Wednesday September 24th: Topic with KC1HHK: Honda Motor Company

Honda Motor Company is Incorporated 

Motorcycle builder Soichiro Honda incorporates the Honda Motor Company in Hamamatsu, Japan on this day in 1948.  In the 1960s, the company achieved worldwide fame for its motorcycles (in particular, its C100 Super Cub, which became the world’s best-selling vehicle); in the 1970s, it achieved worldwide fame for its affordable, fuel-efficient cars. Today, in large part because of its continued emphasis on affordability, efficiency and eco-friendliness (its internal motto is “Blue skies for our children”), the company is doing better than most.

Before he founded the company that bore his name, Soichiro Honda was a drifter and a dreamer. He bounced from one mechanic’s job to another, and worked as a babysitter, a race car driver and an amateur distiller. Even his wife said he was a “wizard at hardly working.” In 1946, he took over an old factory that lay mostly in ruins from wartime bombings, though he did not have much of a plan for what he would do there. First, he tried building what he called a “rotary weaving machine”; next he tried to mass-produce frosted glass windows, then woven bamboo roof panels. Finally, after he came across a cache of surplus two-stroke motors, he had an idea: motorbikes.

Honda adapted the motors to run on turpentine and affixed them to flimsy cycle frames built by workers at the Hamamatsu factory. The bikes sold like hotcakes to people desperate for a way to get around in postwar Japan, where there was virtually no gasoline and no real public transit. Soon enough, Honda had sold out of those old engines and was making his own. In 1947, the factory produced its first complete motorbike, the one-half horsepower A-Type (nicknamed “The Chimney” because it was so smoky and smelly). After the company’s incorporation, Honda produced a more sophisticated bike: the 1949 steel-framed, front- and rear-suspended D-Type that could go as fast as 50 miles per hour. At the end of the 1950s, it introduced the Cub, a Vespa clone that was especially popular with women and was the first Honda product to be sold in the United States.

Starting in the 1960s, the company produced a few small cars and sporty racers, but it wasn’t until it introduced the Civic in 1973 that it really entered the auto market. The car’s CVCC engine burned less fuel and could pass American emissions tests without a catalytic converter; as a result, the car was a hit with American drivers frustrated by rising gasoline costs. The slightly larger, plusher 1976 Accord won even more fans, and in 1989 it became the most popular car in the United States.

Soichiro Honda was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1989. He died two years later at the age of 84.

Net Discussion Question:

Have you ever owned a Honda vehicle?

Monday September 22nd: Topic with KC1SOO: Favorite Method of Listening to Music? Past and Present...

Wednesday September 17th: Topic with KC1HHK: Hammond: Father of Radio Control

John Hays Hammond, Jr. (1888 – 1965) enjoyed a prolific career as an inventor, including being known as the “Father of Radio Control” for his pioneering work in that field.

A historic treasure perched along the stunning coastline of Gloucester, Massachusetts. With nearly 100 years of history, this medieval-style castle was the creation of famed inventor John Hays Hammond Jr. and now serves as an exciting STEAM museum that blends history, science, and art.

John Hays Hammond Jr.—known as “Jack” or “Jacky” to friends and family—was born April 13th, 1888 in San Francisco, California, and was the second son of successful mining engineer and investor John Hays Hammond Sr. and socialite Natalie Hammond. Throughout a remarkable career, Hammond Jr. would become one of America’s most prolific inventors, earning colorful nicknames such as “The Father of Radio Control,” “The Father of the Guided Missile,” “The Wonderful Wizard of Gloucester” and “The Electronic Sorcerer.”  

A precocious mechanical mind from a young age, stories from John Hays Hammond Jr.’s youth are filled with accounts that suggest the man he would become. A fine Swiss clock meticulously disassembled by a ten year-old Jack to his mother’s horror; an adolescent Hammond founding a chemistry class ‘Anarchists Club’ and nearly leveling a school building while experimenting with high explosives. Later in life, an adult Hammond recalled a childhood visit to Thomas A. Edison’s Menlo Park laboratory with his father and wondered at both Edison’s accomplishments and the inventor’s enthusiasm in taking time away from his busy schedule to give the Hammonds a tour.

