Modern Mechanix

Pedestrian horn

Pedestrian horn

This maker from the 50’s took the problem of careless motorists into his own hands, with a giant portable horn. It would be interesting to walk around LA with this now… “Much has been written about careless driving and traffic hazards in Los Angeles, but Hilton Tupman, of that city, has done something about it. […]

Science in 1872

Science in 1872

Popular Science 1947 looks back at science from 1872… – “IN 1872, the year Popular Science Monthly was founded, Thomas Alva Edison and Alexander Graham Bell were 25 years old. Edison had already improved the telegraph and was experimenting, in his Newark laboratory, with other uses for electricity. Bell was teaching phonetics for deaf pupils […]

First speaker phone…?

First speaker phone…?

Now *this* is a speaker phone, conference calling with a rotary dialer, awesome… Popular Science 1948 – “The busy executive can now carry on conversations over the telephone without even lifting a finger to hold it. With the Jordaphone (PSM, Oct. ’45, p. 96), a wartime development of the Jordanoff Corp., he need only transfer […]

How phonographs records are made

How phonographs records are made

How phonographs records are made, Popular Science 1947 – “THE silent black disk that makes noises when needled is chiefly shellac, lampblack and limestone. In its manufacture, however, pure gold, wax, glass, copper, nickel and sometimes chromium are used by the craftsmen who operate the intricate and delicate machines that squeeze sound into a scratch. […]