Electrocuting the Enemy: 1917

A hundred years ago this month, the cover of the June 1917 issue of Electrical Experimenter shows Hugo Gernsback‘s idea for “shooting with electricity.” In response to the German flamethrower (flammen werfer, or “liquid water”), Gernsback proposed a system inspired by a hapless firefighter who sprayed water on the third rail of an electric train. That fireman was knocked out, but not injured fatally, by the resulting shock, but Gernsback suggested that the same thing could be done in reverse. And if a more conductive fluid were used, then the results would be more lethal.

Gernsback proposed a solution of diluted sufluric acid (or chlorid of zinc or even ordinary salt water) in a tank on a soldier’s back. Another chemical is added to increase the pressure, resulting in enough pressure for a stream to reach the enemy line. The system is completed with a 10 HP gas engine driving an AC generator, whose voltage is stepped up to 10,000-15,000 volts. One side is hooked to the stream of liquid, and the other to ground (apparently through spikes on the soldier’s boots). The stream is directed at the enemy soldier. Assuming he is in contact with ground, “the enemy will almost certainly be rendered unconscious.”

As to the friendly soldier, Gernsback points out that “it is self-evident that his equipment must be such that he himself will not be electrocuted.” He suggests that this problem is easily solved by the simple expedient of his wearing a “special ‘high-tension’ rubber shoe, capable of withstanding 20,000 volts,” along with rubber gloves.

Eclipse Boy Scout & Girl Scout Camping

NASA image.

In earlier posts, I posted regarding hotel availability, with updates for the western United States and eastern United States for the total eclipse on August 21. I also have links regarding where to get your eclipse glasses , which you will need to safely view the eclipse before and after totality. In general, hotel rooms are still available (but going fast) in the eastern U.S., but are very scarce in the western U.S. Also see my list of over 100 eclipse campsites.

If your family is involved in Scouting (and in some cases, even if you are not), one option for camping in the path of totality might be Boy Scout and Girl Scout camps. The following camps have special camping events scheduled for the eclipse weekend. Some of these are open only to troops, but a phone call might allow your scouting family to join in with a local troop. Other events are open to individual scouts and their families. Other events are open to the public. If you still need a camping spot, one of these might be your best option.

These are the eclipse scout camping opportunities I’m aware of. If you know of others, please let me know. They’re listed here from west to east:

Oregon

Camp Pioneer
Cascade Pacific Council, OR
Weekend event for Boy Scouts, Venturers, Explorers

Idaho

Camp Bradley
Snake River Council, Idaho
Event appears to be open to public

Grand Teton Council, Idaho
Various events

Wyoming

Teton High Adventure Base
Great Salt Lake Council, Utah
Teton Eclipse Adventure

Camp Laramie Peak
Longs Peak Council, WY
Solar Eclipse Weekend at Camp Laramie Peak

Girl Scouts of Montana & Wyoming
Camp Sacajawea
Casper, WY
Wyoming Eclipse Event for Girl Scouts

Nebraska

BSA Cornhusker Council, Du Bois, NE SOLD OUT
Camp Cornhusker, viewing and camping, open to public.

BSA Overland Trails Council
Doniphan, NE
Camp Augustine, viewing & camping, open to public

Nebraska Girl Scouts
Camp Cosmo
Grand Island, NE
Solar Eclipse Camporee for Girl Scouts & Families

Missouri

Pine Ridge EclipseFest
Greater St. Louis Area Council, MO
Weekend event for Boy Scout troops

Illinois

Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois
Carbondale, IL
Total Eclipse of the Heartland for Girl Scouts

Kentucky

Pfeffer Scout Reservation
Lincoln Heritage Council, KY
Weekend event for Boy Scout Troops and Cub Scout Packs

Kentucky 4H Camp for Ages 9-18

Tennessee
Boxwell Reservation
Middle Tennessee Council
Great Eclipse Campout

Camp Buck Toms
Great Smoky Mountain Council, TN
“Be Totally There” for scouts & scout families

Georgia

Camp Rainey
Northeast Georgia Council
Scouts, Family Members, and the Public

South Carolina

Indian Waters Council
Columbia, SC
Camp Eclipse 2017 for scouts and families

The BSA is offering an eclipse patch that scouts can earn.

