1923 Radio Listings

A hundred years ago today, here’s what you would have heard on the radio in New York and New Jersey. Stations were on the air as early as 11:00 AM, when you could listen to Frau Noemi C. Vetter of Vienna opine about the theater and opera in that city. Much of the days programming consisted of live music, but at 8:00 PM you could tune in to a talk by Nicholas Thiel Ficker on how to reduce labor turnover in industry.

At 6:15 PM, more distant signals would start rolling in, and you would be able to pull in stations such as KDKA in Pittsburgh, whose Little Symphony Orchestra would be putting on a dinner concert.

This listing was from the Perth Amboy Evening News, April 9, 1923.

One Year Until the Eclipse!

Quick Links:

Hotel Rooms
Eclipse Glasses

One year from today, there will be another total eclipse in North America! As we did in 2017, we will provide full coverage of the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse.

You might have remembered news stories about two big shortages in 2017: Hotel rooms and eclipse glasses.

Hotel Rooms

Many of the stories about hotels were exaggerated, with reports of alleged “gouging.” While a few run-down motels advertised astronomical prices, the reality was not quite that dramatic. In general, you were able to get a hotel room at the normal price, but if you didn’t make your reservations at least a few months in advance, most rooms were unavailable. We booked our room in Hastings, Nebraska, about 11 months in advance. So if you are planning to travel to the path of totality, whether it’s in Mexico, the United States, or Canada, it behooves you to make your plans now.

We haven’t made our final plans, but the official OneTubeRadio.com eclipse headquarters for the 2024 eclipse will probably be in Dallas.

For the 2017 eclipse, hotel rooms and other accommodations started becoming scarce a few months prior to the eclipse. A few rooms remained available up until two weeks prior to the eclipse.

In general, most hotels allow you to make reservations one year in advance, so if you want, you can make your reservations now.

Eclipse Glasses

The other item that will be in short supply will be eclipse glasses. You have plenty of time to order them online, so that you can safely view the eclipse. If 2017 (and other eclipses) is a guide, these will become totally unavailable in the weeks before the eclipse. People will be paying grossly inflated prices, and there will be rumors of counterfeit glasses. This time, we decided to get in on the fun, and we will be selling eclipse glasses. We have started a website, MyEclipseGlasses.com, where you can order safe American-made eclipse glasses at a reasonable price. Our glasses are made in the USA by American Paper Optics. Their website contains an excellent resource explaining eclipses, and includes a one-hour on-demand video presentation.

Schools and the Eclipse

If you have kids who will be in school, plan on taking them out of school that day. Unfortunately, the 2017 eclipse showed that some American schools had an irrational fear of the eclipse and actively prevented children from witnessing it. If you believe that your child’s school is more enlightened, then on the first day of the 2023-24 school year, or maybe now, you should have your children ask the science teacher if the school is planning a field trip to see it. If the teacher balks, then your children should let him or her know that they will be absent the day of the eclipse. At the very least, you should ask whether your children’s school has purchased eclipse glasses for the event. If they buy in bulk before the eclipse, they can be had for pennies. But if they fail to plan and wait until the last minute, they will be unavailable, or selling for outrageous prices.

A field trip to see the eclipse is an entirely reasonable request for most schools. For example, students in Chicago could be placed on a school bus and taken to see the eclipse only a couple of hours’ drive away in Indiana. The expense will be less than other field trips taken to amusement parks, movies, etc. This is true for schools in many cities. They have the opportunity to let the kids witness an amazing scientific event, but only if they do some basic planning.

But I predict that this won’t happen, since most schools won’t think of the possibility until after it’s too late to make the necessary plans, or they’ll have the same irrational fears that showed up in 2017. It’s the duty of the students to pester the administration so that the necessary plans are made sufficiently in advance. And as I explained in 2017, if the school fails to act, then it’s reasonable for children to skip school on April 8, 2024.

October 14, 2023 Annular Eclipse

Path of October 14, 2023 Annular Eclipse.

There is another eclipse, an annular eclipse, on October 14, 2023. That event, while interesting, is nowhere near as breathtaking as a total eclipse. So if you happen to be close, you should take in the 2023 event. But the 2024 total eclipse is in an entirely different league.

The 2024 total eclipse will be visible in parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, a tiny slpeck of Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. The path of totality also passes through Mexico and Canada. Major cities in the path of totality include Dallas, Little Rock, Indianapolis, Buffalo, Cleveland, and Montreal.

