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My grandparents moved into their last home in 1937. Being "somewhat" OCD, my grandfather saved every magazine and newspaper (morning and evening editions). Each was sorted in chronological order; bundled by publication, by year. When we closed the house in 1974, we hauled two dump truck loads from the basement to the dump.

 

I'm 99% sure I threw that magazine away forty years ago! Time, Life, Look, National Geographic.... my back gets sore now just thinking about hauling those bundles up the stairs!!!! IF we had saved it all, with eBay I could be a gazillionaire by now.

 

Gilly

Last edited by Gilly@N&W



quote:
The write up talks of devices for removing radiation and fallout from the atmosphere and a train going to a uranium mine.  I thought uranium was mainly used as a pottery coloring agent until "the bomb" came along.




 

There are links to three separate (but related) subjects:

1939 Worlds Fair

1964 Worlds Fair Better Living Center train layout

1964 Worlds Fair NYC exhibit

 

The radiation stuff is from the 1964 worlds fair Better Living Center train layout.

 

I went to the NYC exhibit as a kid.

 

Originally Posted by Forty Rod:

Maybe I missed something here, but the Worlds Fair was in 1939-1940.

 

The write up talks of devices for removing radiation and fallout from the atmosphere and a train going to a uranium mine.  I thought uranium was mainly used as a pottery coloring agent until "the bomb" came along.

 

Thought I was a pretty good historian, but this has me wondering.

Actually, Uranium was used quite a bit prior to WW2 for a lot of applications and as a source for Radium that had its primary use in medical applications.

Large plant for the production of Radium used to be in Canonsburg, PA. Uranium ore used to come in on the PRR.

 

http://www.canonsburgboro.com/...&StdChemical.htm

 

BTW, Radium-223 was approved for treating bone involvement of prostate cancer just a little over a year ago.

WOW!!!..Chris...thanks so much for posting this!  I had never seen images of or even heard of the city scene that you have pictured above.  You know how much I enjoy the urban theme for layout design...but....this is certainly over the top!  That model of the Empire State Building must be over 20 feet tall..!!!

 

Now I have to go upstairs and start all over....

 

Alan

Originally Posted by C W Burfle:

The radiation stuff is from the 1964 worlds fair Better Living Center train layout.

 

 

 

Another exhibit in '64 had what was billed as a semi-controlled fusion reaction.

 

A big plastic (!) dome would have a few lights begin twinkling inside and then a big whoomff and a flash. I don't believe they ever used the word "simulation" in the description!

 

It would occur every few minutes. I've actually got a photo of it somewhere taken with my little Brownie.

 

They also promised that controlled fusion would be commonplace by the year 2000 with an end to the world's energy woes.

 

Jim

Here's the "fusion" photo as well as a prototype diesel on display at the fair - the first time I got a chance to sit in a real cab.

 

f001

 

 

f002

 

...and while I was scrounging through my ancient past, I came across this photo of the steam train ride at Freedomland - a short-lived Disneyland-type park in the east Bronx in the early 1960's. It closed about the time that the World's Fair opened

 

In fact, I think the high school our own Peter C. attended was built on or near what was once this attraction. The park failed partly because the builders didn't take into account the NYC winters which were not conducive to outdoor activities.

 

f003

Jim

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Originally Posted by Jim Policastro:
 

Another exhibit in '64 had what was billed as a semi-controlled fusion reaction.

 

A big plastic (!) dome would have a few lights begin twinkling inside and then a big whoomff and a flash. I don't believe they ever used the word "simulation" in the description!

I remember that exhibit.  It was the GE pavilion.  Actually, it wasn't quite just a "simulation".   Read about it here:

 

 Fusion Demonstration

 

The 1939-1940 World's Fair featured several notable dioramas.

 

The Theme Center, epitomizing the spirit and motto of the fair, "Building the World of Tomorrow," comprised the Trylon and Perisphere and immediately adjacent grounds. The 700-foot-high Trylon and 200-foot-wide Perisphere, were regarded as the most imposing symbol for any fair since the Eiffel Tower of 1889.

 

 

 

Visitors rode part way up the Trylon on what was then the world's highest escalator, then entered the Parishere, stepping onto one of two moving rings, from which they viewed the vast diorama of Democracy, a planned urban and exurban complex of the future.

 

 

A six minute show of narration and accompanying musical score, ended with film projections presenting groups of happy farmers and workers.

