Word: radars
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Predictably, the trend is to luxury and gadgetry. Small runabouts with rakish lines, chrome fittings, and decorator-styled upholstery look more and more like cars, presumably to attract diffident womenfolk. Oceangoing yachts sport bulkhead-to-bulkhead carpeting and baby blue staterooms. New compact radar sets, depth-sounders and other electronic gear cram the cockpits. Pushbutton winches eliminate the need to "weigh" anchor. Hot-water heating, cold-water cooling, seawater evaporators and adapters for turning iceboxes into electric refrigerators lure the boat owner. Apparently it takes a heap of gadgets to make a boat a home...
Ever since highway patrolmen started using radar to trap speedsters shortly after World War II, U.S. motorists have been searching for ways to beat the electronic rap. With misguided ingenuity, hot-rodders packed hub caps with uranium ore or loaded them with steel balls; they sprayed the fan blades with aluminum paint, dangled static chains from rear bumpers, festooned their radio aerials with strips of aluminum foil. But nothing seemed to foil highway radar, and latter-day Barney Oldfields continued to be hauled in like herring in a net, whining "Unfair...
Then came "Radar Sentry," a device designed to give early warning of radar traps. Resembling a miniature radio, Radar Sentry costs $40, is attached to sun visor or dashboard, and warns of an impending checkpoint by giving out a cheery burble that turns into an insistent squeak once the radar zone has been entered. At high speeds Radar Sentry is almost useless; there just isn't time to slow down before police radar has tracked the car's telltale blip. But at speeds in the lower 60s, the gadget is a fairly faithful watch-bird within...
...likelihood, Barnes will also get the city to sink a lot of money into an electronic-brain control system, which scans traffic flow by radar and switches street signals accordingly. Barnes likes well-marked lanes. When he wants one, he creates it right away with improvised dividers made out of used paint cans; markings and concrete follow later on. He is also a stickler for overhead traffic signals for every lane (and not just every street corner...
Says Barnes: "Basically, New York's problems are the same as any other city's; they're just bigger." Then he smiles, shifts his cigar from corner to corner, and barks: "Think of it: the biggest city in the world, and not one radar-actuated traffic signal! Oh, there's going to be changes, all right...