For a snapshot of grocery prices in 1975, this ad for A&P appeared in the Pittsburgh Press, June 18, 1975. (You can click on the image above for a larger version.)
According to this online inflation calculator, one dollar in 1975 was the equivalent of $5.65 in 2023 dollars. So you need to multiply all of these prices by 5.65. The pound of coffee for $1.02 sounds like a bargain, but it works out to $5.77 in today’s money. And five pounds of flour was only 69 cents, but that’s the same as $3.90 today.
The federal minimum wage was $2.10 per hour, so you would earn $16.80 for a day’s work. How would you spend your grocery budget if you were buying?
Harnessing the power of the sun to cook your food is nothing new, as shown by this hundred-year-old illustration on the cover of Science and Invention, June 1923.
The accompanying article, penned by Dr. C.G. Abbott, the assistant secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, isn’t quite a construction article, but it does provide some basic ideas. The model shown above was suitable for camping, or other situations where fuel and power were unavailable. The two concave mirrors, made of tin, reflected the sun onto the cooking surface, the bottom of which was blackened with soot. The complicating factor, possibly unnecessary, is the use of an alarm clock to keep the mirrors aimed.
For situations where it was necessary to cook at night or when there was no sun, the author also described a more complicated system, where the sun heated a reservoir of oil, which was in turn used to provide the cooking heat.
For a simple solar cooker, you can see our earlier post, where we provide plans for construction of a solar oven. If you want to save the work, the solar cooker shown below uses the same principle as the 1923 design, but it somewhat more efficient with the parabolic mirror. Also shown are some solar ovens:
While these can’t be used in the dark or on cloudy days, having the ability to cook using only the sun’s energy adds flexibility for camping or emergency preparedness.
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The June 1948 issue of Radio Craft showed this circuit for a one-tube “reflex” receiver, so named because the tube served double duty. The input was connected to the antenna circuit, and the tube served as an RF amplifier, with the output going to a then relatively new 1N34 diode. The audio then went through a transformer and volume control, where it was fed back to the tube, which then amplified the audio. The audio then passed through an RF choke on its way to the speaker.
The circuit had been sent to the magazine by one Arthur S. Bean of Baltimore. The magazine noted that his design provided good volume and moderate selectivity.
Seventy-five years ago, the June 14, 1948, issue of Life magazine carried this ad from RCA, showing the company’s lineup of portables, and suggesting that your sainted dad might enjoy one of them for Fathers Day.
The lowest cost option was the model 54B at $29.95, which was battery only. The four-tube set measured about 6 by 4 by 3 inches. The model 8BX5 at $34.95 could run on AC or DC power or battery. It featured five tubes, since it also included a rectifier.
The top of the line was the 8BX6, dubbed the Globe-Trotter, for $49.95, which also had three-way power. This set had six tubes and a four-inch speaker.
Today is Flag Day in the United States, the anniversary of the adoption of the U.S. flag by the Continental Congress on June 14, 1777. A hundred years ago today, Flag Day 1923 saw the convening in Washington of the National Flag Conference, an assembly of a number of patriotic organizations, such as the American Legion and the Boy Scouts of America.
As shown by this clipping from that day’s Washington Times, President Warren G. Harding addressed the assembled delegates. The main order of business was the adoption of a code of etiquette surrounding the display of the flag. That code was ultimately enacted by Congress in 1942 as the U.S. Flag Code.
If you were going to be an early adopter of television 75 years ago, it might be a fairly expensive proposition for you. This ad for the DeWald BT-100 appeared in the June 1948 issue of Radio News. The ad, for Warren Distributors, 3145 Washington St., Jamaica Plain, Mass., listed the set as selling for $372.10, which is the equivalent of over $4600 in 2023 dollars.
The set tuned 13 channels, meaning that it was all set to go for Channel 1, 44-50 MHz, even though that channel was soon to be abandoned in North America.
There was a time when people dressed up to listen to the radio, and 85 years ago was one of those times, as demonstrated by this young woman on the cover of the June-July 1938 issue of National Radio News.
You would dress up, too, if the receiver you were listening to was the General Electric model F-96 Electric Touch Button Tuning Radio. The handsome nine tube set retailed for $110 (over $2300 in 2023 dollars). It featured sixteen pushbuttons, and tuned both broadcast and short wave, as well as pulling in police calls.
Many hams from the 1970s and later are familiar with variations on W1CER’s (later W1FB)Tuna Tin II, a transmitter which used a tuna can as its enclosure. But the 1950s had its own variation on the same theme, as shown here in the June 1953 issue of Radio News. A 117L7GT tube wouldn’t fit inside a tuna can, but it did fit into a coffee can, so that’s what was used.
