Even More Memories Of Days Gone My

Did you know? - Old TV requires warmup period So, what else is new? In the old days, a TV was expected to take a few minutes (at least) to warm up. We are all spoiled today. Of course, you usually maintained a full time technician or engineer to fiddle with the convergence adjustments!

A TV (from around 1983) needs at least 5 min. to warm up (lighting up the screen and making sound if I give it a cold start. Once warmed up, you can it off and on again from the front panel and it will work immediately. Another thing this TV has a sub-power switch in the rear.

1983 sounds a bit late, but sets in the late '70 during the transition from tubes to all solid state chassis often had the 'sub-power' switch providing some power to the filaments of the CRT and other tubes - usually in the deflection and high voltage circuits since these would take a while to heat up and stabilize. The idea was to leave this switch on all the time (except when going on vacation - it was sometimes labeled 'vacation') so that you would have nearly instant warm up. Supposedly, this led to an increased risk of fire as well

Did you know? - The Washington Quarter that was minted from 1965-1998 is made up of the same metals as today's current Quarter. It also has the same size and weight. It is made of two layers of 25% nickel, 75% copper, commonly called cupronickel, bonded to a core of pure copper, giving a total composition of 8.33% Ni with the balance Cu, weighs 5.670 grams (0.182 troy oz), has a diameter of 0.955 inches (24.26 mm), has a width of 1.75 millimeters (0.069 in), and has a reeded edge. Owing to the introduction of the clad quarter in 1965, it was occasionally called a "Johnson Sandwich," after Lyndon B. Johnson, U.S. President at the time. It costs 4.29 cents to produce each coin. Before 1965, quarters contained 90% silver, 10% copper.

Did you know? - Rinso was the brand name of a laundry soap most commonly used in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. The brand was created by Hudson's Soap which was sold to Lever Brothers of Port Sunlight, England, in 1908.

It was also manufactured by the Lever Brothers Company (later known as Unilever) in the United States, starting in 1918. Rinso was one of the first mass-marketed soap powders. It was advertised widely on radio, being the sponsor of many network programs such as the popular daytime soap opera Big Sister from 1936 to 1946, and the night-time programs Big Town from 1937 to 1942, Mayor of the Town from 1942 to 1943, and most notably The Amos 'n' Andy Show from 1943 to 1950. During this time the product's advertisements happily chanted the slogan "Rinso white, Rinso bright" and boasted that Rinso contained "Solium, the sunlight ingredient".

The product's claim to better rinsing was due to its incorporation of sodium silicate as a builder rather than, or in addition to, the more commonly used sodium carbonate. The precipitate formed by metasilicate and calcium tends to be finer and hence less likely to be trapped in cloth than the chalky calcium carbonate.

In the 1950s, sales plummeted when a new detergent, Tide, manufactured by rival Procter & Gamble, proved to be much more popular. Rinso was revamped in the mid-1960s, and given a new name, Sunshine Rinso. The justification for the name change was that the new and improved Rinso now had "sunshine whiteners".

There was heavy ad backing (for example, a heavily played commercial during this time period was a pop version of a Sunshine Rinso jingle, set to You Are My Sunshine). Sales did not improve appreciably, and Rinso eventually disappeared from store shelves by the mid-1970s, although the liquid detergent Rinso Blue could still be seen on U.S. shelves as recently as the late 1980s.

Rinso was, in effect, replaced with another Unilever detergent, Surf, in its four major markets. However, Rinso is still being made by Unilever for the Turkish, Asian, and Central American markets.

In 1992, the Southern California-based 99 Cents Only Stores purchased the rights to the name "Rinso" from Unilever for use in the United States. Rinso brand cleaning supplies are now prominently displayed in their stores.

Did you know? - '57 Chevy is the nickname of the 1957 Chevrolet, introduced September, 1956 by General Motors. It was available in three series models: the upscale Bel Air, the mid-range "two-ten", and the "one-fifty". A two-door station wagon, the Nomad was produced as a Bel Air model. An upscale trim option called the "Delray" was available for two-ten 2-door sedans. A fourth designation was also available in limited quantities, the Chevrolet "El Morocco", a custom hand-built Chevy mimicking the Cadillac of the era. It is a popular and sought after classic car. These vehicles are often restored to their original condition and sometimes modified. The car's image has been frequently used in toys, graphics, music, movies and television. The '57 Chevy is an auto icon.

