As promised, here’s the answer to yesterday’s quiz.  As you see, once you see the trick, it’s quite easy.  The three battery/bell pairs are wired in series.  Buttons are wired to close the respective circuits.  The quiz appeared in the September, 1924, issue of Science and Invention magazine.

Here’s a bonus question:  How could you wire up another button that rings only bells 1 and 3?

A hundred years ago this month, the September 1924 issue of Popular Science explained another concept that, it turns out, never caught on. In the early 20th Century, there were those who proposed simplifying the calendar. While there were other proposals, the Delaporte calendar is shown here, and the magazine predicted, incorrectly, it turns out, that it might go into effect by 1928.

The year was divided up into 13 months of 28 days each. Each started on a Sunday. The mathematically astute will realize that this only accounts for 364 days in the year. For that reason, one extra day, which had neither a month nor a day of the week assigned, was tacked on to the end. Every four years, a second such day would be tacked on at the end to account for leap year.

The idea obviously died out without many traces, but the League of Nations was exploring the idea as late as the 1930s. Their files on the subject are available for free download, and are interesting reading.  A leading proponent of the idea was George Eastman.

A considerable part of those proceedings involve religious reaction to the idea.  It appears that the Roman Catholic church was cool to the idea, but didn’t reject it out of hand.  In America, most mainline protestant denominations had no objections, although Jews, Seventh Day Adventists, and Seventh Day Baptists expressed strong opposition.

A hundred years ago this month, the September 1924 issue of Hugo Gernsback’s Science and Invention magazine carried this ad for The Press Guild, Inc. As you can see from the ad, your tuition of five dollars (if you act fast) will set you up as a reporter, earning between $40 and $125 per week. Or, you could increase your income materially as a correspondent for a newspaper or magazine writer.

You would learn at home, under the tutelage of one Henry J. Brockmeyer, on the editorial staff of the New York Evening Post. The six lessons would teach you what it would take years to learn working on a newspaper.

While Brockmeyer is put forward as the expert behind the school, this legal brief reveals that one of the principals of the school was none other than Sidney Gernsback, the older brother of the magazine’s publisher. (It takes pains to note, however, that Hugo was not connected with the business.)

It reminds us, for some reason, of the Ted Baxter Famous Broadcaster’s School. Of course, if you want to learn how to be a writer, we have previously provided advice, free of charge. And to add credibility to your new writing venture, we recommend that you buy one of the reporter’s notebooks shown here.

Some links on this site are affiliate links, meaning that this site earns a small commission if you make a purchase after using the link.