Indexing Gas Engine Magazine Before Google

By Christine Stoner
Updated on July 11, 2023
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by Gas Engine Magazine Staff

Recently, I discovered some interesting relics tucked away in stacks of engine catalogs, outdated GEM publications, operating manuals from vintage equipment, and, strangely enough, some unloved and never-read fiction novels that have absolutely nothing to do with old iron. The boxes of curios I find around the office definitely keep me on my toes.

I am now the proud keeper of 10 years of meticulously compiled Indexes for GEM. The books span 1983-1992 and serve as guides for locating photos and subjects within the magazines produced during that time.

Our loyal senior readers may be familiar with these Indexes. You may have them and possibly still use them for locating information. I tip my hat to Donald L. Siefker, who painstakingly compiled them. One can only imagine the detailed examination that went into creating such lists.

In the preface of the latter in the series, Donald says, “This five-year index marks the fourth cumulative index which I have compiled for the Gas Engine Magazine. Together they provide indexing since the beginning of Gas Engine Magazine in 1966 and cover 27 years through 1992.” In the earlier book dated 1983-1987, “There are 1,081 items in the picture locator and 652 items in the subject locator, making a total of 1,733 items in the index. There are 311 different brand or make names in the picture locator.” He then thanks his family for their support. No doubt they watched him bury himself in stacks of magazines until he was dizzy with details.

Around the publication of these materials came the birth of search engines, a tool for locating information amongst the vast collection of growing indexes and databases. “The first well-documented search engine that searched content files … was Archie, which debuted on 10 September 1990,” according to Wikipedia. “Archie is a tool for indexing FTP [File Transfer Protocol] archives, allowing users to more easily identify specific files.” Archie was replaced by newer versions Jughead and then Veronica. Yes, named after comic book characters — I couldn’t make this stuff up.

Nowadays many of us just “google it” when we don’t know something or when searching for an image of your favorite engine. The search engine Google has become such a common part of the human experience that it is both a company and a verb. (Yes, I actually googled “Google” just to see what would happen and my computer did not implode, although I half expected it would.)

Instead of searching the huge wide web, just click over to Gas Engine Magazine and type a manufacturer or model into the search tool (magnifying glass icon) to find myriad articles dating back to the first issue of GEM. You can even search by contributor or topic.

In the words of the author as printed in the acknowledgments of the Indexes, “Keep those flywheels turning.” Thanks, Donald, I think we will.

Christine Stoner

Originally published as “Before Google” in the August/September 2023 issue of Gas Engine Magazine.

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