After enrolling in Yale University’s prestigious Sheffield Scientific School in 1906, Hammond Jr. would also come to be mentored by both Alexander Graham Bell and Nikola Tesla. Bell was influential to the development of Hammond’s early career. When, around 1912, Hammond completed a two-year survey of foreign and domestic patents in the field of radiodynamics and loaned a copy to Bell, it was the Scottish-born pioneer who submitted the study to George Washington University as a kind of thesis on Hammond’s behalf, earning the then-recent college graduate his Doctorate of Science (Sc.D).  

Hammond renowned as an "inventor's inventor"

In 1914, just 16 years after Tesla had wowed crowds at Madison Square Garden’s 1898 Electrical Exhibition by remotely controlling a toy boat in a small pool, a 26 year-old Hammond successfully piloted a full-sized ship, The Natalia, from Gloucester to Boston and back using only a series of radio antennae on the shore and the help of an on-board stabilizing device which he called a “Gyrad”.   

Widely renowned as an “inventor’s inventor,” Hammond’s diverse contributions to radio control, navigation, audio reproduction, telephony, musical instrumentation, television, acoustics, and consumer appliances, among dozens of other disciplines, are the basis for some of the most defining innovations of the 20th century. He performed extensive classified work for the United States military and was on the board of directors of the Radio Corporation of America, better known as RCA, for 42 years.  

Hammond’s lifetime achievements in radio control would earn him many accolades, including the prestigious Elliott Cresson Medal in 1959, the Franklin Institute’s highest accolade, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE) Medal of Honor in 1963.  

A place to celebrate human achievement

John Hays Hammond Jr.’s true genius is most evident in that he designed the Museum not as a fabulous, meticulously curated monument to himself, but rather as a profoundly living, and lived-in space that celebrated time and human achievement on the grand scale of history.

It is part Romanesque keep, part Gothic cathedral, part Renaissance château— it contains a collection of ancient artifacts dating as far back as the reign of Trajan—and yet it is also a place where Greta Garbo and Ramon Navarro might have danced as George Gershwin played a piano enhanced by a fourth pedal of Hammond’s own design, a place where men and women discussed both the movement of the stars and humanity’s destiny among them, and a place where countercultural poets and artists of the early 1960s drank fine champagne and talked before the fireplace late into the night.

Should Hammond be remembered as a mad scientist?
A collector of antiquities?
A patron of the arts?
A practical jokester?
A Gatsbyesque host of wild parties?
An electronic sorcerer? 

Hammond was none of these things, all of them, and more—for all his eccentricities, intractably, remarkably, and profoundly human, and at the Hammond Castle Museum this legacy continues.

Monday September 15th: Topic with KC1SOO: Upgrading Technology, latest or wait?

Wednesday September 10th: Topic with KC1HHK: Swanson's Frozen TV Dinners

📺 The Rise and Fall of Swanson's Frozen TV Dinners 

On September 10, 1953, the first Swanson “TV Dinner” was sold. 

Several smaller companies had conceived of frozen dinners earlier, but the first to achieve widespread and lasting success was Swanson. The first Swanson-brand TV Dinner was produced in the United States and consisted of a Thanksgiving meal of turkey, cornbread stuffing, frozen peas and sweet potatoes packaged in a tray like those used at the time for airline food service. Each item was placed in its own compartment. The trays proved to be useful: the entire dinner could be removed from the outer packaging as a unit, the tray with its aluminum foil covering could be heated directly in the oven without any extra dishes, and one could eat the meal directly from the tray. The product was cooked for 25 minutes at 425 °F and fit onto a TV tray table. The original TV Dinner sold for 98 cents and had a first production run of 5,000 dinners.

The name "TV dinner" was coined by Gerry Thomas, often considered its inventor.