1927 “Phonoscope”

This cover illustration from the June 1927 issue of Radio News is more or less self-explanatory. But unfortunately, there’s little in the way of explanation given in the magazine, and I’m not aware of this form of video recording ever having been done in practice.

The early mechanical television signals were indeed, sent over the audio channel of AM broadcast stations, so it’s not far fetched to think that the audio could be recorded on a phonograph disk. I think the main problem would be the frequency response of the disk recording. As far as I know, the upper frequency limit for 78 RPM records, especially during that era, was around 5 kHz. I doubt if much video could be packed into 5 kHz bandwidth.

The magazine mentions, with no technical detail, only that John L. Baird was then working on the system, which he called “Phonoscope.”

GE Model 260, 1947

Seventy years ago today, The June 22, 1947, issue of Life magazine carried this ad for the General Electric model 260 portable. Shown in the ad is Monica Lewis, billed as a “popular star of radio and Signature Records.”

The set is touted as being self-charging, meaning that the 2 volt lead acid battery was constantly floating. When the set was run from 120 volts, the battery served as an effective filter capacitor. It had pushbutton tuning for the broadcast band, and also covered five shortwave bands, allowing it to “bring in U.S. and foreign stations galore.” It had “rugged military construction, and die-cast aluminum case that’s light as can be.”

The set’s tube lineup consisted of three 1LN5’S, 1LC6, and 1LH4. The internal battery powered a vibrator power supply, and when plugged in, the battery was charged while in the circuit, with a 3Q5GT serving as rectifier.

I actually owned one of these for a time. By the time I owned it, the battery was long gone and unobtainium. Without the battery in the circuit, the set did have a very pronounced 60 cycle hum. It pulled in a few strong local stations, but shortwave was no longer an option.

Monica Lewis, who was 25 when this ad came out, went on to become the singing voice of “Miss Chiquita Banana,” a cartoon television commercial character. She made her way to the big screen, where she appeared in movies such as Airport ’77 and Earthquake. She died in 2015 at the age of 93.

Update 01/25:

I received the following e-mail and photos from DK2LA, which should be helpful for anyone trying to recreate the built-in antenna. You can click on the images for larger versions.

I have this above ( and a 250) set as well and also without the external loop antenna which plugs into the side. By looking at photos and guessing the number of turns, I made up a loop as shown in the photograph. It actually works, but not on all bands. So my question to you is: Have you managed to get detailed information on this particular GE260 loop at all?

If yes, I will be very grateful to receive any further data or photos which you may have obtained in the meantime. Otherwise you might want to use my loop construction as a trial.

I used fairly thick silvered copper wire. The loop measures 285mm across the outside horizontal and 140mm across the outside vertical. 3 turns and the centre tap is about 1 turn off the bottom pin. Don’t know how “right” it is, but maybe enlarging the sides to fit more tightly into the cabinet insides (as the original loop fits fairly close to the inside cabinet edges) would make it work better.

You can see a video of the model 260 (along with a similar model that covered only the broadcast band) here:

And you can see and hear Miss Chiquita Banana here:

Last Minute Eclipse Hotel Options for Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, and Nebraska

Update: As of August 4, inexpensive rooms were still available in:

Kennewick, Washington
Ogden, Utah
Rapid City, South Dakota
Topeka, Kansas
Omaha, Nebraska

None of these cities is within the path of totality, but these are probably the closest hotels with rooms available. Traffic is expected to be very heavy, and you will need to leave your hotel very early Monday morning, or even Sunday night, to reach the path of totality. For more information on anticipated driving conditions, please see my eclipse gridlock page. To make reservations, click on the individual links below.

For hotels in the eastern United States, see this link.

At this time, camping is probably a better option for most of the western United States. Many campgrounds are available in all areas, many at reasonable prices, and you can make reservations to guarantee yourself a safe spot to stay and view the eclipse. For a list of camping locations, see this link. If you are new to camping, I have a page with tips for beginning campers and suggestions on the most inexpensive way to get the equipment you will need.

