Comments on: Grocer Builds “X-ray” to Sell Customers Flawless Spuds (Nov, 1932)

By: Michael, N5RLR

Michael, N5RLR — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 01:52:28 +0000

I wonder if any potato customers’ *retinas* were fried by the reflector-intensified 1,000-candlepower lamp. :O

By: Bubba

Bubba — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 23:05:37 +0000

I wonder if any potato customers got fried by that exposed electrical block — fuses? switch?

By: Paul Lindemeyer

Paul Lindemeyer — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:52:46 +0000

cite for above: http://www.ameshistoricalsocie.....f_0847.htm

By: Paul Lindemeyer

Paul Lindemeyer — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:45:24 +0000

I’m from Ames. I can probably identify the grocery with a little input from our Historical Society.

A more successful invention also originated in Ames in 1932: gasohol. Gasoline with ±10% grain alcohol content was marketed that year by a local filling station.

By: Randy

Randy — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 05:53:36 +0000

“Cobbler” is also the name of a variety of white potato grown in the USA.

By: Blurgle

Blurgle — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 22:03:02 +0000

I have just performed Research (cue thunderclaps); it appears that the definition of cobbler has changed over the last 80 or so years.

For those who don’t recognize it, the word “cobbler” is a mainly United States word for a dessert of sweetened fruit covered with dough or batter and baked. Before World War I, though, the word “cobbler” could be applied to any pastry-covered dish, including one containing meat and vegetables. The word meaning changed slowly and I suspect in some rural areas didn’t change until World War II. (I’m also guessing that the Modern Mechanix editorial staff wasn’t exactly on the cutting edge of culinary language.)

By: Charlie

Charlie — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 21:51:21 +0000

I was wondering that too.

By: Blurgle

Blurgle — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 21:32:35 +0000

And also, what do potatoes have to do with a cobbler?

By: Charlie

Charlie — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 19:12:32 +0000

Whoops. Fixed

By: Firebrand38

Firebrand38 — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 19:05:43 +0000

Charlie, “deliriously baked cobbler”? Just wanted you to know that I’m paying attention.

By: Blurgle

Blurgle — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:54:26 +0000

Not only that, but generally when you make mashed potatoes you pare and slice the potatoes before cooking them. What housewife boils her potatoes whole and mashes them blindly without checking for rot first?

And how the heck do you get a “black cavity” in a deliciously baked cobbler? It’s not like you put the apples in whole.