Assuming he survived childhood, the young daredevil shown here has been drawing Social Security for about six years now. He is shown attempting to poke his fingers into the outlet in the September 1944 issue of Popular Mechanics. The accompanying article explains how to make the dummy plug shown in the inset.
Just in case mom and dad didn’t figure it out, the article points out that to use the outlet normally, “the dummy plug can be removed and a plug with wires inserted in its place.”
My son’s Cub Scout pack is selling Christmas wreaths as a fundraiser. This year, we can deliver anywhere in the continental United States. For more information, please visit my wreath page.
If you’re looking for emergency or storage food, Honeyville is offering another 15% discount this week. For full details, please follow this link.
On May 1, 1914, the New York World Herald, along with most other U.S. papers, carried the tragic news of the apparent loss of the 11,000 ton steamer Siberia off the coast of Formosa. The paper reported that the gravest anxiety prevailed over the fate of the 821 souls aboard, including that of Mrs. Francis Burton Harrison, the wife of the Governor General of the Phillipine Islands. Ships from Britain, Japan, and the United States were racing to the scene of the wreck. The ship’s owners, the Pacific Mail Company of San Francisco, spared no expense in dispatching aid.
The headline of the Seattle Star reported that the ship was “wrecked by Chinese pirates” and helplessly ashore on the coast of Formosa.
On May 2, only an hour behind schedule, and much to everyone’s surprise, the Siberia sailed into Manila harbor none the worse for wear. She hadn’t sunk, nor had she been captured by Chinese pirates. She had been sailing in fair weather the entire time, and her reported demise had been greatly exaggerated.
Apparently the confusion arose when the Siberia made wireless contact and reported her position to the nearby steamer Persia. The Siberia’s call sign was WWU, and the Persia’s call sign was MBS. At some point, the Siberia’s operator was calling the Persia and sent, in International Morse, MBS DE WWU.
This was mistaken for a distress call. In Morse, the Persia’s call MBS is:
_ _ _ . . . . . .
The distress call SOS is:
. . . _ _ _ . . .
The confusion probably arose when the call sign was repeated multiple times:
_ _ _ . . . . . . _ _ _ . . . . . . _ _ _ . . . . . .
The call was overheard by at least one Japanese steamer as well as by the operator of the shore station at Ozesaki, Japan. The Japanese operators mistook it for an SOS. The Siberia probably had a more powerful transmitter than the Japanese stations, and the Japanese operators’ frantic acknowledgements of the distress call were never heard by the Siberia. Instead, the massive rescue effort was dispatched.
In a later report of the incident, the Pacific Mail Company, which was also the owner of the Persia, was quoted as saying that it will probably change the call sign of the Persia.
The Siberia was sold in 1916 to a Japanese line and was renamed the Siberia Maru. She remained in service until 1930 and was scrapped in 1934.
References:
“Wireless Mistake Causes Report of Shipwreck,” Popular Mechanics, July 1914, p. 80
“Marine Insurance Notes”, Pacific Marine Review, June 1914, p. 58.
http://www.atlantictransportline.us/content/48Siberia.htm
The following editorial appeared a hundred years ago, in the Arizona Republican of May 24, 1914. In just a few years, there would be many more graves of those who gave their lives for their country. But we are reminded that the sacrifices of the heroes are not diminished by honoring as well the least among us.
We print this morning a protest presented by members of the Women’s Relief Corps against the purpose to strew flowers on the graves of the Potters’ Field on Decoration Day. We cannot think that the memory of the heroic dead, whose memory we are accustomed to revere on Memorial Day, would be dishonored by such an act. Nothing would be detracted from the observance of our duty to them. In placing flowers indiscriminately upon the lowly graves of the unknown dead, we should be acting as proxy for many a mother, wife, sister or daughter who does not know where her dead lies, or, knowing, could not perform that office herself.
Decoration Day is made the occasion in ail cemeteries for laying wreaths upon the graves of loved ones, who may not have laid down or offered their lives for their country. If you go into any cemetery in the land next Saturday, you will find little graves covered with flowers. You will find the graves of mothers decorated by loving hands. You will find remembrances upon the graves of many who were born and have died since the war.
No one would raise a protest against such an expression of love on Decoration Day or any other day. Would we place a stigma instead of flowers upon the graves of those who lie in the Potters’ Field because they died friendless and penniless?
There are among us all. and there must be among these protestants against the decoration of the Potters’ Field, those who believe that there is a life beyond the grave; that there is a heaven not barred against the souls of those whose only crime was that their bodies found sepulture in a Potters’ Field. Surely, we would not dishonor by scorn the graves of such as these.
There are desecrations of Decoration Day in protests against which we would join. We would protest against the custom of making the day a date for prize fights, and we would protest against turning from the solemnity of the Memorial Day services to merry-making in which is forgotten the purpose of the day, the annual renewal of our loyalty
to the country and our sense of gratitude to those who offered their lives for it.
Click Here For Today’s Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Cartoon 
The Army Signal Corps truck-mounted wireless, as shown in Popular Mechanics, October, 1914.