 

 

Afterwards, the visitors walked back to the ground level via a ramp called the Helicline.

 

 

Last edited by Mill City
Originally Posted by Avanti:

The New York City exhibit of the 1964 World's Fair had a model of the city that contained each and every building in the five boroughs:

 

temp

 

The neat thing is that this model still exists.  You can visit it at the Queens Museum, right across from the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Park:

 

Queens Museum

 

I remember seeing this in 1964 at the World's Faire. Quite a sight!

Futurama

 

 

The General Motors complex, actually four interconnected buildings, known collectively as "Highways and Horizons," was the largest presented by any individual participant in the fair. The designer was Norman Bel Geddes. There were numerous displays of new Chevrolets, Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles, Buicks, Cadillacs, and La Salles, as well as Frigidaires and a diesel-electric locomotive. A Previews of Progress science show was also offered, and there was an impressive lifesize multilevel futuristic "street intersection of 1960." But the hit General Motors and the fair as a whole was the futurama ride.

 

 

 

 

 

Six hundred chairs with individual loudspeakers moved visitors over a 36,000-square-foot scale model of the highway world of 1960.

 

 

Seven lane with permissible 100-mph speed, experimental homes, farms and urban developments, industrial plants, dams, bridges and all the intervening landscape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Springing up around a planned traffic system, still looked on in 1939 as the guarantee of future happiness, the metropolis of 1960 was seen to be free of slums and blight, full of parks and civic centers. Energy would apparently be abundant, climate perfect.

 

 

 

In 1964, GM offered an analogous ride in almost the same location.

 

 

 

 

Originally Posted by Mill City:

Futurama

 

 

The General Motors complex, actually four interconnected buildings, known collectively as "Highways and Horizons," was the largest presented by any individual participant in the fair. The designer was Norman Bel Geddes. There were numerous displays of new Chevrolets, Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles, Buicks, Cadillacs, and La Salles, as well as Frigidaires and a diesel-electric locomotive. A Previews of Progress science show was also offered, and there was an impressive lifesize multilevel futuristic "street intersection of 1960." But the hit General Motors and the fair as a whole was the futurama ride.

 

 

 

 

 

Six hundred chairs with individual loudspeakers moved visitors over a 36,000-square-foot scale model of the highway world of 1960.

 

 

Seven lane with permissible 100-mph speed, experimental homes, farms and urban developments, industrial plants, dams, bridges and all the intervening landscape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Springing up around a planned traffic system, still looked on in 1939 as the guarantee of future happiness, the metropolis of 1960 was seen to be free of slums and blight, full of parks and civic centers. Energy would apparently be abundant, climate perfect.

 

 

 

In 1964, GM offered an analogous ride in almost the same location.

 

 

 

 

Wasn't the future wonderful? 

 

Rusty

Here is a project I made about 10 years ago in 1/35 scale that was somewhat inspired by this sort of thing as well as Judge Dredd comics and the movie Blade Runner. It was built in a utility trailer to see it you had to look in through one way mirror glass and mirrors were used to make it appear much larger (and taller). I showed it at an art show in LA. Some day I may make a better version.it was very hard to photograph. 

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Last edited by Silver Lake

 

Yes, the theme of the 1939 World's Fair was the futuristic and imposing "Trylon and Perisphere".

 

It was a noble essay of the "World of Tomorrow", but the real "world of tomorrow" was World War Two, which erupted on September 1 of that year and lasted nearly 6 years, resulting in 60 million deaths worldwide, or 2.5 % of the world's population!

 

That was the reality of "the World of Tomorrow".

 

RIP TRACK

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HEY MARTIN,

 

During the 1950's & 1960's, Uranium Oxide was used as a coloring agent to produce the red-orange tone for a line of tableware known as "FiestaWare".

 

It was mildly radioactive, because as you know, naturally occurring U-238 has 7/10 of 1 percent of the isotope U-235, which is the fissionable isotope used in "Little Boy", the "gun-type" bomb that destroyed Hiroshima on 8/6/45. 

 

There was 140 pounds of weapons-grade U-235 in the bomb, but less than 2.5% of it actually fissioned, because the initial phase of the chain reaction blew most of it away.

 

Thus, only about 3.5 pounds of U-235 was enough to instantly incinerate 70,000 Japanese and flatten most of their city.

 

Cheers,

RIP TRACK

 

(The red rings are the U-235 Target and Projectile, 140 pounds total, click to enlarge)

 

 

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