For just a moment it's 1955 again

I love browsing through vintage magazines. They give us a glimpse into the American past albeit not necessarily any more accurate yesterday than today’s media gives the reader.

Here are some interesting pages from the Popular Science February 1955 issue.

It is amazing that we aren’t all millionaires with these easy to build wealth from home ideas. Clicking on the picture will increase the size for a better chance to read how to become independently wealthy. I don't want you to accuse me of keeping the secret to myself.

This ad tells us how to make earn extra cash by making fake velvet!

What is it that is being sold here? Tobacco or, uh, yeah that’s what I thought, too.These ideas on ways to recycle a metal gasoline can make me nervous on several levels.

I’m not as confident as the author of the article is that it is possible to clean the inside of the can to make it safe enough to use as a planter or a bird feeder. And putting an open flame into or near the can – well, one word comes to mind – BOOM.

This group of ideas plus a friend's recent experience stimulated my own "I wish they made . . ."

On high end (expensive) vehicles the windshield wipers adjusts their speed in relationship to how much water is on the window. They slow when the rain drops are few and speed up when the rain drops increase.

I don't know what the technology is that produces this magic but I think the same technology needs to be applied to hot water heaters. A friend didn't find out that she needed to replace her tank until she walked into her flooded kitchen.

Surely, if they really cared about us, the consumer, there would be some sort of detection device on hot water tanks to warn us BEFORE we have a mess to mop up. Those of you with your tanks in the garage rather than the house probably aren't as passionate about this as I am.

MRS.RGS