Fifty years ago, the February 1969 issue of Popular Science showed “The Floater,” an AM radio in the shape of a buoy that, well, floated.
It was billed as being suitable for pools and lakes, or even the bathtub, but the magazine noted that it was not suitable for use in salt water. The set sold for about $20.
If you’re looking for a modern replacement, the following radios available at Amazon have varying levels of water resistance.
A hundred years ago this month, the February 1919 issue of Popular Science showed this simple device for skimming milk. It consisted of a glass tube and a rubber lid for the milk bottle. While the principle was not explained, it appears that the tube rests in the top layer of cream. When pressure is applied, the cream is dispensed through the tube.
For those too young to understand the concept, milk straight from the cow is not homogenized. This means that if the bottle is left to stand, the cream will rise to the top, and the skim milk will settle to the bottom. This device allows you to “skim” the cream, hence the name of the liquid left over.
If you’re ever stranded in the wilderness in winter with an injured companion, then this idea could be a lifesaver. The February 1944 issue of Popular Science showed how to construct this expedient sled from a Chippewa design.
The magazine explained that ash was the best wood to use, since the green wood would bend without breaking.
The sled was lashed together, and the magazine explained that if you had no cord, you could use strips of ironwood bark. Or, if you were using the sled to haul your injured companion, you could use the laces from his boots.
One hundred ten years ago, this electric automobile was taking a charge in an uncluttered garage. The charger employed a mercury arc rectifier, the operation of which was described in the accompanying article in the February 1909 issue of Popular Electricity.
Seventy years ago, television was the center of every family’s interest, and the February 1949 issue of Popular Science provided numerous pointers on buying a set. As shown in the graphic here, a key concern was the size of the screen, which would limit the number of people who could watch. A hundred dollars would buy a 3-inch (diagonal) set, suitable for a single viewer. For two people, you could expect to pay $200 for a seven-inch set. And the most popular option for families was the 10-inch set, which would cost around $325.
The set was likely to need service, and the article recommended that a one-year guarantee would be worth any additional cost.
If the initial work is checked carefully, then this isn’t quite as bad an idea as it appears at first glance. This crystal set antenna appeared in Radio TV Experimenter in 1959. A six-foot cord is called for, and the conductor used for the antenna is not hooked to the power line. Instead, the six feet of parallel wire serve as a capacitive coupling to the live wire.
Happy Valentine’s Day from OneTubeRadio.com! The cover of the February 1961 issue of Humpty Dumpty magazine shows Mr. Dumpty extricating himself from a Valentine.
The February 1959 issue of Popular Electronics carried this handy device to facilitate sleep learning. As a youth, my attempts at sleep learning were frustrated by (in addition to the fact that it apparently doesn’t work) that the only tape recorder I owned had a very limited amount of record time. So chances are, the tape would have played to completion before I even fell asleep. And it would play only a single time.
One of these devices would have solved that problem. The exact details (as well as the price) were lacking, but the Electronic Educator, sold by the Sleep Learning Research Association of Olympia, Washington, allowed the use of a continuous tape cartridge with between 1 minute to 2 hours of tape. In other words, the lesson would play all night, and you would wake up having mastered the material.
Seventy years ago, prospecting for uranium was seen as a good way to get rich, and the February 1949 issue of Popular Mechanics showed how to do it. The issue included an article with pointers for the beginner, and also featured a construction article about how to build a Geiger counter. The electrical circuit was simplicity itself, and the unit was built into a metal lunch box.
The only caution involved the 900 volt power supply, supplied by three 300 volt dry cells. The article did caution not to touch the terminals.
The student and instructor shown here are demonstrating properties of sound, thanks in part to $300 million in federal funds made available to high schools by the Science Education Bill. The February 1959 issue of Radio Electronics gives some ideas of how electronic equipment can be worked into the curriculum. The article suggested that many phenomenon, such as sound, can be converted into electrical energy by appropriate transducers. Here, a scope, audio amplifier, and giant VTVM are used to demonstrate properties of sound.