Initially, General Motors executives wanted an entirely new car for 1957, but production delays necessitated the 1955-56 design for one more year. Ed Cole, chief engineer for Chevrolet, dictated a series of changes that significantly increased the cost of the car. These changes included a new dashboard, sealed cowl, and the relocation of air ducts to the headlight pods, which resulted in the distinctive chrome headlight that helped make the '57 Chevy a classic. Fourteen-inch wheels replaced the fifteen-inch wheels from previous years to give the car a lower stance, and a wide grille was used to give the car a wider look from the front. The now famous '57 Chevy tailfins were designed to duplicate the wide look in the rear. Bel Air models were given gold trim: the grille, front fender chevrons, hood, and trunk script were all rendered in anodized gold. The base engine was an inline 6-cylinder called the Blue Flame Six. The engine was smooth running and more fuel-efficient than the V-8. Carburetion came from a single one-barrel carburetor.

Did you know? - Candy cigarettes is a candy introduced in the early 20th century made out of chalky sugar, bubblegum or chocolate, wrapped in paper as to resemble cigarettes. Their place on the market has long been controversial because many critics believe the candy desensitizes children, leading them to become smokers later in life. Because of this, the selling of candy cigarettes has been banned in several countries such as Finland, Norway, the Republic of Ireland, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

In the United States a ban was considered in 1970 and again in 1991, but was not passed into federal law.

Did you know? - Nik-L-Nip is a brand of juice confection that comes in a variety of fruit flavors, marketed by Tootsie Roll Industries. The fruit flavored juice is found inside small, bottle-shaped wax container. Created in the early 20th century, the Nik-L-Nip brand name is a combination of the original cost (Nickel) and preferred wax bottle-opening technique (NIP).

Did you know? - Beemans gum (originally Beeman's Gum, see image at right) is a chewing gum invented by Ohio physician Dr. Edward E. Beeman in the late 19th century. Beeman originally marketed the gum, which is made of pepsin powder and chicle, as an aid to digestion. It became a part of the American Chicle Company in 1898, and continued on after the purchase of American Chicle by Warner-Lambert in 1962. Production ceased in 1978 due to lagging sales. In 1985, as part of a nostalgia campaign, it was brought back to the market along with Clove and Black Jack chewing gums

Did you know? - A milkman is a person, traditionally male, who delivers milk in milk bottles or cartons. Milk deliveries frequently occur in the morning and it is not uncommon for milkmen to deliver products other than milk such as eggs, cream, cheese, butter, yogurt or soft drinks.

Originally, milk needed to be delivered to houses daily since poor refrigeration meant it would quickly spoil. The near-ubiquity of refrigerators in homes in the developed world, as well as improved packaging, has decreased the need for frequent milk delivery over the past half-century and made the trade shrink in many localities sometimes to just 3 days a week and disappear totally in others. Additionally, milk delivery incurs a small cost on the price of dairy products that is increasingly difficult to justify and leaves delivered milk in a position where it is prone to theft.

In the United States, houses of that era often had a "milk box" built into an outside wall, a small cabinet with a door on the outside for the milkman to place the milk bottles, and a door on the inside for a resident to retrieve the bottles. Thus the milkman could deliver the milk without entering the home, and the resident could retrieve the milk without going outside.

Did you know? - A newsreel was a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the 20th century, regularly released in a public presentation place and containing filmed news stories and items of topical interest. It was a source of news, current affairs and entertainment for millions of moviegoers until television supplanted its role in the 1950s. Newsreels are now considered significant historical documents, since they are often the only audiovisual record of historical and cultural events of those times.

Newsreels were typically featured as short subjects preceding the main feature film into the 1960s. There were dedicated newsreel theaters in many major cities in the 1930s and 1940s[2] and some large city cinemas also included a smaller theatrette where newsreels were screened continuously throughout the day.

Created by Pathé Frères of France in 1908, this form of film was a staple of the typical North American, British, and Commonwealth countries (especially Canada, Australia, and New Zealand), and throughout European cinema programming schedule from the silent era until the 1960s when television news broadcasting completely supplanted its role. Nonetheless some countries such as Spain continued producing newsreels into the 1980s. The National Film and Sound Archive in Australia holds the Cinesound Movietone Australian Newsreel Collection, a comprehensive collection of 4,000 newsreel films and documentaries representing news stories covering all major events in Australian history, sports, and entertainment from 1929 to 1975.

