On the eve of Apple’s big announcement, I emailed a local antique radio collector.
I explained to him that a few years ago I bought a very large Farnsworth radio at a garage sale. It was a beautiful vintage machine, harkening back to the era of wooden analog machines that matched the living room furniture.
The inside of the machine was a mess, but I was inspired by a blog post that detailed how to gut the machine and transform it into a modern iPod jukebox. I never got around to such an elaborate project, and all I did was put old computer speakers inside of the chassis with an auxiliary cable sticking out the top.
But I’ll be moving soon and there’s simply no space for the old Farnsworth. I wanted to make sure the antique radio found a good home if it was actually something in-demand. So that’s why I wrote the antique radio collector.
He wrote back:
Consoles can be difficult to find homes for in the best of conditions: Zenith, Scott, and a couple others are exceptions.
Your Farnsworth is a middle grade console which looks like an AC series which was released Oct. 1939 for the 1940 model year or possibly a BC series which is 1941.
If you get me the exact model number (look for numbers in the format like I have suggested), I can tell you more and maybe find you an ad from a trade journal. I can send you a high res scan if it would be of interest.
The cabinet itself does not look too bad from what I can see. The two killers are the broken dial glass which has the dial scales on it, making replacement a real problem. There are people who silkscreen dials on glass but generally only for popular models or at great expense for a one-off product. The second is typical of many radios from 1940 to 41 and 1946 thru 49. The marbled looking dial bezel was made from a material called “tenite”. Like its big brother catalin, it did not age well.
The aging process, accelerated by exposure to UV, causes it to shrink, typical of the dial bezel, and crystalize, typical for the pushbuttons.
You combine these problems for which there is no solution, with a soft market for consoles, and it is currently an undesirable radio for collectors.
The decorator market, however, goes through cycles, occasionally seeking “vintage” objects for rec rooms, but I am not knowledgeable about which way that breeze is blowing.
With Apple’s Press Conference about to kick-off to announce the iPad, or Tablet, or whatever it will be called, I thought this brief email exchange with an antique electronics collector gives some excellent perspective on why we get excited about these events.
Of course I looked up Philo Farnsworth on Wikipedia in order to learn more about my radio’s namesake. The man invented electronic television, and yet he lived much of his life wondering if it actually contributed to the advancement of society. I was struck by this exchange he had with his wife upon seeing men land on the moon on television.
Elma Farnsworth: We were watching it, and, when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, Phil turned to me and said, “Pem, this has made it all worthwhile.” Before then, he wasn’t too sure.
We put a man on the moon back then. Nowadays, NASA is getting outsourced and consumer electronics get thrown out every 18 months.
I’m not sure if these new devices will be worthwhile, or whether they’ll contribute to the advancement of society, or whether they’ll even be collectable—but I’ll be watching.
Smells Like Pre-Teen Spirit?
While cleaning out my suburban closet back home in Virginia, I stumbled across some old cassettes that I had dubbed in the early 1990s. I think the artwork on this particular bootleg of Nirvana’s “Nevermind” is probably the least punk thing ever to have been influenced by Cobain.
“What happened here?”
The question lingered in the air as our rental car sped along Route 54 in Kansas, somewhere between Wichita and Dodge City. We had no idea exactly where we were, or what had happened until we saw a sign.
GREENSBURG, KS
Rebuilding…
STRONGER, BETTER, GREENER
Home of the “BIG WELL”
That’s when I remembered the Tornado—and everything that came after it.
(Thanks to Chris Cheatham’s consistent coverage of Greensburg on Green Building Law Update)
On May 4, 2007, Greensburg was hit by an EF5 tornado, which destroyed 95% of the city and left the other 5% severely damaged (see e.g., Mike Theiss’ photos, and Jon Person’s photos). Only one building was left standing on Main Street (it’s now an antique store).
But the city decided to rebuild; and, it decided to rebuild “green.” In the words of then-Governor Kathleen Sebelius, “We have an opportunity of having the greenest town in rural America.”
Greensburg had to decide what policies to enact in order to achieve such a green goal. Just 12 weeks after the tornado flattened the town, the City Council presented a thorough long-term plan (.pdf, amazing that they made this so quickly and so well). The Public Square Steering Committee stated it’s vision statement therein:
“Blessed with a unique opportunity to create a strong community devoted to family, fostering businesses, working together for future growth.”
On December 17, 2007, Greensburg made history (.pdf) by being the first place in the country to require all city-owned buildings larger than 4,000 square feet to become certified LEED® Platinum by the U.S. Green Building Council and requiring all city-owned buildings to reduce energy use by 42% over current building requirements.
As a passerby on a road trip, it was inspiring to look out the car windows and see such an incredible story of rebirth in America’s Heartland.
Check out the full photo set from our drive.
Stories about typewriters seem to be popping up all over the place this December. I thought I’d collect them here.
After reading all these articles, I ran across this great typewriter illustration by Robert Samuel Hanson, whose work in Monocle is fantastic.
Reminds me of a picture I took with my lovely Olivetti Valentine.
In conclusion, I need to type more.
Georgia Aquarium. You seen Nemo?
Having watched the entirety of The West Wing on DVD, it was pretty surreal to walk around the actual White House.
“This is one of those rare cases where the laissez-faire approach is incorrect. Policies to encourage the adoption of these technologies are justified, even within free-market orthodoxy.” —
Obama’s Billions Could Render Furnaces Obsolete: Kevin Hassett - Bloomberg.com
You must be on the right track when even a policy analyst from the American Enterprise Institute, a fairly conservative think tank that maintains a strict free-market mindset, encourages government intervention in order to stimulate a green building movement.
I live in a van down by Duke University - Salon.com -
How do I afford grad school without going into debt? A ‘94 Econoline, bulk food and creative civil disobedience…
I applaud this student. And I probably used to park a Volvo station wagon where he’s got his Econoline van.
This whole thing reminds me of the time my great uncle was very confused by Krzyzewskiville and thought there was a dorm room shortage on campus. We had to explain to him that people camp out for basketball games and K-Ville isn’t a refugee city.
“There’s a growing concern now about robot ethics, but what’s missing from those discussions is pragmatic lawyers thinking about what’s going to happen in the future.” —
Robots of future may need a good lawyer— San Francisco Chronicle
This article discusses some fascinating issues in the inevitable field of robo-litigation, though the title mistakenly suggests that robots need to lawyer-up as opposed to the humans interacting with them. I think the former would be a lot more interesting than the latter, so maybe I should hang a robo-shingle.
Who is Rosie the Robot Maid from the Jetsons going to call when she has questions about employment law? Where will WALL-E go for environmental law advice about brownfields? Who will defend Johnny 5 in front of a military tribunal for going AWOL?
I can see my commercial now:
Are you a robot that’s been hurt on the job? Are Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics preventing you from getting what you deserve? Call Mark Pike, Robottorney-at-Law to help you with your robo-law needs. *Bleep bloop bleep*
Trust me, robots, you need a lawyer. The President has his eye on you.