1972

Faster photography

“Edwin H. Land, founder of Polaroid Corporation, gave the first detailed account of his company’s newest photography system at a recent meeting. Under the title “Absolute One-Step Photography”, Land showed off the new camera and color film that Polaroid plans to release later this year. The new system, Land said, is a compact, automatic camera capable of taking a succession of color photographs almost as quickly as the photographer can press a button. The camera weighs 26 ounces and when folded for transport is about the size of a 400-page paperback book.

1922

From swords to plowshares

“The Limitation of Armament Conference, Washington, in restricting the United States naval program from approximately 1,370,000 tons to 525,000 tons, is responsible for the new shipbreaking industry. The most powerful oxyacetylene and electric torches have been developed. The fifty or so destroyers purchased by the Hitner firm are torn to pieces by powerful chisels operated by compressed air devices. Ten-ton alligator shears bite through the destroyer’s veneer like cheese, and these parts are remelted into ingots and rolled into various shapes for structural steel, rails, plate and d other industrial uses. Total annihilation is not the fate of all old combat gear. The hulls of some will be converted into fruit boats.

Artificial Lightning

“By means of a special apparatus, the laboratory of Charles P. Steinmetz, chief consulting engineer of the General Electric Company, produces an artificial lightning, which has about one five-hundredth of the power possessed by the lightning of nature. “It’s only five hundredths of a voltage. But it’s exactly the same kind of energy, stored and discharged in the same way as during an electrical storm in the heavens. Any object placed in the path of the artificial lightning strike is shattered as truly as it would be by natural lightning.

battery time

“For many years, the pet peeve of watchmakers has been the mainspring. The tension and driving force of the spring is greater when the spring is tensioned than when it is partially relaxed; regulation to ensure operation at a uniform rate is the most difficult part of watchmaking. A new clock, now on the market after about six years of development, has removed the mainspring. The driving force is electric and comes from a battery guaranteed for one year. The reason for this is mainly that the current is used intermittently. With each tick of the clock, the circuit is closed and current flows for an extremely short interval of time; for by far the greater part of every second, no “juice” is used. »

1872

Count women as workers

“According to the census, the United States has 38,558,371 inhabitants and 12,505,923 working people; 10,669,436 are men and 1,836,487 are women. Between the age of ten and fifteen, the males are almost three times more numerous than the females; between sixteen and fifty-nine, the ratio rises to almost six to one. This is explained by the fact that women marry and settle down to household chores. These women are not considered to be workers in the census calculations, and we consider here that an error has been made. The cares of the house and the raising of children are the heaviest of burdens, and a woman who fulfills her perpetual round of duties must surely rank first on the list of those who earn their living by hard work. In reality, we find that there is a balance on the women’s side, in the form of endless, most monotonous and thankless work.

Wastewater cement

“A new method of disposing of sewage, turning it into cement, has been successfully tested in Ealing, west London. The principle consists in mixing, with the wastewater, quantities of lime and clay, combining with the carbonic acid of the faeces to form carbonate of lime, in an impalpable powder. The lime and clay destroy the slimy, gooey nature of the sewage “sludge” and keep the sewer outlet drain free of the purulent, putrefactive deposit that would otherwise tend to suffocate it. It is claimed that the operation can be profitable, apart from the advantages obtained by deodorizing in this way and by [decontaminating] the excremental matter of the cities, which must otherwise be disposed of in a more or less unhealthy manner, and very often at great expense.