History- Car radio and Motorola ... Thanks Ramey!


CAR TUNES
Radios are so much a part of the driving experience, it seems like cars have always had them. But they didn’t. Here’s the story.

SUNDOWN
One evening in 1929 two young men named William Lear and Elmer Wavering drove their girlfriends to a lookout point high above the Mississippi River town of Quincy, Illinois, to watch the sunset. It was a romantic night to be sure, but one of the women observed that it would be even nicer if they could listen to music in the car.

Lear and Wavering liked the idea. Both men had tinkered with radios – Lear had served as a radio operator in the U. S. Navy during World War I – and it wasn’t long before they were taking apart a home radio and trying to get it to work in a car. But it wasn’t as easy as it sounds: automobiles have ignition switches, generators, spark plugs, and other electrical equipment that generate noisy static interference, making it nearly impossible to listen to the radio when the engine was running.

SIGNING ON
One by one, Lear and Wavering identified and eliminated each source of electrical interference. When they finally got their radio to work, they took it to a radio convention in Chicago . There they met Paul Galvin, owner of Galvin Manufacturing Corporation. He made a product called a “battery eliminator” a device that allowed battery-powered radios to run on household AC current. But as more homes were wired for electricity, more radio manufacturers made AC-powered radios. Galvin needed a new product to manufacture. When he met Lear and Wavering at the radio convention, he found it. He believed that mass-produced, affordable car radios had the potential to become a huge business.

Lear and Wavering set up shop in Galvin’s factory, and when they perfected their first radio, they installed it in his Studebaker. Then Galvin went to a local banker to apply for a loan. Thinking it might sweeten the deal, he had his men install a radio in the banker’s Packard. Good idea, but it didn’t work – half an hour after the installation, the banker’s Packard caught on fire. (They didn’t get the loan.) Galvin didn’t give up. He drove his Studebaker nearly 800 miles to Atlantic City to show off the radio at the 1930 Radio Manufacturers Association convention. Too broke to afford a booth, he parked the car outside the convention hall and cranked up the radio so that passing conventioneers could hear it. That idea worked – he got enough orders to put the radio into production.

WHAT’S IN A NAME
That first production model was called the 5T71. Galvin decided he needed to come up with something a little catchier. In those days many companies in the phonograph and radio businesses used the suffix “ola” for their names – Radiola, Columbiola, and Victrola were three of the biggest. Galvin decided to do the same thing, and since his radio was intended for use in a motor vehicle, he decided to call it the Motorola.

But even with the name change, the radio still had problems:
When Motorola went on sale in 1930, it cost about $110 uninstalled, at a time when you could buy a brand-new car for $650, and the country was sliding into the Great Depression. (By that measure, a radio for a new car would cost about $3,000 today.) In 1930 it took two men several days to put in a car radio – the dashboard had to be taken apart so that the receiver and a single speaker could be installed, and the ceiling had to be cut open to install the antenna. These early radios ran on their own batteries, not on the car battery, so holes had to be cut into the floorboard to accommodate them. The installation manual had eight complete diagrams and 28 pages of instructions.

HIT THE ROAD
Selling complicated car radios that cost 20 percent of the price of a brand-new car wouldn’t have been easy in the best of times, let alone during the Great Depression – Galvin lost money in 1930 and struggled for a couple of years after that. But things picked up in 1933 when Ford began offering Motorola's pre-installed at the factory. In 1934 they got another boost when Galvin struck a deal with B. F. Goodrich tire company to sell and install them in its chain of tire stores. By then the price of the radio, installation included, had dropped to $55. The Motorola car radio was off and running. (The name of the company would be officially changed from Galvin Manufacturing to “Motorola” in 1947.) In the meantime, Galvin continued to develop new uses for car radios. In 1936, the same year that it introduced push-button tuning, it also introduced the Motorola Police Cruiser, a standard car radio that was factory preset to a single frequency to pick up police broadcasts. In 1940 he developed with the first handheld two-way radio – the Handie-Talkie – for the U. S. Army.

A lot of the communications technologies that we take for granted today were born in Motorola labs in the years that followed World War II. In 1947 they came out with the first television to sell under $200. In 1956 the company introduced the world’s first pager; in 1969 it supplied the radio and television equipment that was used to televise Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon. In 1973 it invented the world’s first handheld cellular phone. Today Motorola is one of the second-largest cell phone manufacturer in the world. And it all started with the car radio.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO….
The two men who installed the first radio in Paul Galvin’s car, Elmer Wavering and William Lear, ended up taking very different paths in life. Wavering stayed with Motorola. In the 1950’s he helped change the automobile experience again when he developed the first automotive alternator, replacing inefficient and unreliable generators. The invention lead to such luxuries as power windows, power seats, and, eventually, air-conditioning.