Please don’t be confused when you hear about “percentages” of eclipse. Some people are lulled into believing that since they will experience a “90% eclipse” at their home, or even a “99% eclipse,” that there is no need to travel. This is a big mistake. Even with a 99% eclipse, the experience is completely different from a total eclipse. Unless you are paying attention, you might not even notice the 99% eclipse. But you’ll definitely notice the total eclipse just a few miles away, since it will become noticeably dark outside.

1953 Robotic Turtle

Seventy years ago this month, the April 1953 issue of Radio News shows this young woman playing with her robotic turtle. She looks overjoyed, but we suspect her father, the turtle’s creator and article author Jack Kubanoff, got to play with it more than she did.

The turtle is actually quite sophisticated for its time. The head (made of a coffee can) contains both eyes(photocell) and tongue (tactile sensor) that allow it to go in search of “food”. The food is indicated by a flashing light that the robot homes in on. But the creature has an ability to learn, in that it can determine which sequence of flashing lights leads to the food. It also has a memory, and can keep heading toward the food, even when the flashing light is behind an obstacle.

The robot has its own entry at the Cybernetic Zoo. Kids today have more options when it comes to playing with robots. But the sophisticated models like the ones shown below are direct descendants of pioneers like Timothy the Turtle.

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1923 One Tube Regenerative Receiver

One hundred years ago this month, the April 1923 issue of Popular Science carried the plans for this one-tube regenerative radio receiver, which was said to be able to pull in concerts from a hundred miles away. The total cost, including headphones, was under twenty dollars. And if the reader already had a crystal set, especially one with a variocoupler, the cost could be further reduced.

And the $20 figure was for store-bought parts. Someone good with tools could make some of the parts themselves, saving even more money. For example, the variocoupler could be home built, as could the condenser and even the tube socket. The switches shown here are commercially made, but they could also be fabricated at home from brass screws.

Tuning was accomplished with taps on the coil, and regeneration was adjusted by rotating the small coil.

1963 Portable Radio in 30 Minutes

Sixty years ago this month, the April 1963 issue of Popular Mechanics showed how to put together this handsome transistor radio. And miraculously, the magazine proclaimed that you could make it in a half hour, at a cost of less than $25.

The secret was the fact that it included to pre-wired subchasses that you could buy from Lafayette. One of them was the AM tuner module, and the other one was the audio amplifier. It was an easy matter to install both of them in a cabinet (which could also be found in the Lafayette catalog), add a speaker, and wire them together.

1953 Six-in-One Project Kit

The young man shown here is about 80 years old, but he’s shown here in 1953 working with his father on an electronic project using a 6-in-1 kit they constructed themselves, thanks to the plans in the April 1953 issue of Popular Mechanics.

With components mounted on a board, with Fahnestock clips for interconnection and adding additional parts, the kit started out as a simple crystal set, and was then modified to more and more complex receivers. It could also be turned into a code practice oscillator, thanks to the key mounted on the board. It was powered with an isolation transformer, and the article warned to insulate the primary side, and avoid touching any of the connections when the kit was plugged in.

For modern kids wanting the same experience of being able to build multiple electronic circuits, we recommend the kits shown below.

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1923 Television

A hundred years ago this month, the April 1923 issue of Science and Invention contained a description of the work in television being done in France by Édouard Belin.

His system consisted of a mechanical television camera using what could be called a Nipkow disk. The receiving end consisted of an oscillograph reflecting an image from a mirror and projecting it on a screen.

Happy April Fools Day!

Happy April Fools Day from OneTubeRadio.com!

If you plan on playing any practical jokes, make sure they don’t backfire like this one from a hundred years ago. Ma made a sawdust pie to fool Pa. But it backfired when he reported that it was the best pie she had ever made.

The cartoon appeared in the Perth-Amboy (NJ) Evening News, April 2, 2023.

1943 Air Raid Tip

Eighty years ago this month, the March 1943 issue of Popular Mechanics showed this preparedness tip. During an air raid, the first thing you would of course grab would be the radio. This cloth cover fits over the set and contains other items needed during a blackout. As an added bonus, it covered the front and back of the set to keep any light from leaking out.

Eclipse Litigation.

1948 Driving Safety Hints

Seventy five years ago this month, the March 1948 issue of Popular Science carried some pointers on safe driving, highlighted by this cover illustration captioned “This Can Happen to You.” They didn’t actually drive off the roof of a downtown parking ramp. Instead, the magazine noted that a head-on crash at the “safe” speed of 30 MPH was the equivalent of falling from a nine story building.