Night Before Christmas, 1822-2022

Library of Congress Image.

Today marks the 200th anniversary of the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” popularly known as “The Night Before Christmas” or “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.”

Clement Moore reportedly penned the poem on December 24, 1822, while traveling home from Greenwich Village, where he had bought a turkey to be donated to the poor. He read it to his children that night, and it was first published on December 23, 1823.

Moore, a professor of Oriental and Greek literature at the General Theological Seminary in Manhattan, was reportedly embarrassed by the light verse, and didn’t publish it under his own name until 1844.

Here, you can listen to the poem, read by Lorne Greene:



Radio Christmas 1922

1922DecRadioAgeA hundred years ago, Santa was getting ready for Christmas. When it came time to make his list and check it twice, he made sure he got the most current information by radio, as shown in this illustration on the cover of the December 1922 issue of Radio Age.



Lonely Wife: 1942

1942Dec21LifeEighty years ago today, the December 21, 1942, issue of Life Magazine featured on its cover this portrait of a lonely wife whose husband had gone to war. The cover actually depicts a model, namely actress Joan Thorsen, playing the role of the lonely wife. But the accompanying feature details the plight of a number of real ones, along with advice from author Ethel Gorham, who had written a handbook for them, So Your Husband’s Gone to War.

The magazine noted that no two situations were the same, but it showed the example of one lonely wife who put many of the couple’s goods in storage and moved to a smaller apartment. But author Gorman stressed the importance of keeping the overall living style similar to that enjoyed before the war, since the husband will undoubtedly be home on furlough.

1942Dec21Life2The book also provided pointers on finding a job. The woman shown in the Life article took a job in a record store, shown here. According to the magazine, work which involved meeting and talking to people was advisable for women living alone. She also had a civilian defense job answering the telephone in a New York precinct station house report center.



1922 “Little Aristocrat” Crystal Set

Screenshot 2022-11-28 12.43.24 PMA hundred years ago today, the December 19, 1922, issue of The Rock Island Argus and Daily Union carried this ad for Franc’s Furniture Store, featuring a complete radio set for only $15, which could be paid just $2 down and $1 per week.  It was assembled and guaranteed by the S&M Radio Shop of neighboring Davenport, Iowa.

The set, the “Little Aristocrat,” featured a mahogeny case, and included detector, headphones, antenna wire, and insulator.  It was touted as having a range of 100 miles, and would pull in station WOC, which was then licensed to the Palmer School of Chiropractic.  The set was billed as an ideal eleventh hour Christmas present.



All Aboard for a Radio Christmas: 1922

A hundred years ago, it was going to be a Radio Christmas, as shown by this advertising feature in the Washington Herald, December 18, 1922.  Various dealers had completed sets starting for $11, and one of the ads noted that Santa still had plenty of time to set up a radio.

One of the ads mentions the “Literary Digest Hookup,” which is probably the set shown here, which we previously featured.  The plans for that set appeared in the April 22, 1922, issue of the magazine, and the girls shown here were later featured for having constructed it without assistance.

The newspaper noted that December 23-30 was to be Radio Week, a time for promoting the new art and putting more sets into American homes.

 



1952 Record Player

1952DecPMSeventy years ago, these youngsters were listening to some favorite records, thanks to a new record player that Santa had just delivered. But little do the kids know that Santa had some help–Dad actually built the set, courtesy of plans found in the December 1952 issue of Popular Mechanics.

When not in use, the tone arm is placed on its holder, which actuates a switch mounted inside the cabinet, turning it off automatically. The only control for the kids to mess with was the volume control.

The amplifier used a single 3V4 tube, whose fast warmup meant that the player was ready for action the moment the tone arm was picked up. One interesting feature of the circuit is the source of the 3 volts for the filament. The set has no transformer, but the power supply for the B+ uses a selenium rectifier.  The filament voltage seems to take advantage of the rectifier’s voltage drop, as it seems to be wired across the rectifier (and in series with the phono motor and two resistors).

1952Dec2PM



1962 TV Sound Tuner

1962DecRadioElec2Sixty years ago, the December 1962 issue of Radio-Electronics showed how to make this converter to listen to TV sound in high fidelity. Of course, one way to do it would be to simply tap into the audio detector of the TV set, and feed that to the hi fi. But that, according to the article, left a lot to be desired, since it usually resulted in buzz, distortion, and background noise that would stand out like a sore thumb in a good audio system.

The solution was to build this converter, and feed it into the FM receiver. And most of the circuit was available off the shelf, in the form of the TV tuner. When these needed repiar, the local repairman typically removed them and traded it in for a rebuilt unit, making the rebuilt units readily available. Ads in the same issue of the magazine showed complete tuners for about $9.95. This tuner had a 44 MHz IF, meaning that the sound IF was 41.25 MHz.

To be able to tune this in on an FM receiver, the builder first tweaked the slugs and trimmers inside the tuner to bring it up to 44 MHz. This was fed into an amplifier-doubler, with the grid tuned to 44 MHz and the plate tuned to 88 MHz. The result was that the output showed up on 88 MHz, at the bottom of the FM dial.

With a reasonably good antenna, the little converter was said to provide good sound reception for stations up to 75 miles away.

1962DecRadioElec3



1947 RCA Victor

1947Dec15LifeSeventy-five years ago today, the December 15, 1947, issue of Life magazine carried this RCA Victor ad showing some of the company’s offerings for the Christmas season.

It featured first the model 63E phonograph, which featured both plenty of volume for dancing, but also fine tone for the more serious music.

The handsome model 68R3 radio tuned in both AM and FM bands, and included the ability to plug in a record player.

Finally, the model 75X11 was only 10 inches long, and the dial face and pointer glowed when the set was on, making tuning of the AM band easy. It also came as model 75X12 in ivory-finish plastic.



1922 Simplest Radio Outfit

1922DecSciInvShown here from a hundred years ago is the 7th place winner in the “Simplest Radio Outfit Contest” shown in the December 1922 issue of Science and Invention magazine.

The self-explanatory set was designed by one George Goga, who took home a $25 prize for his entry. The magazine noted that almost all of the parts, with the exception of the headphone, could be found ayt no cost in the home junk box. A pencil forms the chassis. The eraser is removed and a galena crystal inserted in its place. The coil is wound along the pencil, with about 3/16″ of the insulation cleaned off so that the slider can contact the wire.

Mr. Goga reported that he lived several miles from station KDKA, and was able to pull in concerts clearly with a 50 foot long antenna 10 feet high.



First Airplane Landing in Grand Canyon: 1922

1922DecPMIf you tried this today, the National Park Service and the FAA would probably seize your airplane and haul you off to jail. But a hundred years ago this month, the cover of the December 1922 issue of Popular Mechanics showed the first ever landing of an airplane in the Grand Canyon.

Aviator Royal D. Thomas, accompanied by photographer Anthony Ugren, successfully landed the plane at Plateau Point, despite the treacherous air currents that were known to exist there. “To the Indians who had assembled in their best paint and feathers, it must have been an awe-inspiring sight, similar to that of earlier generations of red men who saw the centaurlike cavaliers of the Spaniards and the steam train for the first time.”

The landing of the 180 horsepower plane took place on the morning of August 18. The next morning, the upward flight out of the canyon took 4-1/2 minutes, although Thomas estimated that it would have taken a minute longer if he hadn’t caught an upward air current that lifted him nearly 1500 feet.