February 3, 2008

Vest-Pocket Telephones (Jun, 1939)

Vest-Pocket Telephones

A telephone that can be carried about and used anywhere without connecting wires is a possibility in the near future. Research on the project has been carried on for several years by the Southern California Telephone Company and, according to latest reports, is now nearing practical application.

COMPLETE RADIO SET PUT IN HEADPHONES (Jul, 1933)

Filed under: Radio — @ 9:25 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jul, 1933
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COMPLETE RADIO SET PUT IN HEADPHONES

Inventive ingenuity has succeeded recently in building a complete radio set into a pair of headphones. No batteries’ are required, since the set uses a crystal detector, which is adjusted by manipulating a small knob on one of the receivers, as shown above. To tune in any station, the user has merely to turn a larger knob at the back of the same receiver, operating a diminutive tuning condenser. The set will operate successfully wherever the cords of the set may be plugged into a convenient aerial and necessary ground connections are possible.

February 1, 2008

Wire Thrower Lays Army Telephone Line (Jul, 1942)

Wire Thrower Lays Army Telephone Line

LAYING a mile of telephone wire in two minutes is a simple three-man job with the Army’s new wire-throwing device. This 600-pound machine, usually mounted on a 21/2-ton truck, literally squirts wire along a roadside at the rate of 30 to 35 miles per hour. By adjusting the angle of a special ejector, the line can be thrown as high as 40 feet in the air in order to clear obstacles.

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January 31, 2008

Radio Set Automatically Tunes in Station When Asked (Apr, 1934)

Filed under: Radio — @ 2:05 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1934
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Radio Set Automatically Tunes in Station When Asked

A RADIO set, recently displayed in London, will tune in on any station it is asked to get.

A few seconds after merely telling the set the name of the station wanted, the program softly comes forth, without tuning noises. One of the wonders of modern radio, it will furnish one with television programs, for it is equipped with a television receiver, too.

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January 30, 2008

Splicing a Cable in Mid-Atlantic (Aug, 1930)

Splicing a Cable in Mid-Atlantic

The author of this article went as a member of the crew of the cable ship in order to get this vivid, first-hand story for you.

By BURT M. McCONNELL
Photos by Author

TORN and twisted, an ocean cable last winter lay buried under a layer of clay two miles beneath the gray-green, foam-capped waves of the Atlantic, three hundred miles east of Halifax. It was shattered by the terrific earthquake that shook the Atlantic seaboard for a distance of 1,000 miles and put out of commission about half of the underwater communications between the United States and Europe.

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January 26, 2008

Salt Water Powers Radio (Aug, 1962)

If you build one of these, you too could be this cool.

Salt Water Powers Radio

Battery made of scrap metal and a pill vial runs for months!

By ROBERT E. KELLAND

THE salt-water cell powering this transistor radio has all the advantages of a dry cell, costs only pennies to make, and lasts for months. The complete radio receiver, with battery but less earphones, can be built for $3 or less.

As shown in the photos, the battery delivers about three-tenths of a volt. The radio consumes only 12 microamps while running, and in actual tests ran three days continuously without any detectable dip in volume.

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January 25, 2008

Reading Thoughts by Radio and Inventor Forecasts Private Radio Systems (May, 1924)

I wonder which idea readers in 1924 thought was more plausible; mind reading automatons or cell phones. Whatever the answer, one thing is clear: we need to come up with some way to use the word “radioplasm”. Google only returns two hits on this word and one of them is in another language.

Reading Thoughts by Radio

Can thoughts be read by radio? “Madam Radora” seems to prove that they can. Madam is not a human being, but a life-size automaton shown at the Permanent Radio Fair in New York. Her “thoughts” and movements are controlled entirely by wireless; no wires of any kind are attached to the table whereon she rests, and a liberal reward is promised the person who can prove that this is not true.

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January 22, 2008

Telegrams Ride the Tones of Electric Organ (Oct, 1938)

Telegrams Ride the Tones of Electric Organ

Telegraph engineers have learned from the electric organ how to send ninety-six telegraphic messages in one direction over a single wire at the same time. They borrowed from the Hammond organ the idea of dispatching multiple messages on different tone pitches.

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January 21, 2008

Trick Dog Gets Orders by Radio (Jun, 1939)

The dog fired a revolver? That’s one dexterous dog!

Trick Dog Gets Orders by Radio

BY TEACHING a dog to do tricks under “radio control,” Constable Denholm, of the Sydney, Australia, police force, has fulfilled a two-year-old ambition. In a recent demonstration, he strapped a miniature shortwave radio receiving set on the back of Zoe, an Alsatian police dog, and retired to a shack fifty yards away. Then he spoke commands into the microphone of a portable transmitter. In response to her master’s voice as it came through the ether, Zoe climbed up and down ladders, turned a faucet on and off, took off her collar, and fired a revolver.

January 20, 2008

Walkie-Talkies Speed the ‘Burgers (Dec, 1952)

Walkie-Talkies Speed the ‘Burgers

ORDERS taken by employe’s of a Milwaukee drive-in snack shop are flashed to the kitchen over the walkie-talkie (below). Filled promptly (right), orders are then delivered by other employes. Because the order girl goes directly from one car to another she saves five to 10 miles of walking a day, and orders are taken promptly. Delivery time to the customer is about 4-1/2 minutes. Equipment carried by the order taker weighs about 8 lbs. and the batteries are good for about 8 hours. The Federal Communications Commission has assigned Ace Foods, the shop, station number KA-8931.

January 16, 2008

BUILD THIS Beer-Keg Radio FOR YOUR GAME ROOM (Jun, 1938)

Filed under: DIY, Radio — @ 2:03 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1938
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BUILD THIS Beer-Keg Radio FOR YOUR GAME ROOM

By ARTHUR C. MILLER

NOVEL as well as serviceable, the beer-keg radio described on these pages will make a useful addition to the furnishings in your game room. It can be used either as an end table or as a refreshment stand, and, since it is an entirely self-contained unit, operated by dry batteries, it can be carried onto a porch or even into the yard when warm summer days and evenings make this desirable. If you build this five-tube set carefully, it will give excellent reception from stations 1,000 miles or more away.

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January 15, 2008

She shall have music wherever she goes! (Jul, 1947)

She shall have music wherever she goes!

Wherever you go with an RCA Victor Globe Trotter portable radio you’ll enjoy unusual richness and clarity of tone—volume enough for outdoor dancing—made possible through tiny tubes.

Miniature tubes save valuable space in small radios—space that can be used for larger and better loudspeakers and for longer lasting, radio-engineered RCA batteries.

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