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?
This quiz appeared a hundred years ago this month in the September, 1924, issue of Science and Invention magazine. Can you figure it out? The answer will be posted tomorrow.
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.
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Seventy-five years ago, these servicemen with the Patton Brothers firm of Benton Harbor, Michigan, speed up television repairs thanks to the use of modern test equipment. Because of the 6 MHz bandwidth of the TV signal, this includes the need for a sweep generator covering the entire TV broadcast range, with a sweep of at least 10 MHz.
The device is discussed in detail in the September 1949 issue of Radio News, on whose cover this illustration appears.
Eighty years ago this month, the September 1944 issue of Practical Wireless showed how to build this simple one-tube loudspeaker set. The dual tube served as regenerative detector and audio amplifier, and the mediumwave set could pull in the Home Service, as well as possibly some stations on the continent.
For a snapshot of grocery prices in 1985, this ad appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Septeber 4, 1985. A pound of ground beef was 85 cents, and bacon was $1.39 per pound. Cucumbers were five for a dollar, and five pounds of potatoes were $1.09. A package of frozen waffles was 79 cents.
Of course, there’s been a lot of inflation since then. According to this online calculator, one dollar in 1985 is the equivalent of $2.92 in 2024. To see comparable prices today, click the links above, which will show you the current prices on Amazon.
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Seventy-five years ago this month, the September 1949 issue of Radio Retailing carried this ad for the GE model 65 clock radio. The radio featured a “slumber switch” which would let you go to sleep to music, and then wake you to music in the morning. But if the music didn’t wake you up, it would soon revert to a buzzer.
The radio featured the familiar five-tube lineup of 12SA7, 12SK7, 12SQ7, 50C5, and 35W4.
Washington Evening Star, Sept 1, 1939.
Today marks the 85th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, with Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. Within days, Britain and France had declared war.
The outbreak of war meant that the BBC put into place a pre-arranged program to prevent its transmitters from being used by enemy aircraft for direction finding. All broadcasting was moved to two frequencies. Synchronized transmitters throughout the country transmitted simultaneously on those frequencies. During an air raid warning in one portion of the country, transmitters in that area would cease. But since other transmitters were still in operation, the listener would continue to hear the program, with only a modest loss of signal strength. Later in the war, another frequency, 1474 kHz, was added, with low-powered transmitters.
Immediately prior to the War, the BBC’s domestic programs were broadcast on the frequencies, shown at left, as shown in the September 1, 1939, issue of Radio Times:
This consisted of a national program on 200 kHz longwave, and 1149 kHz mediumwave, as well as several regional programs. The following issue, dated September 4, entitled “Broadcasting Carries On,” highlighted the changes. The regional programs were suspended, and a single national program, called the Home Service, covered the whole nation.
The new Home Service would be on the air on 767 (North) and 668 kHz (South), starting at 7:00 AM until 12:15 AM. If important news warranted, there would be broadcasts at 1:00, 3:00, and 5:00 AM. Regional broadcasts were replaced with announcements for the respective regions. London and Scotland announcements would be at 6:15 PM, Welsh and Western announcements at 7:00 PM, Northern announcements at 7:45, and Midland and Northern Ireland at 10:45 PM.
The 200 kHz longwave signal went off the air, although it came back later for foreign broadcasts. The BBC’s television station in London also went dark for the duration of the War. You can read more of this history at the BBC website.
Eighty-five years ago, this gentleman is teaching himself Morse code thanks to a one-tube code oscillator shown in the August 1939 issue of Popular Mechanics.
It used a single 12A7 tube, and for the filament, it used a “curtain burner” line cord to drop the voltage to 12 volts. The article suggested learning the code by sending from the attached chart, and then having someone else, preferably someone already skilled at the code, to send faster and faster.