Here’s what was in the NYT, on October 7, 1925.
“They tell me a paper has quoted me as saying the first commercial airplane reliability tour proves the airplane to be reliable,” said Mr. Ford. “Maybe I said that, but I doubt that the tour alone could prove such a thing. I’m a greenhorn at this aviation business, but I can see that it is going to be a great industry.”
Henry Ford is talking about Ford Laboratory’s development of a mass produced eight-cylinder 200 horsepower aircraft engine that would go into the Ford Trimotor airplane.
Development of such a motor in the Ford Laboratory at Dearborn is almost complete, and will some day be in quantity production for use in the “plain people’s” air flivvers.
So I guess everybody would eventually be able to get their own air flivver.
I don’t know that means. I might go across the street and ask Carl. He’s 96 years old, and has a Model A Ford that he probably swindled off of ol’ Henry.
Here’s the article:
Here’s what else was in the news a hundred years ago today.
MacMillan was looking for evidence of the route that Norsemen took to land in Labrador. See my post about the Fall of Civilizations Youtube channel for background.
The thousands of people who listen to radio are irritated by broadcast interference. In this context, “ether” means the air waves or electromagnetic spectrum.
JETSAM ON THE ROADS.; Country Highways Found as Untidy as the City Streets.
No one can drive through our city streets without reflecting on “the incongruity of clean bodies and fine clothes with the appliances of a high standard of sanitation, and streets defiled with rubbish.”
I wish journalists still talked like this.
The “newly perfected orthophonic talking machine” from Victor might just catch on.
Bottle Thrown by Angry Fan Causes Bullfighter’s Death
The article doesn’t say anything about a bottle being thrown at a bullfighter, but it did say that the jury was picked at random from a crowd of people standing around outside. That’s fun.
Twelve citizens picked at random from a crowd around the Federal Building in lower Broadway at noon yesterday, by three aids of United States Marshal Hecht, were sworn in as jurors despite their complainings by Federal Judge Bondy.
A bunch of other stuff happened as well, but that is enough for us to think about what it may have been like a century ago.
It seems like an exciting age when technologies like radio, recordings and aviation were making the world accessible. Keep in mind that nothing worked very well. Recordings were dull and scratchy, radio coverage was patchy and flying was expensive and dangerous.
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