For those planning to view the eclipse on August 21, 2017, hotel rooms are filling up fast. If you plan to travel to view the eclipse and want to stay in a hotel, you need to act fast. Yesterday, I listed inexpensive hotels which still have rooms available in and very close to the eclipse area. Those rooms are still available in many cities, extending from Lincoln, NE, to Charleston, SC. You can see a sampling of available hotels at this link. I have more information about the eclipse, including where to order your eclipse glasses at this link.

If you live in the eastern half of the United States, you are probably within a day’s driving distance to view the eclipse, and nearby hotel rooms are still available. However, this is no longer the case if you live in the western half of the United States. There might be one or two reasonably priced hotel rooms left, but I can’t find them. West of Lincoln, Nebraska, it is no longer able to make a hotel reservation within the eclipse area, unless you want to spend hundreds of dollars per night.

Fortunately, however, you do still have some options. There are still a few hotels within a few hours drive of the eclipse. You can drive close to your final destination to a reasonably priced hotel, and then get up early on Monday morning and drive to where the eclipse will be visible. None of the hotels listed on this page will allow you to view the eclipse from the hotel. But for those in the western U.S., the cities listed below are among your last options to stay in a hotel to view the eclipse. These are suggestions for bases for your eclipse voyage as it passes through Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, and western Nebraska. All of these cities are relatively close to the path of totality, and have good road access for the final leg of your journey on the morning of August 21.

The hotels on this page are outside the total eclipse, some of them significantly so. Travel times to view the eclipse from these hotels might be significantly greater than normal on the morning of August 21. This is particularly true on north-south interstate highways such as Interstate 5 and Interstate 15. If you plan to stay at any of these hotels on Sunday night, you will need to leave for your final viewing position very early, probably in the middle of the night Sunday night. For traffic predictions, please visit my “Planning for Eclipse Gridlock” page.

For all of the cities listed below, I have a link to one hotel that still has rooms available. Most are $100 per night or less. In most cases, additional hotels are available. By clicking on the link, you can view other hotels in the area.

Portland, OR/Vancouver WA

Hotel rooms are no longer available in Portland, OR, or Vancouver, WA. Late cancellations might be possible (some eclipse chasers booked hotels in two cities). The hotel shown below was the last hotel in Portland with inexpensive rooms available. You can click on this link and check availability for August 20. If any rooms are available in any area hotel, they will be displayed.

Note that Portland is more than 30 miles from totality. You will need to drive south the morning of August 21. Traffic on Interstate 5 is projected to be extremely heavy, since visitors from Portland and Seattle will pour into the area. The normally short drive may take many hours. You will need to leave Portland very early the morning of August 21.

Value Motel

Umatilia, OR

Umatilia is also north of the path of the eclipse, but provides relatively easy interstate access. You can take Interstate 84 137 miles to Baker City, OR, or continue on to Lime, OR, which is right on the center line for maximum viewing. You can also head south on US 395 through the Umatilia National Forest to Mt. Vernon, OR.

Update August 4: Hotel rooms in Umatilia are now completely booked. Rooms are still available in Kennewick, Washington, which is a 162 mile drive on Interstates 82 and 84 to Baker City. As of July 9, rooms were still available at this hotel for about $64 per night:

Super 8 Kennewick

Ogden, UT

There don’t seem to be any hotel rooms available in the state of Idaho anywhere close to the eclipse path. The best option for viewing from Idaho seems to be Ogden, Utah, which is about 170 miles south of the eclipse. From Ogden, you can take Interstate 15 to Idaho Falls, ID, which is close to the center line. Note that traffic on I-15 is expected to be extremely heavy, because this will be the closest route to the eclipse for much of the southwestern United States. You should plan to leave Ogden very early. Plan ahead and prepare, since it might be necessary to leave Ogden on Sunday and drive all night.

