Word: rheostat
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...testing," Audience Research will use the Hopkins Televote Machine, a Rube Goldbergian contrivance originally designed to chart audience reaction to movies (TIME, July 22, 1946). By turning a rheostat, hand-picked audiences indicate their degree of amusement from "very dull" to "like very much." Promising movies have a high "Want-to-See." Radio shows will get a "Want-to-Hear" rating...
Before the performer, in the spot that would be occupied by a piano keyboard, is a cloth-covered fingerboard about three feet long and three inches wide. This is a rheostat. By pressing the finger on it at any given point, the player controls the amount of electricity that goes into the instrument's generator tube. Depending on the amount of current that goes into one of the grids of the tube, the vibration frequency which controls the pitch is changed up & down...