On this day 80 years ago, the Christmas shopping season was in full swing. The shopper shown here, on the cover of Radio Retailing, November 1939, bypassed the neckties and instead headed to the radio department to find the perfect gift. The radio she was carrying probably wasn’t a replacement for the family’s main set. Instead, it was an “extra” set to go in another room. The magazine reminded retailers that they shouldn’t miss out on these sales, just because they’re concentrating on sales of replacements for the main set. This retailer obviously got the message.
Christmas Eve 2018 marks the 200th anniversary of the hymn Silent Night.
Flooding had damaged the church organ at the parish church of Oberndorf in the Austrian Empire. The priest, who had written the words, asked Franz Xaver Gruber to compose music for the guitar. It was first performed 200 years ago tonight.
Sixty years ago this month, the December 1958 issue of Popular Electronics promised Christmas Fun with electronic robots. But unfortunately for the hapless newsstand buyer who bought the copy based upon the cover, the magazine didn’t include a construction article for the robots shown.
Instead, the magazine contained an article pointing out that robots were here to stay. The magazine was noncommittal on the issue of whether the robots would eventually run amok.
I was a little bit surprised to see these phonographs for sale in a wartime catalog, but they are shown here in the 1944 Sears Christmas catalog.
They’re surprising for a couple of reasons. First, they’re an interesting juxtaposition of an acoustic phonograph with an electric motor. I assumed that acoustic phonographs were wind-up models, and that electronic phonographs had an electric motor. But there’s no reason why there can’t be some overlap..
But I was more surprised to see phonographs for sale, despite the fact that the manufacture of phonographs had ended by order of the War Production Board (WPB) on April 22, 1942. It’s unlikely that there was much old stock left in the Sears warehouse at that point (although it’s not at all unlikely that there were electric phonograph motors left over when the ban went into effect).
Interestingly, these are not being sold as phonographs. They are being sold as toy phonographs. I’m not aware that the WPB made an exception for acoustic phonographs. But apparently, they did make an exception for toy phonographs.
The model on the right looks like a toy, especially with the decorations. But the model on the left doesn’t really look like a toy. It looks more like just a low-end portable phonograph. I suspect that more than a few were sold, not for the kids, but because it was the only new phonograph people were able to buy.
The video below shows a similar instrument manufactured, surprisingly, as late as 1974:
This painting by J.C. Leyendecker appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post a hundred years ago today, December 22, 1917. The American soldier is sharing his meager Christmas meal with a French girl.
The plans for this British crystal set appeared 90 years ago in the December 17, 1927 issue of Amateur Wireless.
The set was billed as an ideal Christmas gift for someone living close to a BBC station. “A receiver such as this is inexpensive to build and would make an admirable Christmas gift to someone who lives near a B.B.C. station and has facilities for the erection of a reasonably efficient aerial-earth system.”
According to the article, if the set was equipped with a good aerial and earth, it would work two pairs of headphones with good volume, at a range of up to 12 miles from a main BBC station, or about half that distance from a relay station. The set was simple to operate, since it used a “permanent” crystal detector.
The article used quotation marks, since apparently the detector (available from either R.I. and Varley, or the Jewel Pen Company) was capable of an initial adjustment. “When testing on actual reception, carefully adjust the crystal detector until loudest results are obtained, and then leave well alone, as far as the detector is concerned.”
On this day 80 years ago, the Christmas shopping season was in full swing. The shopper shown here, on the cover of Radio Retailing, November 1939, bypassed the neckties and instead headed to the radio department to find the perfect gift. The radio she was carrying probably wasn’t a replacement for the family’s main set. Instead, it was an “extra” set to go in another room. The magazine reminded retailers that they shouldn’t miss out on these sales, just because they’re concentrating on sales of replacements for the main set. This retailer obviously got the message.
