100 years ago

[njedpx3]

In 1906 Lee De Forest invented the "Audion" triode vacuum-tube, electronic valve, which could greatly amplify weak electrical signals, (one early use was to amplify long distance telephone in 1915) which became the basis of all subsequent electrical sound systems until the invention of the transistor. The valve was quickly followed by the invention of the Regenerative circuit, Super-Regenerative circuit and the Superheterodyne receiver circuit, all of which were invented and patented by the young electronics genius Edwin Armstrong between 1914 and 1922. Armstrong's inventions made higher fidelity electrical sound recording and reproduction a practical reality, facilitating the development of the electronic amplifier and many other devices; after 1925 these systems had become standard in the recording and radio industry.

So 100 years ago the triode had just been invented. The Superhetrodyne receiver circuit hadn't been invented. And it wasn't until 1954 Texas instruments patented the silicon transistor ( first transistor patent in Canada in 1925). And Integrate Circuits and computer chips were still in the far future.

About the best HT system you had 100 years ago was a player piano.


In 1909... just over 100 years ago

THE YEAR IS 1909
This will boggle your mind, I know it did mine!
********************************
The year is 1909.

One hundred years ago.
What a difference a century makes!
Here are some statistics for the Year 1909:
*********************************

The average life expectancy for men was 47 years.
Fuel for this car was sold in drug stores only.
Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.
Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads.
The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower !
The average US wage in 1909 was 22 cents per hour.
The average US worker made between $200 and $400 per year ..

A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year,
A dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.

More than 95 percent of all births took place at HOME .

Ninety percent of all Doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION!
Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which
Were condemned in the press AND the government as 'substandard.'

Sugar cost four cents a pound.

Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.

Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.

The Five leading causes of death were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart diseas
5. Stroke

The American flag had 45 stars ....

The population of Las Vegas , Nevada , was only 30!!!!

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented yet.
There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.

Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write and

Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school..
Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores..

Back then pharmacists said, 'Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health'.
Eighteen percent of households had at least one full-time servant or domestic help ....
There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE U.S.A. !

Plus one more sad thought .... 95 percent of the taxes we have now did not exist in 1909.

Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years.

IT STAGGERS THE MIND

Peace and Good Sound ... what you don't like player pianos ,

Forest Man

 

[WmAx]

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores..

Back then pharmacists said, 'Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health'.

Ironically, there was FAR less drug abuse percentage back then, and the drugs from pharmacies were usually clean, professionally produced materials - not street drugs - with unknown doses and unknown dangerous adulterants. Virtually no drug crime. The 'junkie' image today simply did not exist back then. The common user was the middle class, it seems, and it was no more a problem than smoking or alcohol - but much more safe than tobacco or alcohol. Many doctors even used morphine to wean alcoholics from alcohol, since the morphine was both far safer and cheaper back then. Chronic pain patients were certainly far better off back than today, at today where it's difficult to get proper pain medication even when serious permanent pain from injuries is present(there is a huge problem in the U.S.A.; mis-treatment of pain patients). Back then, heroin was consumed orally, btw. Injection use started years later after the ridiculous Harrison Act in 1914 was passed that prevented these drugs from being sold over the counter. Since heroine went from being some super cheap easily available drug over the counter to a scarcer, extremely high value illegal street drug, injection use was about 5-6x more effective per weight of material; has higher bioavailability by injection. And the heroin that was from the drug store was made by Bayer Pharmaceuticals, and was a carefully produced, clean material with known dowage - not street drug POISON. BTW, heroin is simply morphine that has been converted to a pro-drug. Upon consumption of heroin, it is directly converted into morphine in the body, and has exactly the same effect(s). The difference is in initial injection feeling. The heroin form crosses the blood brain barrier faster than simple morphine - and the quicker transfer can result in a better 'rush', as it has been described. But after the transfer, it is immediately converted to morphine. However, in controlled studies, subjects did not prefer either morphine or heroin over one another when injected. Bot drugs received near identical subjective scores.

-Chris

 

[dkane360]

Ironically, there was FAR less drug abuse percentage back then, and the drugs from pharmacies were usually clean, professionally produced materials - not street drugs - with unknown doses and unknown dangerous adulterants. Virtually no drug crime. The 'junkie' image today simply did not exist back then. The common user was the middle class, it seems, and it was no more a problem than smoking or alcohol - but much more safe than tobacco or alcohol. Many doctors even used morphine to wean alcoholics from alcohol, since the morphine was both far safer and cheaper back then. Chronic pain patients were certainly far better off back than today, at today where it's difficult to get proper pain medication even when serious permanent pain from injuries is present(there is a huge problem in the U.S.A.; mis-treatment of pain patients). Back then, heroin was consumed orally, btw. Injection use started years later after the ridiculous Harrison Act in 1914 was passed that prevented these drugs from being sold over the counter. Since heroine went from being some super cheap easily available drug over the counter to a scarcer, extremely high value illegal street drug, injection use was about 5-6x more effective per weight of material; has higher bioavailability by injection. And the heroin that was from the drug store was made by Bayer Pharmaceuticals, and was a carefully produced, clean material with known dowage - not street drug POISON. BTW, heroin is simply morphine that has been converted to a pro-drug. Upon consumption of heroin, it is directly converted into morphine in the body, and has exactly the same effect(s). The difference is in initial injection feeling. The heroin form crosses the blood brain barrier faster than simple morphine - and the quicker transfer can result in a better 'rush', as it has been described. But after the transfer, it is immediately converted to morphine. However, in controlled studies, subjects did not prefer either morphine or heroin over one another when injected. Bot drugs received near identical subjective scores.

