A hundred years ago, this young radio fan is listening to her, well, radio fan. The receiver was constructed into a fan which could be used for cooling. But upon connection to an antenna and ground, programs could be heard over the headphones.
The illustration appeared in the June 1924 issue of Science and Invention, which did point out that if the fan was used for cooling, the detector might get knocked out of place.
Sixty years ago, British television had at least one viewer in Holland, namely, Jan Adama, PA0FB of the Hague. He tuned in to British telecasts with an antenna 45 feet above ground level. For UHF, he used a 52 element antenna, and a German UHF converter.
Since the British television signal had the audio modulation on a different frequency than used by his continental TV, he used an external Hallicrafters receiver connected to the IF stage of the TV.
The article above is from the June 1964 issue of Radio Constructor.
Sixty years ago today, Kodak ran this ad in the June 26, 1964, issue of Life Magazine for its then-new Instamatic line of cameras. The Instamatic 100 shown in the ad could be had for less than $18. The line proved immensely successful. You could see it for yourself at the Eastman Kodak Pavillion at the New York World’s Fair, or at any Kodak dealer.
We previously featured the ZN414 integrated circuit, which contains all of the electronics for an AM receiver in one chip. Fifty years ago, the June 1974 issue of Popular Electronics gave some more ideas for using the chip. The simplest was the receiver for the AM broadcast band shown in the first page of the article. With just a little bit of modification, you could turn it into a receiver for WWV. The most complex project suggested was a receiver for longwave weather broadcasts.
If you are interested in similar designs, the modern replacement for this chip is the the TA7642, which is readily available on Amazon.
If you want someone else to handle the parts procurement, you can’t go wrong with this Elenco AM radio kit, which uses two IC’s, one for the radio receiver, and one for an audio amp to drive the speaker. (And don’t forget the 9 volt battery and this soldering kit, which contains everything you’ll need to put the kit together.)
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A hundred years ago, Eveready ran this ad in the June 1924 issue of Boys’ Life, stressing the fun and utility that a flashlight and good batteries would bring.
Shown is their model 2671, which was said to have a 200 foot range.
According to the ad, you need one for gathering firewood after dark, exploring, or signaling. You also needed one for fun nights around the house. Chances are, there was an old flashlight around the house. If so, you could reload it with a fresh set of Eveready batteries.
One helpful hint was to know what size batteries your flashlight took. Then, you could buy a new set without bringing in the flashlight.
Seven decades ago, the job of TV repairman involved a lot of manual labor. More often than not, a home service call meant hauling the set back to the shop for repair. And since the set was contained in a large piece of furniture, it wasn’t necessary to haul the whole thing back. The chassis could be removed. Sylvania offered this cart to get it safely to the shop. It would accommodate up to a 27 inch picture tube, and cradle it, protecting not only the TV, but the customer’s floor and furniture.
It was a value of $19.95, but Sylvania would give you one for free in exchange for purchasing your tubes from them.
The ad appeared in the June 1954 issue of Radio-Electronics.
For a snapshot of the cost of living in 1927, this ad for Sanitary Grocery Co. appeared in the Washington Evening Star on June 20, 1927. To keep the prices in perspective, this online inflation calculator reveals that one dollar in 1927 was the equivalent of $18.05 in 2024 dollars. So the chum for 14 cents a pound works out to $2.53 in today’s money.
A half pound of bacon was 23 cents, which would be $4.15, which sounds like a better deal than the chum. Coffee was 32 cents per pound, which works out to about $5.80. Potatoes were five pounds for a quarter, or about $4.50 in today’s money.
For a snack, for just 29 cents a pound ($5.26), the “Educator Toasterettes” don’t sound bad. They were a butter-sprayed whole wheat cracker that both children and grown folks could eat like peanuts. And the were surprisingly good with salads or cheese.
What would you make for dinner in 1927?
Seventy years ago, this couple are pulling in a program on the short waves, thanks to the shortwave converter described in the June 1954 issue of Popular Mechanics.
According to the magazine, the setup was ideal for experimenters who were intersted in shortwave reception, but didn’t want to invest in a communications receiver or mess around with the proper tuning of a regenerative set. It could be used with any standard broadcast receiver, and the magazine explained how to make the connection to the set’s antenna coil if an external antenna were not present.
With two sets of plug-in coils, the combination would tune 3-20 MHz.
Seventy years ago, this employee of Bogue Electric Manufacturing Company of Paterson, NJ, is making some finishing adjustments on the model SL-102 sonic liquid level indicator.
The instrument met a long standing industrial need for accurate level gauges in tanks, free from floats and other moving parts. The system was both safe and explosion-proof. The system was able to automatically compensate for differences in pressure and temperature, and was even able to read the interface level of two liquids in the same tank.
The photo appeared on the cover of Radio News, June 1954.
A hundred years ago, Marie Lohre was named the most beautiful girl at the Real American celebration in Seattle Washington, as shown here in the June 16, 1924 issue of the Washington Evening Star. The festival was apparently named after the Native American Newspaper of the same name, as Miss Lohre was featured as the previous year’s queen in the March 6, 1925, issue of the paper, pictured at left.
According to both sources, Miss Lohre was a member of the Quinault nation, and she was a student at some unnamed Indian high school.
We found no more information about her. Occasionally, people Google the names of their ancestors. We always appreciate hearing from the descendants of people we feature here, to follow up on these images from the past.