Seventy-five years ago, the new serviceman learning how to fix radios could very well have done so in a classroom with this demonstrator at the front of the room. From the 1946 catalog of Concord Radio Company showed this working “All American Five” radio, layed out for instructional purposes. The circuits were easily accessible from the rear, so faults could be demonstrated by shorting out critical parts. The trimmers were all accessible from the front, so that alignment could be demonstrated.
A hundred years ago, the Gibson Co., Inc., 917-919 G St. NW, Washington, was getting ready to open its enlarged phonograph shop, as announced in the Washington Evening Star, September 19, 1921. In celebration of the occasion, the store was to have on display the original phonograph invented by Thomas Edison in 1878, presumably the one shown here, now on display at the Thomas Edison National Historical Park in New Jersey.
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The Baby Boomer generation is generally defined as starting in 1946, so this young gentleman shown on the cover of the September 1946 issue of Radio Service Dealer is probably one of the first.
The magazine identifies the parents as orchestra leader Ray Herbeck, and wife Lorraine “Pokey” Benson, vocalist with the orchestra. The young Boomer is almost certainly Ray Herbeck, Jr., who went on to become a screenwriter and producer, with a specialty of historical re-enactment. He served as re-enactor coordinator in movies such as Back to the Future Part III and Rambo III, and the 1984-85 TV miniseries North and South.
He’s described on this site as “probably the only movie executive in Hollywood who knew anything about reenacting and living history.”
In the photo, the three are listening to Benson’s solo on the band’s rendition of Vitamin Pills. It’s being played back on this Zenith console, and the magazine points out that the set has a Cobra radionic tone arm. Here’s another recording of the song, although I bet it sounded even better on the Zenith:
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Sinclair in 1992. Wikipedia photo by Adrian Pingstone.
We have the sad duty to report that the world has lost one of the pioneers of home computing, Sir Clive Marles Sinclar, who died on 16 September 2021 in London.
In 1961, he founded Sinclair Radionics, Ltd., which produced electronic kits and finished products, including one of the first electronic calculators in 1972.
Sinclair ZX80. Wikipedia photo.
We’ve previously written about his most famous products, the Sinclair ZX80 computer from 1980. In America, a later version was marketed as the Timex Sinclair TS1000, billed as the first computer under $100, whose price later dropped to $49. It could be used for BASIC programs, and served as an introduction to computers to many.
According to the BBC, Sinclair didn’t use computers himself, saying that he didn’t like the distraction. Instead, he was working on his inventions until a week before his death, because that was what he loved doing.
Fifty years ago this month, the September 1971 issue of Elementary Electronics carried a feature describing a proposed system known as Electronic Route Guidance System (ERGS). While it was apparently never adopted, the system was tested in the Washington, D.C. area, and amounted to an early prototype of Google Maps.
he system would provide directions to your destination as you drove. It was ultimately envisioned as a nationwide system. The user would enter a 6-digit alphabetical code into the car’s unit. This code could be looked up in a directory (or provided by a person at the destination) and would represent one of up to four million destinations. As he or she drove along, the system would continually give directions of whether to go straight, turn right, or turn left. In many cases, the instructions would alert the driver to take the second right or the third left. Directions would be given on a heads-up display, such as shown at left, or on a unit mounted on the dashboard, as shown above.
This was all done long before the advent of GPS, and the position locating and storage of directions were elegantly simple. To service four million destinations, up to 200,000 intersections would have installed loop antennas under the pavement. Each loop antenna would be connected to a receiver and 2-watt transmitters operating on 170 and 230 kHz. Cars would be equipped with a similar system. As a car drove over a loop, a 230 kHz signal from the pavement would be detected by the car, and this would trigger the car to transmit its destination, in the form of a 25-bit binary code, on 170 kHz. This would be received by the pavement antenna. For each of the 4,000,000 possible destinations, the system would then have locally stored the proper direction to go to get to that destination. The pavement antenna would then transmit that information as a 16-bit signal, which would be displayed on the 16-element display shown at right. Only the needed segments would be lighted, allowing a wide variety of messages. 
The entire process would take 21.0-24.3 milliseconds. The system used on-off keying with a data transmission rate of 2000 bits per second. When the driver passed over the station closest to the final destination, the display would indicate “END.”
More technical details of the system can be found in this 1969 report of the Federal Highway Administration.
If a driver missed a turn, the system would be automatically self-correcting. At the next intersection equipped with a loop antenna, the system would show directions to the programmed destination, from that location.
A motorcycle can provide transportation independence, but the time occasionally comes when the thing has to be moved by other than its own power. If you don’t own a suitable truck, this can be a problem. Even if you do own a truck large enough to haul it, getting it loaded is generally a pain.
I’m always a little bit leery of U-Haul, and I once spent a few hours at a loading dock with one of their trucks as the U-Haul mechanic did his best with bailing wire and duct tape to get the thing running. And whenever I see one of their trucks driving down the road, I do my best to keep my distance. They paint them bright orange for a reason, and that’s to warn other motorists that the driver has never driven a truck in his or her lifetime, and probably has no clue as to what they are doing.
But there’s not much that can go wrong with a trailer. And for the reasonable price of $14.95 per day, U-Haul has a motorcycle trailer. I decided to give it a try, and it was definitely a bargain.
