Miscellaneous Technology

January 5, 1948

The first color newsreel seen by movie theater audiences in the United States is presented, showing clips from the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl football game, shot just 4 days earlier. The entire newsreel is available on YouTube, although inexplicably, the date listed on the video states 1940.

January 5, 1933

Construction begins on the Golden Gate Bridge, as workers began excavating 3.25 million cubic feet of dirt for the structure’s huge anchorages.

January 4, 1972

Hewlett-Packard introduces the first handheld scientific calculator, the HP-35. The precision of the calculator was greater than most mainframe computers of its time. For such a technological achievement, the name of the calculator is simply derived from the fact that it has 35 buttons. I wonder if they had to use the calculator to figure that out.

January 4, 1863

4 wheeled roller skates are patented in the United States by James Plimpton of New York. Plimpton’s design was the first dry-land skate that could maneuver in a smooth curve and which allowed for turns and the ability to skate backwards.

January 3, 1957

The Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch. The Hamilton Electric 500 was the first watch to never need winding. However its battery life was so short that frequent battery replacements were necessary. Plus, as a first of breed, the watch was not very reliable. However, it was an instant hit because the novelty of never needing to wind the watch proved extremely popular.

January 1, 1939

Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard formalize their business partnership. They decide to name the company after themselves, but choose the order of their names by a coin toss. Hewlett-Packard had a 50/50 chance of being named Packard-Hewlett.

January 1, 1908

For the first time, a ball is dropped in New York City‘s Times Square to signify the start of the New Year at midnight.

December 29, 1949

Station KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut becomes the first Ultra high frequency (UHF) television station to operate a daily schedule. How many of you are wondering what UHF TV is? Raise your hands … don’t be shy!

Set up as a working experiment by RCA and NBC, the station was used to test if the UHF spectrum was feasible to broadcast TV. Codenamed “Operation Bridgeport,” after two-and-a-half years of successful transmission, the station was shut down. The UHF transmitter was purchased, dismantled, and reassembled in Portland, Oregon to power the first commercial UHF station in the United States.

December 28, 1895

The world’s first projected movie screening takes place at the Salon Indien at the Grand Café in Paris, France. The makeshift theater uses the Cinématographe created by the Lumière Brothers, one of the earliest motion picture projectors in history. Thirty-three people attend at the admission price of one franc each to view 10 films at about 50 seconds each. The first film, La Sortie des ouvriers de l’usine Lumière, was created especially for the occasion. It shows workers leaving the Lumières’ factory in Lyon by foot, by bicycle, and by car.

December 22, 1882

Edward Johnson, an associate of Thomas Edison, has walnut-sized bulbs made specifically for him to wire his Christmas Tree with electric light. The 80 red, white, and blue bulbs formed the first set of electric Christmas Tree lights in history. Prior to this, people would traditionally decorate their trees with wax candles.