The first official British news cinema that only showed newsreels was the Daily Bioscope that opened in London on 23 May 1909. In 1929 William Fox purchased a former Broadway theater called the Embassy (now a visitor center operated by the Times Square Alliance). He changed the format from a $2 show twice a day to a continuous 25 cent programme establishing the first newsreel theater in the USA. The idea was such a success that Fox and his backers announced they would start a chain of newsreel theaters across the USA. The newsreels were often accompanied by cartoons or short subjects.

Did you know? - By the turn of the century the industry had begun to settle on a diameter of 10 inches for the new format. The rotational speed varied somewhat from one manufacturer to another, but most turned at between 75 and 80 revolutions per minute and most 'Gramophone' machines were capable of some adjustment. The name 'Gramophone' began as a Trademark for Berliner's new invention, but Europeans adopted it as generic while Americans continued to use the term 'Phonograph'. One popular theory for the choice of 78 rpm is arrived at from calculations based on the rotational speed of synchronous electric motors and achievable gear ratios. This is neither technically sound nor supported by historic evidence. It is far more likely that a speed of around 78 rpm simply proved the best compromise from empirical results with the materials and technology available at the time.

Various materials were used for manufacturing the earliest discs, but shellac (a resin made from the secretions of the lac insect) was found to be the best. Shellac is a natural thermoplastic, being soft and flowing when heated, but rigid and hard wearing at room temperature. Usually a fine clay or other filler was added to the 'mix'. However, by the 1930s the natural shellac began to be replaced by equivalent synthetic resins.

All of the earliest 78 rpm recordings were single sided, but double sided recordings were introduced firstly in Europe by the Columbia company. By 1923, double sided recordings had become the norm on both sides of the Atlantic.

The 78 rpm disc reigned supreme as the accepted recording medium for many years despite its tendency to break easily and the fact that longer works could not be listened to without breaks for disc changes (at 5 minute intervals for 12" discs).

In 1948 the Columbia company had perfected the 12" Long Playing Vinyl disc. Spinning at 33 rpm the new format could play up to 25 minutes per side. This new record medium also had a much lower level of surface noise than did its older shellac cousin. However, Columbia's big rival, RCA Victor then produced the seven inch 45 rpm vinyl disc. These could hold as much sound as the 12" 78 rpm discs they were to replace, but were much smaller and attractive.

Did you know? - The stencil duplicator or mimeograph machine (often abbreviated to mimeo) is a low-cost printing press that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper.

Along with spirit duplicators and hectographs, mimeographs were for many decades used to print short-run office work, classroom materials, and church bulletins. They also were critical to the development of early fanzines because their low cost and availability enabled publication of amateur writings. These technologies began to be supplanted by photocopying and cheap offset printing in the late 1960s.

Thomas Edison received US patent 180,857 for "Autographic Printing" on August 8, 1876. The patent covered the electric pen, used for making the stencil, and the flatbed duplicating press. In 1880 Edison obtained a further patent, US 224,665: "Method of Preparing Autographic Stencils for Printing", which covered the making of stencils using a file plate, a grooved metal plate on which the stencil was placed which perforated the stencil when written on with a blunt metal stylus.

The word "mimeograph" was first used by Albert Blake Dick when he licensed Edison's patents in 1887.

Did you know? - Lampyridae is a family of insects in the beetle order Coleoptera. They are winged beetles, and commonly called fireflies or lightning bugs for their conspicuous crepuscular use of bioluminescence to attract mates or prey. Fireflies produce a "cold light", with no infrared or ultraviolet frequencies. This chemically-produced light from the lower abdomen may be yellow, green, or pale red — wavelengths from 510 to 670 nanometers.

There are 2,000 species of firefly found in temperate and tropical environments. Many are in marshes or in wet, wooded areas where their larvae have abundant sources of food. These larvae emit light and are often called "glowworms", particularly in Eurasia. In the Americas, "glow worm" also refers to the related Phengodidae.

Did you know? - A slingshot (also called a shanghai, or in British English a catapult) is a small hand-powered projectile weapon. The forked Y-shaped frame has two rubber strips attached to the uprights, leading back to a pocket for holding the projectile. It is normally shot by holding the frame in the non-dominant hand, extended at arms length. The pocket is then gripped between thumb and forefinger of the dominant hand, pulled back to near the cheek, aimed and the pocket released to shoot the projectile toward the target.

Did you know? - The Schwinn Bicycle Company was founded by German-born mechanical engineer Ignaz Schwinn (1860–1945) in Chicago in 1895, became the dominant manufacturer of American bicycles through most of the 20th century and is now a sub-brand of Pacific Cycle, currently owned by the multi-national conglomerate, Dorel Industries.