In an interview long after the product's introduction, Thomas noted how televisions were "magic" status symbols, and he thought the name "TV dinner" could attach the attributes of a popular medium to a convenient food item.   Another source postulates that the box of the TV dinner was made to look like a television, and that TV trays (folding tray table furniture) soon appeared on the market.

Origins & Rise:

• Frozen food innovation began with Clarence Birdseye in 1924.

• Swanson launched the first TV dinner in the 1950s, capitalizing on the growing popularity of television.

• The original dinner featured a metal tray with turkey, sides, and cost just 89 cents.

• It became a cultural icon, selling millions and even earning a place in the Smithsonian.

Development & Expansion:

• Swanson expanded its offerings through the 1960s with pork, ham, seafood, and international meals.

• Introduced the “Hungry-Man” line in 1972, targeting men with larger portions and sports-themed ads.

• Adapted to microwave cooking in the late 1970s and launched microwave-friendly meals.

Challenges & Decline:

• By the 1980s, consumer preferences shifted toward healthier and upscale frozen meals.

• Swanson responded with the “Le Menu” line, but it was eventually discontinued.

• In 1998, Campbell’s spun off Swanson to Vlasic Foods, which tried to revive the brand with nostalgia marketing.

Final Years & Legacy:

• Vlasic went bankrupt in 2001; Swanson was acquired by Pinnacle Foods.

• Despite marketing efforts, Swanson faded from shelves by the 2010s.

• Today, only the “Hungry-Man” line remains in the U.S., while some Swanson meals are still sold in Canada under ConAgra.

Net Discussion

Was your family a TV dinner family?

If yes, what was your favorite?

Wednesday September 3rd: Topic with KC1HHK: U.S. Bowling League Day

Each year league bowlers across the United States recognize U.S. Bowling League Day on September 3rd.

#USBowlingLeagueDay

Primarily an outdoor sport until around 1840, the game was called ninepins and was popular with gamblers. To snuff out gambling, the state of Connecticut banned the game in 1841.  As a result, indoor lane owners added one pin to their alleys to circumvent the law. 

Clubs tried organizing and creating set rules. However, it wasn't until 1895 when the American Bowling Congress came together at Beethoven Hall in New York City. The American Bowling Congress established a maximum score of 300 which still stands today. They also determined other rules, such as lane length, widths, and distances between pins. 

Turkey

The term "turkey" describes when a bowler successfully throws three strikes in a row. Before the lanes became as slick and beautiful as they are today, getting consecutive strikes was difficult. Around the late 1800s, at Thanksgiving time, alleys and clubs would offer turkeys to players who bowled three strikes in a row. As the holiday neared, taking home a prize turkey after a fun night of bowling would sure top off the evening. It seems this may be the source of the term for achieving three strikes in the game.

Today, leagues of men, women and mixed teams of all ages play in bowling competitions around the world. Weekly league bowling provides a fun time as well as great physical activity.

HOW TO OBSERVE U.S. BOWLING LEAGUE DAY HISTORY

Gather your league and go bowling. If you are not a member of a league, just invite some friends. Maybe you will bowl a turkey.

U.S. BOWLING LEAGUE DAY HISTORY

Our research was unable to find the creator and origin of U.S. Bowling League Day. 

Bowling FAQ

Q. What are 12 strikes in a row called?
A. Bowling has many terms to describe consecutive strikes. Like the term "turkey" for 3 strikes, when a bowler achieves a perfect game by bowling 12 strikes in a row it is called the "Thanksgiving turkey."

Q. What other terms do bowlers use to describe strikes?
A. While many of the terms surround holiday food like turkey and ham, not all of them do. For example, 5 consecutive strikes might be called a Yahtzee, hambone, brat, front string (for 5 consecutive strikes at the beginning of the game), sombrero or high ball.

Q. Is bowling in decline?
A. It depends on where you look. While league and alley numbers are declining, the sport is always evolving. Bowling alleys that keep pace with trends and the demands of their community continue to survive and thrive. And yet, more than 67 million people bowl in the United States every year according to bowl.com.

Monday September 1st: Topic with KC1SOO: What did you do this Labor Day Weekend?