Word: gadget
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Once an obscure gadget found mostly on the dashboards of high-performance cars or in the cabs of long-haul trucks, the portable radar detector is fast becoming standard operating equipment in workaday Chevys, Fords and Toyotas. By beeping a warning whenever a police radar transmitter is operating nearby, the small (as light as 6 oz.) electronic gizmos give lead-footed drivers a chance to slow down before a police officer can spot a speeding violation. About 1.5 million citizens bought so-called Smokey detectors last year, a 25% increase over 1984. This year industry sales are expected to keep...
...devoted 31 pages of its fall-winter catalog to home-fitness devices. Says Richard Williford, a Sears spokesman: "This has been the strongest-selling merchandise in our sporting-goods department this year." Among the favored items, say equipment dealers: rowing machines ($75 to $3,000 for the computerized, gadget-laden models), stationary bicycles ($75 to $3,000), treadmills ($850 to $5,800) and all-in-one contraptions, like Soloflex or Universal's Power-Pak, that act on the entire body ($459 to $4,000). The typical outlay for a complete...
...test of Del Ray's gadget in the Quincy House dining hall revealed that a few design changes may be necessary...
During World War II, Stanton and a Columbia professor developed the Stanton-Lazarsfeld program analyzer, a small mechanical gadget that could measure listener reaction to programs, songs, and movies, according to a 1965 biography...
Looking good is the most pressing concern of travelers. At Bloomingdale's in New York City, a new tool cannily combines several grooming appliances in one 6-oz. unit. The 4-in. blower of Schildkraut's red plastic and metal gadget ($33) becomes both blow dryer and handle for the iron. Another take-along is Le Dome ($16.50) instant nail dryer. Simply insert fingers or toes into its plastic chamber, and a battery-driven fan dries them in two minutes...