-Chris

You sure know a lot about heroin....

 

[lsiberian]

You sure know a lot about heroin....

How else did he come up with his speaker designs. It worked for Ray Charles. maybe he's our Ray Charles.

 

[shadyJ]

I don't have any idea about 100 years from now, but I am pretty pessimistic about 50 years from now, when there will be no more petroleum oil or natural gas, eroded fresh water sources, desertification, greater global warming effects, more countries with nuclear weapons, etc, ie. problems that are not being seriously addressed in the present. One thing is certain, whoever is left a hundred years from now will have to have already dealt these and other enormous problems, so I suppose that the fact that there is anyone left a hundred years for now would be some kind of hopeful sign.

 

[Wannabubble]

more countries with nuclear weapons, etc

Your post reminded me of this quote:

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." Albert Einstein

 

[shadyJ]

Nuclear proliferation is going to get a lot more serious as we run out of fossil fuels. The west will no longer be in a justifiable position to discourage other countries from pursuing nuclear energy, and it isn't a huge step for a country to go from nuclear power plants to nuclear weapons, all you need is the know-how to get uranium 235, since you will already have the equipment, such as centrifuges, and the raw material to get you there.

So now we will have a future with more people and a lot less resources, but with more nuclear capable countries. How is this going to end well? I don't know, but I'm betting the situation will have found its resolution by 2100, for better or worse.

But since this is an audio forum, let's talk about audio. If we somehow find out how to negotiate the climate, water, energy, and nuclear proliferation problems (among other problems which threaten civilization), there is only so far we can go before we achieve perfect sound reproduction. Allow me to speculate on that and what lies beyond.

Speakers are certainly getting better, but, of course, they have a long way to go. I don't know if conventional driver designs will hold for the future like they have for the past. I wouldn't guess so, but I can't imagine what will replace them because they are so efficient.

Something which I expect to get bigger is hypersonic sound speakers, so everyone can get individualized sound. I think this technology has big potential for settings like classrooms.

I think sound reproduction might get better in dedicated entertainment rooms. There are a lot more rooms dedicated to home theaters than there were 20 or 30 years ago, so maybe home architecture will start seeing home theaters in plans from the get-go. If that happens, we could look forward to rooms shaped and treated with better acoustics in mind, and stuff like high quality in-wall speakers and infinite baffle sub systems will become more common.

Further out in the future, what could be improved is not just sound reproduction but sound perception. Perhaps one day we will have operations that will not only restore hearing but improve it as well. Imagine being able to hear from 1 to 100,000 hertz with the extraordinary sensitivity of a bat or fox. However, I imagine such incredible hearing would be more of a nuisance than a benefit.

But to speculate on a future where humans thrive enough to achieve any of this strikes me as optimistic. There were enough close calls in the past 65 years of nuclear weapons to argue that for this world with increasingly dwindling resources to go another 100 years without a catastrophic incident would seem to be overly positive.

 

[highfigh]

I don't have any idea about 100 years from now, but I am pretty pessimistic about 50 years from now, when there will be no more petroleum oil or natural gas, eroded fresh water sources, desertification, greater global warming effects, more countries with nuclear weapons, etc, ie. problems that are not being seriously addressed in the present. One thing is certain, whoever is left a hundred years from now will have to have already dealt these and other enormous problems, so I suppose that the fact that there is anyone left a hundred years for now would be some kind of hopeful sign.

Well, if we actually run out of oil and natural gas, those will no longer be sources of greenhouse gases, right? That should help with global warming. If we don't have those fuels, less clear-cutting of lumber stands will help to scrub carbon from the atmosphere, thereby cooling the planet a bit. That, and the thermal effects from combustion will be decreased would have to help. However, we have had several volcanos that became active in the early '80s and Kilauea hasn't stopped.

Rain forests grow so fast that many of the people/companies who clear cut them abandon the land after about 5 years because the vegetation and trees grow back so fast. All that's needed is for some of it to remain after they cut but animals bring seeds and shoots back.

The Earth will be fine- it's people who are effing everything up.