Power Outage Preparedness: 1953

1953MarPMSeventy years ago, the power was out, but this family was safe and warm thanks to following the helpful pointers in the March 1953 issue of Popular Science. The general advice is the same–you should make some basic preparations for power outages.  We’ve previously covered the subject in general, as well as specific provisions for cold weather.

If you have a gas stove today, you can (in most cases) use the burners on top if you light them with a match.  But today, unless you have a very old oven with a pilot light, the article’s advice about using the oven won’t work–on modern gas stoves, the oven requires electricity to operate.  And unless you have an absolutely ancient gravity furnace, it won’t work without electricity.  But letting the faucets drip is still a good idea.

I wouldn’t improvise some kind of burner on your furnace, and there’s no need for an army-style stove.  Today, there are safe propane and kerosene heaters certified for indoor use, as we previously reviewed.

 



1923 Variable Capacitor

Screenshot 2023-02-24 2.50.19 PMA hundred years ago this month, the March 1923 issue of Popular Mechanics carried this self-explanatory idea for a homemade variable capacitor. A glass test tube serves as the dialectric, and the “rotor” is a brass tube sized to just fit over the tube. The stator is foil lining the inside of the tube.

With the dimensions shown here, the capacitance was said to be about 500 pF, which would prove useful for many radio circuits.



Today’s Quiz

1963MarPE

Today’s quiz is from 60 years ago, the March 1963 issue of Popular Electronics. Can you match up the names with the drawings?

Answers will appear tomorrow.



The Importance of Polarized Plugs

1952Mar2LifeThis picture appeared 70 years ago today in the March 2, 1953, issue of Life magazine.

The gentleman in the center is A.W. Shackleford, the mayor of Lethbridge, Alberta. He is demonstrating the importance of using grounded outlets, or at least polarized plugs. He was speaking into one microphone, addressing 800 Valentine’s Day dancers. A local radio station was covering the event, and being a politician, he grabbed that microphone as well.

Unfortunately, a “difference in grounding systems” between the two systems caused there to be a difference of 50 volts through the two mike stands. Undoubtedly, one or both of the two systems had one lead of the power connection attached directly (or through some resistance, hence there only being 50 volts present) to the chassis. All is well if that’s the neutral lead of the electric wire. But one of the two systems had the hot side of the power lead hooked to the chassis.

A radio announcer (left) and alderman tried to pull His Worship the Mayor away from the mikes, but the current froze him in place, and he was not freed until the power was disconnected. He survived the incident, and went on to win future terms as mayor.



1923 Radio Listings

23Feb1923For a snapshot of what was on the radio a hundred years ago today, here’ the radio page from the February 28, 1923, issue of the Washington Evening Star.  Click on the image for a larger version.

If you ever had an old radio with a switch marked “marine band,” then perhaps you could have heard what was being played on NAA at 8 PM, namely, a concert by the U.S. Marine Band, concluding with the National Anthem, right before the 10:05 PM weather report.

If your set could pull in Philadelphia, then there was a bedtime story at 7:10 PM. If you missed that one, maybe you could get the one from Chicago at 7:50.



1963 GE Clock Radios and Phono

1963Feb27If you were in the market for a radio or phonograph 60 years ago, you could pick up one of these at the local drug store, although the ad admonished you not to call it that.

Shown here are the GE Model 1530 stereo phonograph, and models C465 and C467, and models C433 and C434 clock radios.  The radios are typical “All American Five” circuits.  Come to think of it, my first ever radio of my very own was a similar model (but without the clock) also purchased from a local drug store.

The ad appeared in the Washington Evening Star, February 27, 1963.



War Emergency Radio Service, 1943

1943FebRadioRetailing2We’ve previously discussed the War Emergency Radio Service (WERS), a wartime civil defense service set up to harness the talents of amateur radio operators who were otherwise off the air for the duration of World War II.

Eighty years ago this month, the February 1943 issue of Radio Retailing takes a look at how the local radio dealer might fill part of the need in supplying equipment and expertise. The illustration shown above is a mobile repair facility, and undoubtedly some of the personnel shown here service radios as their civilian job as well.

In addition to radio operators, a role likely filled by hams, the dealers might fit into one of five other categories: Maintenance, procurement, construction, repair, and training.



1953 Three Tube Shortwave Receiver

1953FebRadioElecSeventy years ago this month, the February 1953 issue of Radio-Electronics carried this circuit for a simple three-tube regenerative receiver for the shortwave bands. The magazine lamented that many younger hams and SWL’s grew up in an era of chrome-plated super-dooper receivers, and didn’t realize that for about $15, they could construct a receiver that would outperform communications receivers selling for nearly $100.

With plug-in coils, the set tuned 3.5 – 30 MHz, using three 1T5 tubes. The first served as RF amplifier, the second as regenerative detector, and the third as audio amplifier. The construction details were rather limited, but the magazine did warn that such a receiver was susceptible to hand capacitance, which could be minimized by a metal chassis and an RF choke added at a strategic location in the circuit.



1983 Grocery Prices

1983Feb24For a look at grocery prices 40 years ago, this ad appeared in the Pittsburg Post-Gazette on February 24, 1983. There’s been a lot of inflation in 40 years, and according to this online inflation calculator, one dollar in 1983 was the equivalent of almost exactly $3 today. So ground beef was only $1.29 per pound, but that’s about $3.87 today.

The price of eggs aren’t shown, but I bet they would be a bargain compared to today. If you were making dinner 40 years ago, what would you buy?  You can click on the image to see a larger version.