Monthly Archives: January 2022

1922 Grocery Prices

1922Jan6SeattleStarFor a snapshot of the cost of living a century ago, these grocery ads appeared a hundred years ago today, January 6, 1922, in the Seattle Star. The prices look cheap, but these are all in 1922 dollars. According to this inflation calculator, a dollar in 1922 was the equivalent of $16.54 in 2022 dollars. So you need to multiply all of these prices to get the corresponding value. So ten pounds of sugar for 57 cents is close to $10 today. Coffee was 42 cents a pound, but that’s close to $7 today. Pot roasts were 12-1/2 cents per pound, which is about $2 today, which isn’t bad. I don’t know if the supermarket today as a “fresh killed jack rabbits,” but back then, they were 35 cents each, or $5.76 in today’s money.

If you did your grocery shopping at these stores, what would you buy? Click on the ad to see a full-size version.



Jewel Model 5050: 1951

1952JanRadioRetailingSeventy years ago this month, the January 1951 issue of Radio Retailing carried this ad for Jewel’s combination table model/portable set, the model 5050.  The ad notes that whether on a table or being carried, the dial is always in a convenient position, and the sound is always pointing in the right direction.

The set operated on household current or battery, and featured a ferrite core antenna. The set had four tubes, 1R5, 1U4, 1U5, and 3V4



1942 Code Practice Oscillator

1942JanPMCPOEighty years ago, these gentlemen probably realized that they would soon be serving in the armed forces, and their stint would probably be more comfortable if they came to their induction in possession of a skill useful to Uncle Sam. Therefore, they have undertaken to learn Morse Code, thanks to this one-tube oscillator described in the January 1942 issue of Popular Mechanics.

The set used a single 117L7-GT tube, whose 117 volt filament meant that it could run straight off the AC power lines, without worrying about dropping resistors or transformers. It had plenty of volume, which could be controlled with a volume control, to drive a speaker or up to 20 pairs of headphones for group practice.

1942JanPSCPOschematic



Re-use of N95 Masks

Most N95 respirators are intended to be disposed of after a single use. However, during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were insufficient numbers of respirators for healthcare workers, and strategies for preserving the supplies were necessary. Therefore, the Centers for Disease Control published strategies for reusing masks, rather than disposing of them after each use. Those strategies were published online.

As of May 2021, that agency reported that the supply of approved respirators has increased significantly, and most healthcare facilities should resume conventional practices, namely, disposing of masks after one use.

However, with the increased availability of N95 masks, many consumers are using them for protection outside of the healthcare context. We have previously published a review of some of the available N95 and KN95 masks.

While they are now readily available, the cost might be prohibitive if a whole family wears them all day and then has to dispose of them. Therefore, many consumers may want to employ the same strategies to be able to use a single mask for more than a single use.

I rarely wear an N95 mask for more than a few minutes at a time, and it’s usually in relatively low-risk situations, such as a supermarket. Therefore, it would be extremely expensive to discard it each time. Therefore, I store the mask and re-use it at a later time. I use a procedure similar to these instructions from the North Dakota Department of Health, which show the approved procedure for re-use.  Basically, I carefully remove the mask in a brown paper bag until the next use.  This video from the University of Nebraska is a good overview of the procedure:

If you are looking for particular masks, I have used and recommend all of the following, all of which are made in the USA. You can view my full review of these masks at this link. (Note that availability varies, but all of these are usually available at Amazon. You may need to search for different colors or different size packages.

 

 



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Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from OneTubeRadio.com!

We’ve had a tough couple of years, but it wasn’t “Siege of Leningrad” tough. The picture shown above was taken 80 years ago today at the Leningrad Children’s Hospital, where the children were celebrating the new year 1942.  Despite their predicament of being surrounded by the German army, these young comrades seem stoic and determined to endure.

While these children were all born before the start of the siege, the fierce battle surprisingly marked the beginning of a baby boom within the city. In 1943, the number of marriages in the city were up 13%, leading to a 1944 birth rate that was 23.6% higher than the pre-war level. From the start of the siege, special efforts were made to ensure nutrition for infants, and surprisingly, infant mortality actually declined in 1942.

You can read more about this aspect of the siege of Leningrad at the Russian Wikipedia.  Google should provide a good translation of the fascinating article.