As of June 20, rooms were available in this hotel for about $55 a night:

Motel 6 Ogden, 21st Street

Buffalo, WY

Hotel rooms are no longer available in Buffalo, WY. Late cancellations might be possible (some eclipse chasers booked hotels in two cities). The hotel shown below was the last hotel in Buffalo with inexpensive rooms available. You can click on this link and check availability for August 20. If any rooms are available in any area hotel, they will be displayed. Buffalo is about 113 miles from the path of totality. You will need to leave Buffalo early the morning of August 21.

Lake Stop Resort – Caravan Park

Rapid City, SD

All hotels in western Nebraska seem to be completely booked. But if you stay in Rapid City, it’s a 156 mile drive south on US 385 to Alliance, NE, which is right on the center of the eclipse’s path. As of June 20, rooms were available in this hotel for about $76 a night:

Motel 6 Rapid City

Topeka, KS

From Topeka, you can drive north about a hundred miles on US 75 to the path of totality. There might be heavy traffic on US 75, due to this area being the closest route for most of Texas and Oklahoma. Other north-south highways are available, so bring a map and be prepared to use alternate routes. Rooms are also available in nearby Manhattan, KS, and Junction City, KS. The following Topeka hotel has rooms available for under $40:

Motel 6 Topeka Northwest

Omaha, NE

If you need a hotel to stay overnight for the eclipse, Omaha is probably one of the very best choices for cities with available hotel rooms. Omaha is about 50 miles away from the path of totality. The advantage of Omaha is that the traffic into the eclipse area, even though heavy, will probably not be nearly as bad as other areas. This is because Interstate 80 runs east-west through the zone of totality, and there are few population centers with this highway as their main route to the eclipse.

If you are traveling by air to view the eclipse, Omaha is probably one of the best choices. Fly to Omaha on or before Sunday, rent a car, and you will be able to drive to the eclipse Monday morning.

From Omaha, drive west 53 miles on Interstate 80 to Lincoln. For best viewing, you can continue on Interstate 80 to Grand Island, or head south on US 77 to Beatrice. Another option from Omaha is to drive south on Interstate 29 toward St. Joseph, MO. While there will probably be heavy traffic northbound on I-29 from Kansas City and points further south, there will probably be less southbound traffic. As of June 20, rooms were available in this hotel for about $50 a night:

Travel Inn Omaha (Use coupon code TRAVEL8).

Bombardment of Fort Stevens, 1942

Servicemen examining a shell crater after the attack. Wikipedia image.

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the Bombardment of Fort Stevens,
the only instance during the war of a U.S. military installation within the continental United States being attacked.

The fort, which dated to the Civil War, was on the Oregon side of the mouth of the Columbia River. On June 21, 1942, the Japanese submarine I-25, which had been assigned to attack enemy shipping, entered U.S. coastal waters and followed fishing boats to avoid mines.

Late that night, Commander Tagami Meiji ordered the crew to surface at the mouth of the Columbia. The sub then fired a total of seventeen 5.5 inch explosive shells.

Upon the first sign of the attack, the fort’s commander had ordered an immediate blackout. Furthermore, he ordered his men not to return fire, since doing so would reveal the base’s location.

The strategy proved effective, and the only real damage done was the severing of some telephone cables. Most of the shells landed in a nearby baseball field or a swamp.

The sub was spotted by Army Air Corps planes on a training mission, and they called in the sub’s location for a bomber to attack. The bomber spotted the sub, but the sub was able to dodge the bombs and submerge undamaged.

The fort remained an active military base until 1947. It is now part of Fort Stevens State Park.

Eclipse Hotel Update

Update: This page will not be updated after July 29. As of that date, inexpensive rooms were still available in:

Omaha, Nebraska
Kansas City, Missouri/Kansas
St. Louis, Missouri
Nashville, Tennessee

To make reservations, click on one of the hotel links below and search by date. If that particular hotel is unavailable, you will see a list of any other available hotels in the area. Most remaining hotel rooms are close to but not inside the path of totality. Therefore, you will still need to drive the morning of the eclipse.

Campsites are still available within the path of totality, and you will find a listing at this link.

Please note that some of these hotels might be near the path of totality, but not directly in it. So you might have to make a short drive from some of these hotels on Monday morning.

And to avoid shortages, don’t forget to order your eclipse glasses while they are still available and at a low price. For more information, see my earlier post.

