Early Cantenna, Color Converter for B&W TV (Sep, 1955)

Did you think all those Wi-Fi hackers had invented the cantenna? This has them beat by a good 45-50 years.

• Airmen’s “Can-Tenna”

  At the Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma there’s a short-wave antenna that proves you should never throw away anything! It is the antenna for a Globe King transmitter and is made of 84 beverage cans that have been soldered together, end to end. Its height is 27 feet, 10 inches, about a quarter wave length of the 40-meter band.

• Color Converter for Black-and-White TV

  Black-and-white TV sets are converted to full color by an adapter that costs about $150 plus installation. The adapter includes an electronic circuit to reduce the
  black-and-white picture to 12-inch size. A rotating filter, electronically synchronized, stands in front of the set to add full color to the picture.

• 
  Low-Cost Tape Recorder Sells for $30

  Handy to have around the house for leaving messages and instructions, a low-cost tape recorder is simple enough for a child to use. It makes no high-fidelity claims, but it records just like the more expensive models. No toy, it has a four-tube amplifier, a four-inch loudspeaker, crystal microphone and two 150-foot tape reels.

• A switch turns off all hi-fi components when the last record is played. With it, you can go to sleep to the music of favoi’ite recordings. • An electronic robot “listens” to Morse code and types out the message on a teletypewriter at 600 words per minute.