Word: belt
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Nowhere is the problem more pressing than in La Laguna. a 2,000-sq.-mi. farm belt in north central Mexico that is a sort of microcosm of the ills afflicting the Mexican farmer. For years, La Laguna was rich and productive, watered by late summer showers and the Nazas and Aguanaval rivers. More than half of the country's cotton came from the area. Then 15 years ago, the rains tailed off, the rivers began drying up, and the crops dwindled to half their former size. Now, over a year's time, ten times more water evaporates...
...attitude that lasted about five days. But then we began to think about Mariner II. Everything was riding on the next one." The lab's morale came surging back. "They have tremendous esprit at JPL," says Dr. James Van Allen, discoverer of the Van Allen radiation belt and a longtime Pickering admirer. "It's almost offensive. It's like the Marines...
Fooled Once. Seat-belt makers got fooled once before, when Ford in the mid-50s began promoting seat belts, then had to give them up when the public did not respond. But this time they are convinced that the belts will hold on. Six states and the District of Columbia have already passed laws to make seat belts mandatory, and 30 more states have similar bills pending. Every auto company now offers them as optional equipment (priced from $16.80 on a Ford to $21.50 on a Cadillac). By 1965, the industry figures that seat belts will be standard equipment...
...smell of gold dust has swelled the ranks of beltmakers from eight only seven years ago to some 84 today and, as usual, the shoddy operators have appeared on the scene. One maker boasts that his belts will withstand 6,000 Ibs.' pressure, when in fact tests have shown that they snap in a 15-m.p.h. collision. To counteract such fraud, 32 leading firms have joined the American Seat Belt Council, which certifies that their belts will take a minimum 4,000 Ibs.' sudden pressure. Detroit has so far played it safe by ordering from such well-established...
Unlimited Potential. Beltmakers see an almost unlimited potential for their product. So far, only 8,000,000 of the 65.5 million cars on U.S. roads have seat belts. Making them standard equipment in Detroit would add more than $114 million a year to sales-not counting the millions of auto owners who would then be inspired to install belts on their own. Beltmakers now go in for dramatic demonstrations to show the value of the seat belt, but they do not intend to stop at one or two to a car. They are already talking of urging six belts...