Distracted Drivers Are Nothing New
Forget cellphones. The real danger from distracted driving is the car radio—according to observers in the days before Sirius, in-car DVD players, and even web browsers.
Browsing Tag
Time Machine
40 posts
Steam-Powered Cars: California’s 1970s Smog Solution
Steam-powered cars may sound like a shout-out to the early 1900s, but in 1970s California the idea was building up a real head of, umm, steam.
Driving a Dead Horse: Making Cars Less Frightening in 1904
The traffic safety department is trying to get the nation used to today's silent cars. Something similar happened at the beginning of the 20th century.
Nerd Rage: Gendered Tech During the Rise of Radio
Girls in Chicago show off radio sets they’ve built (July 1924 Radio News magazine) Radio is for boys…
Push-Button Promises
Big thinkers have been selling the push-button as the key to the future since way before the Jetsons. Try the 19th century.
Corn of Ill Repute: How Butterkist Helped Make Movie Popcorn Respectable
How a salt-of-the-Earth Midwest manufacturer learned to butter up customers and see its sales explode.
Who Owns the Books You Read?
The Supreme Court may soon rule on how the first sale doctrine applies to textbooks. But what about the ebook on your iPad? Who owns that?
Pretty Much the Scariest Way to Give Kids Their Medicine
Bunny needles, puppy spoons, squirrel otoscopes. Here are some great, well-meaning ways to make children fear doctors AND cute fuzzy animals.
What Uber, Lyft and Sidecar Can Learn From the Jitney Cars of the 1910s
Ride-sharing took off in Los Angeles at the beginning of the 20th century, but it couldn't beat City Hall.