A hundred years ago today, May 10, 1914, mobile wireless was about to become a reality for the U.S. Army, as reported in the Washington Herald of that day:
U. S. WIRELESS STATION
IS MOUNTED ON AUTOGovernment Rushing Work on New
Portable Apparatus for Signal
Corps in Mexico.A new wireless station mounted on a mortortruck. which is being constructed with all haste by the [U.S.] government in Mexico, was given a preliminary trial last night in which the operator was In easy communication with Key West and Philadelphia. The machine is to be used by the Signal Corps of the troops in Mexico.
The idea of a wireless station made portable by mounting on a motortruck, is original with the War Department and this machine which soon will be ready for active service is probably the only one of its kind in existence. The machine is constructed on a new design by Signal Corp engineers and has been assembled by the National Electric Company, work continuing In secret night and day.
A new “rapid transmitting panel” containing the latest improved wireless apparatus has been set about midway in a big six-cylinder White auto-truck, which carries in boxes at each side, a jointed portable aerial reaching 85 feet into the air when fully extended. The electric power for the wireless is furnished by the motor of the truck In direct connection with an electric generator, supplying enough current to light the mounted wireless room and run the instruments at their full capacity. The apparatus has a range of 400 to 800 miles in sending, and of nearly 2,500 miles In receiving. The machine is for service at the army’s general headquarters giving the commander of forces easy communication with a fleet at sea, or with any of the small portable field instruments carried by sections of the Signal Corps.
In recent preliminary trials the machine was subjected to strict tests. As soon as the work reaches a satisfactory stage of completion field tests will be given and the possibilities of the equipment accurately determined. Quick shipment to Mexico will follow.
Click Here For Today’s Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Cartoon
This post is a bit of a test. I did some updates to my author page at Amazon
Among other things, I’m testing whether this allows me to place live links on the Amazon page, such as links to my other sites:
The folding bathtub. I tell you it’s GREAT!
A hundred years ago, opportunities abounded for men and women who believed in the square deal, and one of those opportunities was the folding bathtub.
This advertisement from Popular Mechanics from February 1914 gives all of the details. It solves the bathing problem better than a $100 bath room. “I tell you it’s great! GREAT!”
You can make more in a week than you ever made in a month before. You go into partnership with the enthusiastic H.S. Robinson, President, as sales manager for your county. Two sales a day, and you’ll be building houses and bank accounts, just like his other men.
This tub is taking the country by storm, so don’t doubt, don’t hesitate, don’t hold back!
I’ll write some more reflections later, but for now, I’ll just recap my final day of the SNAP Challenge. This is the last day of the challenge to eat only food that I purchased for $31.50. My total spending for the week was $26.01, which included 10 cents Minnesota state sales tax, meaning that I came in $5.49 under budget.
For my final day, I still had leftovers, so I didn’t bother preparing 
anything new. I ate well, but the variety suffered somewhat. Breakfast consisted of two slices of toast with the remaining peanut butter, along with the three remaining slices of ham. This was served with a glass of Sunny D and, of course, coffee.
I still had two hamburger buns, a third of a pound of ground beef, and three slices of cheese. Therefore, I made two cheeseburgers, which I ate with the last of the canned vegetables, a glass of Kool-Aid, and some cookies. The kids were having hotdogs for an early supper after school, so I used the last slice of cheese for a late afternoon wiener wink.
Dinner consisted of the last calzone, the very last slice of bread with a
generous serving of margarine, and the last of the cookies. I also finished off the Sunny D with supper. I have about enough Kool-Aid mix for about another glass, in addition to the one remaining unopened packet.
A few days ago, when searching for “self-rising flour recipies”, I came upon this cake recipe. I had plenty of flour and sugar, so I was careful over the last couple of days to keep enough eggs and margarine in reserve. To finish out the week, I made the small recipe shown on that page. It turned out rather well and is shown below. The recipe appears to originate in India, and shows most of the ingredients by weight rather than volume. Fortunately, we have a scale and I was able to deal with the unfamiliar notation without having to do any complicated conversions.
Over the course of the week, I jealously guarded “my food”, only allowing the kids to taste a couple of my cookies. With the end in sight, however, I decided to share my little cake with the rest of the family.
My remaining supplies of food consist of the following:
My remaining food
About a pound each of the sugar and flour; five tortillas; three hot dogs; about a tablespoon of margarine, about 8 ounces of milk, one packet of Kool-Aid along with a little bit from another packet; two little packets of salt; one packet of pepper; and a half box of pasta. I also have (not pictured) about 4 ounces of coffee, split between the Family Dollar and Dollar Tree brands. And, as noted above, I have $5.49 remaining in my budgeted money.
The name of this site is OneTubeRadio, so it’s only natural that the logo should show a one tube radio.
The schematic diagram above was taken from Audel’s Radiomans Guide by Edwin P. Anderson, which was published in 1945. It is a very basic one-tube regenerative receiver. The book is out of copyright, and it’s one of many available at tubebooks.org, a repository of old radio and electronics books that are now in the public domain. I have more such books linked on my old radio books page. In addition to the ones at tubebooks.org, there are many available at Google Books and Amazon