Lear also continued inventing. He holds more than 150 patents. Remember eight-track tape players? Lear invented that. But what he’s really famous for are his contributions to the field of aviation. He invented radio direction finders for planes, aided in the invention of the autopilot, designed the first fully automatic aircraft landing system, and in 1963 introduced his most famous invention of all, the Lear Jet, the world’s first mass-produced, affordable business jet. (Not bad for a guy who dropped out of school after the eighth grade.)

Some of us have been fortunate to have met both of these gentlemen and they were - gentlemen.


OK, so let's invent something . . . . .

Listen when God speaks ... Thanks Tom & Carolyn

'The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you'

Subject: This will give you chills, I scored 100 This will give you the chills......... GOOD chills. A young man had been to Wednesday Night Bible Study. T he Pastor had shared about listening to God and obeying the Lord's voice The young man couldn't help but wonder, 'Does God still speak to people?' After service, he went out with some friends for coffee and pie and they discussed the message. Several different ones talked about how God had led them in different ways. It was about ten o'clock when the young man started driving home. Sitting in his car, he just began to pray, 'God...If you still speak to people, speak to me. I will listen. I will do my best to obey.' As he drove down the main street of his town, he had the strangest thought to stop and buy a gallon of milk. He shook his head and said out loud, 'God is that you?' He didn't get a reply and started on toward home. But again, the thought, buy a gallon of milk. The young man thought about Samuel and how he didn't recognize the voice of God, and how little Samuel ran to Eli. 'Okay, God, in case that is you, I will buy the milk.' It didn't seem like too hard a test of obedience. He could always use the milk. He stopped and purchased the gallon of milk and started off toward home. As he passed Seventh Street , he again felt the urge, 'Turn Down that street.' This is crazy he thought, and drove on past the intersection. Again, he felt that he should turn down Seventh Street ..... At the next intersection, he turned back and headed down Seventh. Half jokingly, he said out loud, 'Okay, God, I will.' He drove several blocks, when suddenly, he felt like he should stop He pulled over to the curb and looked around. He was in a semi- commercial area of town. It wasn't the best but it wasn't the worst of neighborhoods either. The businesses were closed and most of the houses looked dark like the people were already in bed. Again, he sensed something, 'Go and give the milk to the people in the house across the street.' The young man looked at the house. It was dark and it looked like the people were either gone or they were already asleep. He started to open the door and then sat back in the car seat.. 'Lord, this is insane. Those people are asleep and if I wake them up, they are going to be mad and I will look stupid.' Again, he felt like he should go and give the milk. Finally, he opened the door, 'Okay God, if this is you, I will go to the door and I will give them the milk If you want me to look like a crazy person, okay. I want to be obedient. I guess that will count for some thing, but if they don't answer right away, I am out of here.' He walked across the street and rang the bell.. He could hear some noise inside. A man's voice yelled out, 'Who is it? What do you want?' Then the door opened before the young man could get away. The man was standing there in his jeans and T-shirt..... He looked like he just got out of bed. He had a strange look on his face and he didn't seem too happy to have some stranger standing on his doorstep. 'What is it?' The young man thrust out the gallon of milk, 'Here, I brought this to you.' The man took the milk and rushed down a hallway.. Then from down the hall came a woman carrying the milk toward the kitchen. The man was following her holding a baby. The baby was crying.. The man had tears streaming down his face. The man began speaking and half crying, 'We were just praying .. We had some big bills this month and we ran out of money. We didn't have any milk for our baby. I was just praying and asking God to show me how to get some milk.' His wife in the kitchen yelled out, 'I ask him to send an Angel with some.. Are you an Angel?' The young man reached into his wallet and pulled out all the money he had on him and put in the man's hand. He turned and walked back toward his car and the tears were streaming down his face.. He knew that God still answers prayers. THIS IS A SIMPLE TEST...... If you believe that God is alive and well, send this to at least ten people and the person that sent it to you!!!!!!!! This is so true. Sometimes it's the simplest things that God asks us to do that cause us, if we are obedient to what He's asking, to be able to hear His voice more clear than ever. Please listen, and obey! It will bless you (and the world).. Phil 4:13 This is an easy test - you score 100 or zero. It's your choice. If you aren't ashamed to do this, please follow the directions... Jesus said, 'If you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you before my Father.' Not ashamed....Pass this on.

Punnies! Thanks Sonny!

The ability to make and understand puns is considered to be the highest level of language development. Here are the 10 first place winners in the International Pun Contest:

1. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, "I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger."

2. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says, "Dam!"

3. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.

4. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, "I've lost my electron." The other says, "Are you sure?" The first replies "Yes, I'm positive."

5. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.

6. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. "But why?", they asked, as they moved off. "Because," he said, "I can't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer."

