Electronics-Themed Comics
March 1964 Radio-Electronics

March 1964 Radio-Electronics [Table of Contents] Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Radio-Electronics, published 1930-1988. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.

In 1964, when these electronics-themed comics appeared in Radio-Electronics magazine, the world was still in the process of adopting FM (frequency modulation) radio after decades of owning AM (amplitude modulation) radios. Radio repair shops could install conversion kits in many models of radios (still of the vacuum tube variety, mostly). For that matter in the early days of color TV, conversion kits were available enable pseudo-color from black-and-white (B&W) sets, using a spinning color wheel. This was in the pre-throw-away era when it might have been cheaper to get something repaired or modified than to buy a new model. I grew up toward the end of that era (born 1958). Anyway, the comic from page 58 pokes a bit of fun at the extremes some people expected. The page 94 comic reflect the expectation of soon-to-be-available wrist watches that ran on precision crystals rather than on a much less consistent spring and escapement mechanism. The Hamilton Pulsar, the world's first electronic watch, did not hit the market until 1971.

Electronics-Themed Comics

"You want this converted to fm stereo multiplex?"
Page 58

"I'll have to have my watch repaired. It's 15 nanoseconds fast again."
Page 94

Posted July 15, 2024