This 80-meter transmitter was actually a club project by the Wantah Radio Club on Long Island, New York. It was designed to spur some activity as the club members built and used them. Once the rigs were built, they used them for local nets, and also used them for contests, such as for the most distant contact, and the highest number of states worked.
Half the tube was used as a Pierce oscillator, with the other half serving as rectifier. We’ve seen other transmitters using the same tube, and it’s a natural for a small one-tube QRP rig. This design put out about 3 watts, and the station on the other end was often surprised by the power used. The article warned that to save money, half of the line cord was attached to the chassis, making it potentially hot. Therefore, those making the set were cautioned to use care in plugging the cord in with the right polarity. They described a test circuit to see if it was plugged in the right way, but that circuit would trip a modern GFCI outlet.
The tuning circuit shown in the schematic below was “already mounted on a convenient subchassis from a BC-746 tuning unit available at surplus,” as if everyone knew what a BC-746 was. That appears to be an external antenna tuner, one portion of which was used here. If you can’t find a BC-746, the article gives alternatives for making your own.
The set was mounted on the coffee can lid, with the can itself then used as the enclosure. This was said to provide shielding to prevent TVI.
The author of the article was Jim Fahnestock, W2RQA. There can’t be that many Fahnestocks in the world, and since he was from New York, where the famed Fahnestock clip originated, we have to guess that he was related to the inventor of the clip and the namesake of the State Park.
Over the next few years, the TV antenna on top of houses would become a familiar sight, But 75 years ago, the concept was new, even for experienced radio technicians, who were just starting to realize that the way they would stay in business was by embracing television.
Therefore, the June-July 1948 issue of National Radio News, the publication sent to alumni of National Radio Institute, carried an extensive treatise on the subject of antennas for FM and TV. One concept that would soon become familiar, but was probably new to most readers, was “ghosts” caused by multipath interference. The cause is shown above, and the result is shown below.
Disclaimer: Don’t get fitness advice from random bloggers, talk to your doctor before starting any exercise program, and please don’t sue us if you get hurt exercising.
We previously wrote about Walter Camp’s Daily Dozen, an exercise regimen devised and promoted by Walter Camp, American football player and coach. When the U.S. Army discovered that many conscripts in World War I were badly out of shape, it turned to Camp to come up with an exercise program for sedentary city boys. He came up with the “Daily Dozen,” a series of twelve simple exercises that could be performed in about twenty minutes. Camp also recommended an hour of outdoor play, but the Daily Dozen were seen as a method of getting ready for the day. Camp had observed zoo animals who, like office workers, were unnaturally confined, and his exercises mimicked some of the stretches he had seen these animals instinctively perform.
I recently suffered a broken arm, and as a result, was sent to physical therapy to get the function back. They gave me exercises to do, and as an old out-of-shape sedentary person, I did get in the habit of exercising. When my physical therapy ended, I decided that I ought to take some small step to remain active. And since I had written about an exercise program, I figured that one was as good as any.
As we previously wrote, Camp produced a set of records with his exercises. While a band plays, Camp barks out his instructions, and you exercise along with the record player. Undoubtedly, Camp was standing next to the band as it played, shouting his commands into the cone of the recording equipment. So a few months ago, I decided to start doing the Daily Dozen. Human physiology hasn’t changed much in the last hundred years, and if Camp could make people more fit in 1922, there’s no reason why he can’t do the same thing today.
Even though the exercises are very simple, the 20 minute routine does seem to have a positive effect on my health. For one thing, it has gotten easier after a few months. At first, it wasn’t exactly hard, but it did seem like drudgery. But as time goes by, the routine goes quickly, and quite easy. I do feel more energetic after doing it. And more importantly, I’ve noticed that if I miss doing it for one day, I don’t really feel as well the next day. So it doesn’t do any harm, and it’s probably a benefit. I also try to take Camp’s advice and do some outdoor recreation every day.
If you want to give it a try, Camp’s 1922 record set is available on YouTube:
If you want to see the exercises being done, you can see them in this video. You can find a modern-day discussion and critique in this book at Amazon. You can also find Camp’s own book at this link at Google Books. You’ll notice that the exercises in the videos and books are somewhat different, as the plan changed a bit over the years. I’ve been following the plan from the 1922 record set.
If you’re looking for a modest exercise program to start getting yourself back into some semblance of physical fitness, then you can’t really go wrong with the Daily Dozen.
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For a snapshot of grocery prices in 1975, this ad for A&P appeared in the Pittsburgh Press, June 18, 1975. (You can click on the image above for a larger version.)