7. A woman delivers a set of identical twins and decides to give them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named "Ahmal." The other goes to a family in Spain ; they name him "Juan." Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, "They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal."

8. A group of friars were behind on their belfry payments, so they opened up a small florist shop to raise funds. Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thought the competition was unfair. He asked the good fathers to close down, but they would not. He went back and begged the friars to close. They ignored him. So, the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest and most vicious thug in town to "persuade" the friars to close. Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store, saying he'd be back if they didn't close up shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that only Hugh can prevent florist friars.

9. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and, with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him (Oh, dude, this is so bad, it's good…..) a super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

10. And finally, there was the person who sent ten different puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.

**********

Marketing editorial- SamKat

It is always made somewhere but most is bought here in the USA.

Should we even think this may continue?

Circleville, Ohio has a large Wal-Mart.  Jeanie and I stopped there on our way home from a weekend at a her KY cousin's funeral and an overnight at Portsmouth.  I just looked at a few garment tags for the place of manufacture and, although expecting all to say Made in China, I was a little surprised to see places like, India, Nicaragua, Indonesia, and many other countries I cannot  now recall.

I learned in graduate business school at Ohio State that manufacturing is normally half of the cost of getting goods into the hands of the customer and marketing is the other half.  Profit is of course within the pricing.

Marketeers have discovered the "greenfields" of manufacturers in these countries with low labor costs.  There is still the cost of distribution which has been lowered for the Walton's of the world by larger and larger shipping vessels in which to pack the goods destined for our retailers.

I was taking an English course from an Ohio University professor nearly fifty years ago and we had to read a tome called "Modern America Thorugh Foreign Eyes".  A poll was taken of foreigners who had vacationed in the USA and they were asked what one word would they use to describe our country.  The most often used word was "Advertising".

Our glitz, even then, was memorable.  When most of our employees were making less than ten thousand a year while "Father Knows Best" was showing on our black and white TV's, father Robert Young, would have to have made so many   more times the income than those of us watching the shows.  The family's standard of living far exceeded the normal viewers; however, the things shown for that family were so "wanted" by us viewers that the marketing effect was an advertising  stimulus.

This American standard of living was so enhanced by earnest industrialism on the part of the capitalists and the workers who also shared an enormous patriotism for the USA.

We may not be able to "go Home" again to that standard of living. A great aid would be the election of representatives of our people rather than those who get into office and perpetuate their own station and its attendant standard of living far above our own.

Socialist governments have failed wherever they have been tried and our progressive-leftists want socialism for America.  Guess what?  I- and many of you- don't!

I want religion and tolerance in our schools and communities as they used to be.  Let the American Civil Liberties Union go to socialist countries and attempt to get their citizens civil liberties there.  The ACLU has only served to tear our country apart.

This is an unpaid- for opinion of my own- except for my own personal costs.

At 79, this grouch wants all others to stay out of my small retirement fund pile.

TEA- Taxed Enough Already!

When insults had class ... thanks Ramey Hoskins!

Glorious insults from an era before the English language got boiled down to 4-letter words.




* A member of Parliament to Disraeli: "Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease."
* "That depends, Sir," said Disraeli, "whether I embrace your policies or your mistress."

* "He had delusions of adequacy." - Walter Kerr

* "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." - Winston Churchill

* "I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." Clarence Darrow

* "He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway).

* "Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it." - Moses Hadas

* "I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain

* "He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.." - Oscar Wilde

* "I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend, if you have one." - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill
* "Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second ... if there is one." - Winston Churchill, in response.

* "I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here." - Stephen Bishop

* "He is a self-made man and worships his creator." - John Bright

* "I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial." - Irvin S. Cobb

* "He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others." - Samuel Johnson

* "He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." - Paul Keating

* "In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily." - Charles, Count Talleyrand

"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him." - Forrest Tucker

* "Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?" - Mark Twain

* "His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." - Mae West

* "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." - Oscar Wilde

* "He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

* "He has Van Gogh's ear for music." - Billy Wilder

* "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." - Groucho Marx

Watch until Jesus fades away-- awesome

Awesome power in this message, Ramey!  Thanks good friend!

 

As a group, Christians and Jews can get this prayer for our nation done effectively!  I have been offering prayers for our nation and the world sporadically, but I would like to see the prayers multiplying exponentially (pardon my use of the powerful math term) as they should.  God’s plan is the only right plan.  Man has erred so much in this world’s history.

 

Sam

Watch until Jesus fades away.       Click on the purple line below.  If you have speakers, turn them on.    Click here >    Pray for our nation

Check out USATODAY.com - Topography of religion

I love it, Marge.  The progressive media normally makes us sound like an islam nation.  The percentage of muslims in Mich is low, although they seem to own certain parts of that state.


I found this interesting and thought you would too: 
USATODAY.com - Topography of religion