Update: I also have links to available campsites, for both tents and RV’s, at this link. For hotel options in the western U.S., please visit this link.

Lincoln, NE

Update (July 4): The last hotel room in Lincoln is now gone. Your best option is now to stay in Omaha and drive west on Interstate 80 early the morning of August 21. Drive at least as far as Lincoln, but for best viewing, continue west to Grand Island or south to Beatrice. Rooms were still available at the following Omaha hotel for about $50 per night:

Travel Inn Omaha

Kansas City, MO:

As of July 18, hotels in Kansas City are filling up, and many of the hotels previously listed here are no longer available. Most rooms in Kansas City, MO, are full, but rooms are available in Kansas City, KS. Most of the remaining hotels seem to be otside the area of totality, and you will need to drive north or northeast the day of the eclipse. Note: these hotels are close to, but might not be directly within, the eclipse path of totality. To view the total eclipse, you will need to move to the northeast of Kansas City. Extremely heavy traffic is expected, particularly on Interstate 35, and you will need to leave the hotel very early on the morning of August 21. For more information on traffic predictions, please visit my Eclipse Gridlock page.

As of July 18, the following hotels are available under $100:

Arrowhead Inn (Use coupon code TRAVEL8)

American Motel Kansas City, Kansas

Columbia, MO

Update (July 17): The following hotel is no longer available, but by following this link and checking for availability on August 20, you will be able to see a list of other hotels with rooms still available.

Budget Inn

Jefferson City, MO:

Update (June 28): All hotels in Jefferson City now appear to be completely booked.

St. Louis, MO:

The following hotels are close to, but not necessarily within, the path of the total eclipse. The path of totality is located southwest of St. Louis, and to view the total eclipse you may need to drive southwest the morning of August 21. Traffic may be extremely heavy. For predictions of eclipse driving conditions, please visit my Eclipse Gridlock page.

Motel 6 Hazelwood

Crosslands St. Louis – Airport – N. Lindbergh Blvd. (Use coupon code TRAVEL8).

Nashville, TN:

Update (July 18): As of today, rooms in Nashville are 96% booked, and only a few rooms under $100 are available, including the following:

Knights Inn Nashville – Antioch

Americas Best Value Inn-Nashville/Hermitage

Anderson, SC

Update: As of July 7, all inexpensive rooms in Anderson are booked, although there are a handful for about $200 per night. Inexpensive rooms remain in Greenville.

Greenville, SC:

Motel 6 Greenville SC (Use coupon code TRAVEL8)

Columbia, SC.:

Update: As of July 17, no hotel rooms are available in Columbia, SC. The following hotel was the last to have rooms available. By clicking on the link, if any other rooms in the area become available, they will be listed.

Days Inn and Suite Airport West Columbia

Charleston, SC.:

Update: As of July 12, all hotels in Charleston appear to be booked.

1947 One Tube Mailable Radio

We previously featured a 1940 crystal set that could be mailed as a post card. And today, we up the ante to this mailable one-tube radio from the June 1947 issue of Popular Science. This one won’t go as a post card, but at just a quarter of an inch thick, it is small enough to mail in a 6 by 9 inch manila envelope.

The set used a subminiature 2E32 pentode tube. In addition to the radio, you would need a 22-1/2 volt B battery, as well as a penlight cell to light the filament.

The flat coil is wound on a 4 inch cardboard disk. The 92 turns are tapped at various points. By connecting to different taps, and by adjusting the trimmer capacitor, the set would tune most of the broadcast band. Even though the set did not use regeneration, it was said to be able to pull in strong local stations with high impedance headphones (also not included inside the envelope).

1917 Boys’ Life: Signaling and Beans

A hundred years ago this month, both the front and back cover of the June 1917 issue of Boys’ Life magazine featured signaling methods. In the cover art shown above (with no attribution to the artist that I could find), a Scout is shown relaying a semaphore message to a distant point.

Not to be outdone, the back cover, an ad for Colgate toothpaste, used International Morse Code to proclaim the messsage, “I BRING GOOD TEETH GOOD HEALTH.” Since the nation was at war, the ad also reminded Scouts “how soldiers and sailors benefit from good teeth, and that they must have them to pass the physical examination.”

