Interesting and fairly comprehensive article about the state of television in 1948. A time when there were less than 60 stations covering about a million viewers.
What every family wants to know about Television
by Miles Ginsberg
The frontier days are back in one. sector of the American economy. The television industry, only a shadowy outline a year ago, is galloping toward giantism with much of the driving, mercurial spirit of an earlier time in this country. All a television executive needs to be completely in character is a six-shooter and a pair of spurs.
In the wild and wooly television industry, every company releasing information has an axe to grind and a hatchet to throw at the next company’s facts. Nevertheless, by balancing claim against claim, a reporter can compile an amazingly optimistic set of fairly solid facts about television. For example:
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Seems kind of like cheating when you send ahead the trucks full of gasoline.
MOTOR CARS CROSS SAHARA DESERT
FIVE motor cars, all equipped with special endless-tread drives of rubber to plow through the deep sand, and some mounted with machine guns to repel anticipated attacks from desert robber bands, recently completed a journey across the Sahara Desert of approximately 2,000 miles, from Tug-gurt, in Algeria, to Timbuktu, in French West Africa.
The caravan left Tuggurt on December 18, last year, but first, in order to insure a proper supply of fuel, water, and food, other cars were sent ahead as far as Insala to establish depots, while a similar outfit left Dakar in the south and approached north to a military station at Kidal. The expedition proper then set forth, arriving at Timbuktu on January 7. just 20 days later, the time being several months faster than average camel time for the same distance.
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SACRED CITIES TO BE LINKED BY RAIL AND WIRE
Mecca and Lhasa, the sacred cities of the Moslems and the Buddhists, may soon break through the isolation of centuries, a native syndicate having been formed to finance a railway between Medina, the burial place of the prophet, Mohammed, and Mecca, the city of his birth. There are, of course, other so-called sacred cities, such as Kerbela in Mesopotamia, and Meshed, in Persia. While it was possible for a Christian to enter the last named, and even to penetrate into Kerbela, provided he was accompanied by a Moslem guide, until comparatively recently on no consideration were they allowed to approach Mecca or Medina, while, up to the present, Lhasa has also been, in reality, a closed city.
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Sounds great, what could possibly go wrong?
OIL PIPE LINE CROSSES PALESTINE
Crossing the Tigris, Jordan, and Euphrates rivers and winding for 1,180 miles across the birthplace of Christian civilization, a new pipe line will soon begin transporting oil from the rich fields of Iraq to the Mediterranean sea coast. At some points, the line descends into valleys more than 800 feet below sea level and at others has to rise over mountains. It is estimated that the twin ten-inch pipes of the line will transport 30,000,000 barrels of oil a year. In spite of dust storms, heat, and the rugged nature of the country, gangs of welders have been laying as much as four miles of pipe in an eight-hour shift. Many American methods are in use. Iraq, formerly Mesopotamia, is the site of some of the world’s richest oil fields and the new pipe line will cut the cost of getting this oil to outside markets.
Student Creates Cave of Magic in Cellar
IN A SUBTERRANEAN retreat that he has built in the cellar of his home, John H. Schall, Jr., twenty-three-year-old medical student of Brooklyn, N. Y., pursues his spare-time hobbies of magic and chemistry. Colored lights and ingenious theatrical effects, devised for the entertainment of his friends, provide a setting suited to represent an imaginary meeting place of alchemists and sorcerers.
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The radio that you tune by opening and closing the fan looks awesome and the lobster claw radio is genius. I can’t believe that no one has had the brilliant idea to cram an MP3 player into one yet. It seems like in the mid twenties the fun thing to do was to stuff a radio into anything and everything you could. This reminds me of the current fascination for making crazy things that plug into a USB port.
Latest Fads, Fancies and Novelties to Be Found in the World of Radio
The Dentist’s Chair Has Lost Its Terrors for This Little Chap, Who Forgets the Ache of His Tooth When He Clamps on the Head Phones
A Real Radio Fan; the Set Is Tuned by Opening and Closing the Leaf Coils
Parisiennes May Now Enjoy Radio Programs While Strolling along the Boulevards, by Using the Umbrella Set Devised by a Paris Inventor
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Unique Activities of Unusual People
Pygmy Castle and Telescope Made from Bottle Only Two of Many and Varied Novelties
Production of petroleum from some fields is unprofitable because of its high content of sulphur, harmful to gasoline engines. Gladys E. Woodward, Northwestern University chemist, is working on a method of removing the sulphur
The world’s youngest deep-sea diver, according to his claim, is George Knight, of Brighton, England, being congratulated here by the Brighton Harbor Master after descents in gear weighing two hundred and twelve pounds. He is fifteen years old
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Selling Happiness by the Pound
Modern Carnivals Carry Mechanical, Joy-Making Devices to Hundreds of Towns Every Week in Steel Trains
JOY is sold by the pound throughout the summer and fall by carnivals and traveling amusement expositions in every village, town and city, the length and breadth of the United States and Canada. Happiness is dispensed by them with a consistency akin to that shown by any great business enterprise. Scores of mechanical entertaining devices, thrill- giving rides, glittering midways of “wonders, curiosities and strange people from the four corners of the earth,” and miles of bunting are by no means a matter of chance even if they do appear as though summoned by a magician’s wand. All of these things are the result of organized effort and are available at fixed prices which vary literally according to the weight of the shipment required by any community. A few years ago forty-one carnivals were touring the country.
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Here is an amazing, huge National Geographic article/pictorial about the state of nuclear science and technology in 1958. Be sure to check out this crazy picture of mice being taped down on a model train that’s about to be driven through a particle accelerator.
YOU AND THE OBEDIENT Atom
Abundant energy released from the hearts of atoms promises a vastly different and better tomorrow for all mankind
By ALLAN C. FISHER, JR.,
Senior Editorial Staff, National Geographic Magazine
THOUGH man may reach for the moon and the planets, he has found the richest of all new worlds behind the familiar face of his everyday environment. Here, deep in the mysterious cosmos of inner space, lies that world within a world, the powerful, obedient atom.
So small are nature’s basic building blocks that you could put 36 billion billion atoms on the head of a pin. Yet these unimaginably tiny particles work like genii at man’s bidding. Their peaceful energy is gradually shaping our world into a far better place.
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Atoms for Peace
Lockheed, always in the forefront of aeronautic and scientific achievement, now extends its leadership into a significant new field—Nuclear Energy for the World’s Work.
For eight years, Lockheed’s nuclear scientists, physicists and engineers have been working on the development of a nuclear-powered airplane. Now, these scientists are also ready to put the atom to work for industry—with research and process heat reactors, food irradiation facilities and the applications of radioisotopes.
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I was very disappointed when I realized this article wasn’t about Crystal Meth.
Party PEPPER-UPPERS
WITH the holidays just around the corner, you are probably on the lookout for some simple but lively games that will keep your party guests amused. These games should fill the bill, and the equipment required can be found in any home. Match up couples against couples, men against women, or one half of the party against the other. If you wish, award a prize to the most proficient couple or team, but the spirit of competition —and fun—is what counts.