The trailer is just a flatbed trailer, but it’s optimized for motorcycles. The bed measures 7’8″ by 3’9.5″, and would accommodate even the largest of bikes. It was certainly more than adequate for our little scooter. The tailgate folds down easily to form a ramp. Other reviews have noted that it has plenty of ground clearance for most bikes. In our case, with the scooter, it just barely cleared, so in retrospect, we should have propped up the ramp an inch or two. But the bike easily rolled right in, and the gate was very easy to raise and lower. When loaded, the gate is held in place with two pins, making a visible indication that it’s securely closed.
The trailer was clean and well maintained, and seemed safe to drive. It used what looked to be full-size automotive tires, rather than the smaller trailer tires used on most trailers. I suspect this means that the chances of a blowout are much reduced. The coupler seemed to be in good shape, and the minimal electrical system worked fine.
At the front of the trailer, there is a nose that extends several inches, and this serves as a chock for the front wheel.
You’ll need to supply your own tie-downs. Most would probably use ratchet straps. But I’m an Eagle Scout, and Scouts use rope to tie things down. A few trucker’s hitches made sure the bike was rock solid. Whenever I’m hauling anything, I stop after about a mile and make sure that the load is secure. I did so before getting on the freeway on-ramp, and everything was solid.
When I reserved the trailer online, I had to select the location I wanted it from. The closest to my house, strangely enough, was a liquor store, which apparently rents U-Hauls as a side hustle. Sure enough, when I drive past there, I notice there are always two or three trucks in their parking lot. I suspected that they might not just happen to have a motorcycle trailer the day we needed it. And sure enough, I got a phone call a few hours later directing me to another location, the large U-Haul dealer in the area.
I picked it up there on a Saturday morning. The clerk texted me a link, and I used my phone to upload a picture of my driver’s license. I neglected to call my insurance agent to see if I needed insurance, so to be on the safe side, I opted to pay an extra $8 for the collision damage waiver. But still, the total charge was under $25.
The technician outside quickly hooked up the trailer, and I was on my way. The return was equally quick, and I never had to mess with the connection myself. The trailer towed just fine, and made the trip quite easy. I had a little bit of brush at home that needed to go to the compost site, so I used the trailer for that before returning it.
The motorcycle trailers are available only for local rentals: You can’t rent it at one location and return it at another. If you need a one-way rental, then you need to get their larger 5×9 open-ramp trailer. The motorcycle trailer has a solid floor, so it would also be suitable for small ATV’s, lawn equipment, or just about anything that would fit on the 7’8″ by 3’9.5″ deck.
If you need to haul a motorcycle locally, then the U-Haul trailer is an inexpensive and convenient solution to the problem
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The importance of a good ground can’t be over-emphasized, as shown by this radio hobbyist a hundred years ago. Being located near water is always a plus, and a large electrode of cast iron was readily available. Dinner will just have to wait, since it sounds like he’s pulling in an important signal.
The illustration appeared a hundred years ago this month in the September 1921 issue of Radio News. The artist was Howard V. Brown, (1878-1945), and the scene probably came to life at his studio at 131 West 23rd Street in New York.
This ad appeared a hundred years ago today in a number of newspapers, including the September 13, 1921, edition of the North Platte (Nebraska) Semi-Weekly Tribune. The message boils down to the fact that you should trust the science and buy a phonograph, to refresh you when you’re tired, cheer you when you’re depressed, and calm you when you are nervous. This was the result of two years’ research by Dr. W.V. Bingham, the Director of the Department of Applied Psychology, Carnegie Institute of Technology.
By returning the coupon to the dealer, you would receive a 32-page book explaining this research in detail. In this case, the dealer was Dixon Music, 516 North Dewey, North Platte. And if you checked the box, you would get a phonograph in your home on approval for three days to let you see for yourself.
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For a snapshot of wartime grocery prices, this ad appeared in the Washington Evening Star, September 24, 1942. (Click on the image to view a larger version.) Rationing had not yet started in earnest. At the time this ad appeared, sugar was the only food item being rationed, having started in May 1942. Two months after this ad, November 1942, coffee (25 or 33 cents a pound) would be rationed. The following March, meats, fats, canned fish, cheese, and canned milk would be added to the list.
The prices look cheap to us, but because of the war, they were beginning to spike. According to this inflation calculator, one dollar in 1942 was the equivalent of $16.75 in 2021 dollars. So the 33 cents a pound coffee was the equivalent of $5.53 per pound in 2021. A quart of bleach for a quarter sounds cheap, but that’s $1 a gallon, about the same price you can buy it for today. But in 2021 dollars, that gallon of bleach would be the equivalent of $16.75. The 39 cent a pound chickens work out to $6.53 a pound. Even the loaf of bread for 15 cents sounds cheap, but it’s the equivalent of $2.51.
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Today marks the 100th anniversary of floods in San Antonio, Texas, that killed 215 and caused $19 million in damage.
On September 7, a hurricane made landfall near Tampico, Mexico. It lost cyclonic characteristics the same day, but the storm remnants were forced northward. It stalled over central Texas, causing the devastating flooding in San Antonio and other areas. Some stations reported as much as 40 inches of rain in a 24 hour period.