But the wartime service promoted by most of the magazine was the Scout’s duty to feed the nation and the troops.

It proclaimed that “no organization in the United States acted more promptly than the Boy Scouts of America when Congress declared, on April 5th, that a state of war existed between our country and Germany. ‘Be Prepared’ is the Boy Scout motto, and more than a quarter of a million Scouts proved they WERE prepared.” One of the first actions suggested was that in every large city, the Scouts should mobilize, march to the City Hall, and offer their services to the Mayor. According to the magazine, many Scouts immediately did exactly that.

Mobilized Scouts offering their services at an unnamed city hall.

But the biggest task undertaken by Scouts was to help win the war through the gardening movement. As soon as the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that every citizen was needed to increase the food supply, the National Headquarters of the BSA issued an emergency circular urging every scout to start a garden and persuade nine other people to do the same.

The slogan adopted was, “every scout to feed a soldier.” It meant that every Scout was expected to raise enough food to feed himself, thus freeing up enough food to feed the soldier.

Almost immediately, National Headquarters fired off a telegram to London, to none other than Herbert Clark Hoover, who was already “famous for his great efficiency in managing the enormous relief work among stricken peoples of Europe.” The cable read:

Two hundred fifty thousand Boy Scouts of America tender services as your aides as producers and conservers of food as service to our country.

Mr. Hoover immediately cabled back his response, and his response was that Scouts should raise beans:

The prime service of our Country in this War is ships and food, and we can here display the true American ability at great efforts.

In order to provide the food necessary we must from this moment eliminate all waste and stimulate food production at every point. We must send to our Allies more wheat, corn, beans, meat, bacon and lard than we have ever sent before if their men are to fight and their women and children to live; and our people must economize and eat other things.

Among these foodstuffs couldn’t the Scouts take as their own province the stimulation of bean production, for there is not only a great shortage at Europe and at home, but they are the best of foods. Let them help make America able to export ten times as many beans as she ever exported before. To do this, let the Boy Scouts see to it that they are planted everywhere, so that the biggest bean crop ever known shall be the war contribution of the Boy Scouts to America and her Allies.

(Signed) Herbert C. Hoover.

Theodore Roosevelt, upon receiving a copy of Hoover’s telegram, signaled his assent: “I think Mr. Hoover’s suggestion that the Scouts take as their own province the stimulation of bean production is particularly good. Let each Scout start a garden and thereby help feed the soldiers.”

Scouts clearing idle land in preparation for a crop. The caption notes that fire is a useful ally, but the Scouts watch it closely. In a month, this field was to be covered with navy beans.

The magazine noted that navy or field beans were an easy crop to grow. They would show good yields even on poor soil or thin soils. They could be planted late, after the rush of other planting had subsided, and required only a third of the cultivation required of corn. With a good season and average care, a yield of 10 to 25 bushels per acre was to be expected. Their high food value and ease of storage made them an excellent war crop.

The magazine also noted that many Scout camps would turn into farms. Since there was a scarcity of farm help, the Scouts would help to fill the gap. Even though they would learn to plant and pick, there would still be plenty of fun after the day’s work was over.

Finally, the magazine announced that the BSA would be offering a War Service Emblem for Scouts who were responsible for starting ten gardens or inducing ten people to increase their garden acreage.

1937 Admiral 955-8K Chairside

Shown here from 80 years ago this month is the Admiral model 955-8K chairside radio, as it appeared in the June 1937 issue of Radio Retailing.

The three band set featured automatic tuning, and in addition to the standard broadcast band, covered police and international shortwave bands. The walnut cabinet stood 24 inches high and featured an 8 inch electrodynamic speaker.

The semicircular front featured a built-in ashtray. The eight tube lineup consisted of 6A7, 6D6, 75, 80, and two each of 76 and 42.

The accompanying ad billed this and the rest of Admiral’s lineup as “America’s smartest radios for 1938.”

OneTubeRadio.com

Radio – Emergency Preparedness – Scouting – Law – Politics