fleet formations.

Scientific American: 1898, Feb 12: Extension of Riverside Drive, N.Y. Steel viaduct, Steam boiler, Bicycle stand, boxcar seal & tag, Fluorometer table for X-ray diagnosis, Refrigeration plant with coils, Meat market with refrigeration coils, River gold dredge, Improved Ice-ship, Habitual stances of animals for comparative biology.  (chipping on edges & small edge tears)

Scientific American: Supplement, 1898, Oct 8: French vs English occupying the Upper Nile, Chart of bottle drift/travel in Atlantic Ocean, Dispersion of Mollusks, Manzanilla tree, Greenhouse with underground heater, Division of Clock dials, Use of Bamboo among the Annamites, Peculiar styles of ladders,

Scientific American: Supplement: 1898, May 28: Death of Gladstone, Admiral Cervera with Cape Verde fleet in Cuba War, New form of Table Knife, America & France competition in agriculture, Latest discoveries on antiquity of man, Gold fields of west. Austrailia & attacks by Natives, Malay life in the Philippines, Quick-firing breech mechanism, Revolving stage of Paris theatre, Making stained glass window.

Scientific American: Supplement, 1898, Nov 12: The Paris Grand Opera House (3 pp), Psychological cause of Laughter, German Maneuver Fleet in storm on the Baltic Sea, Manufac. Of Albumen at Chinkiang, Naval Fleet in West Indies (Cuba) against Cervera & Order of Battle (3pp), Germination of the Truffle, Anthropology, Dignity of Analytical Work.

Scientific American: 1898, Feb 12: Proposed new Steel Viaduct for Riverside Drive, NY, De Puys steam boiler, Webster's bicycle stand, De Lamaters car seal and tag,

Fluorometer in use (Roentgen Rays), Atlantic complete Refrigeration plant & meat/fish store, Gold Dredge on Yuba River: 2000 yards per day, Improved Ice Boat, Habitual postures of various mammals, Pleisiosaurus and Snake Birds.

Scientific American: Supplement, 1898, April 16: The Maxim Rifle-Caliber Gun Drawn by Horse or Bicycle (3pp), Extracting Clay in the Passy Tunnel, Method of measuring wind pressure, Victor circular saw shield, Hydraulic tube-staving machine, Cinematograph camera & Film Winder, Camera Printing Slide, New Static Machine for Radiography, Dr Meyers expedition to source of Xingu R. Brazil (2 pp), Debt of the world to pure science, Poisons and Poisoners, Medica Case of Ingested Nails & Staples, High Jumping horses & men, Spain vs United States & defense of San Francisco.

Scientific American: Supplement, 1898, Sep 24: New Congo railroad, Train carrying homes & laborers, High explosives and smokeless powder in war, New rotary steam engine, 2-spindle vertical milling machine, Brookes friction clutch & barrel hoist, Bull fighting- 2 pages, Amazing Indian Fakir skills, New electric sewing machine, Structure/function of human lifes, Engravings.

Scientific American: 1899, Nov 4: Shipwreck in Indian Tornado, Perpetual Calendar machine, New Gonbet submarine Torpedo boat, Machine to notch girders, Training horses to descend steep inclines by chasseurs in Africa (2 pp), Determining melting point of fats & waxes, Olfactory nerve, Upholsterer Bees.

Scientific American: 1899, May 20: Manufacture of Krag-Jorgensen rifles at Springfield Arsenal, Loss of speed in warships, Proposed 'Universal Day' Jan 1, New locomotives for Midland Railway, Gateman Shell tested, Smiths Pruning implement, Wrench for tire bolts, Adjustible bedstead for invalids, Pneumatic chamber etc. for registering brain in rarified air, Measuring breathing of air and carbonic acid, Phenomenal growth of horse hair.

Scientific American: 1899, April 29: Manufacture of Krag-Jorgensen rifles at Springfield Arsenal (2 pp), Test of the Army new Wire Gun, Marvin Electric rock drill, A convertible plow, Improved band saw setting machine, A simple Calorimeter, Improved lemon squeezer, Automatic spring fishhook, Sutro Baths of San Francisco, California Sea Lion

Scientific American: Supplement, 1899, April 29: Plant for liquifying air (2.5 pp), Engines of steamship Ultonia (2pp), The Black Death in Buchara, Historic lecture: life among the Crusaders, Dr Diffres cradle incubator for newborns, Wireless telegraphy: reception of telegram from England by Marconi, The Wimereux telegraph mast on French Coast, The Ballot for election of a Pope, Fram Cream Separator.

Scientific American: 1899, Oct 28: President Kruger of S. Africa, & the war in Transvaal (3 pp), Paris Metro. Railway, Big duplex milling machine, the Comstock gold lode, Dredging the Lubeck canal, Japanese & Chinese paper.

Scientific American: Supplement: 1899, Dec 16: Bremerhaven Dock, Improved boat launchers, Studio photography with magnum light, Excavating ancient Babylonia (2 pp), Electric motors (2 pp).

Scientific American: Supplement, 1899, Nov 25: Boer War and Dutch early victories & Land of the Boers (3 pp), Killing gypsy moths, Experimenting with high frequency currents, Diatto underground power trolley car, French gun turrets for iron-clad.

Scientific American: 1899, June 17: Police anatomy class in Paris, Skeletal study of elephants & his ancestors, Wourali poison from the Amazon, Abyssinian people (2 pp), White Mineral press.

Scientific American: 1899, Apr 28: Liquifying air (3 pp), Children crippled in Spain to beg in Paris, Huge steamship engines, People of Buchara Samarkand and Black Death, Life among the Crusaders, Wireless telegraphy across English Channel by Marconi, How the Pope is elected (1 pg).