Word: volts
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...accidental byproduct of George Westinghouse's development (1885) of alternating current. The Edison Co., which sold direct current, tried to dramatize A.C.'s dangers by using it to kill stray cats and dogs. Impressed, the New York legislature adapted A.C. for killing humans in a 2,000-volt electric chair at Sing Sing Prison...
...night-light scopes have $18 million of development behind them, and they come in three sizes. The smallest, which fits on a rifle or can be used as a hand telescope" weighs only 51 lbs., including its 6-volt batteries. Larger, 20-lb. scopes with a wider field of view are meant for use with recoilless rifles or other crew-handled weapons. The biggest scopes weigh 40 lbs. and sit fatly on tripods. Through their wide-angle lenses, a commander can keep track of the stumbling confusion of a night battle. He can see his own forces along with...
...mile tunnel that slices through the rolling countryside behind Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., was built for one purpose only: to house a linear accelerator with a beam of 20-billion-volt electrons that might knock stubborn secrets out of atomic nuclei. The accelerator is not yet complete, but its construction has already led to a striking discovery in the unexpected field of paleontology. A bulldozer digging a trench at the end of the tunnel veered a few feet from its guideline and uncovered a ponderous and peculiar skeleton...
...Racer Bill Odom piled into a Cleveland apartment house, killing himself and two other people. Practicing at Reno last week, Miro Slovak, a Czech who fled West in 1952 and now flies for Continental Airlines, screamed down the straightaway at 400 m.p.h.-square into a badly marked 13,000-volt power line. Sparks showered over Slovak's Bearcat; one wing was gouged, but miraculously Slovak kept control. With extraordinary efficiency, the power company restrung the wire overnight. Next day-boing!-another pilot knocked it down...
Most de luxe nature-lovers mount the installation in a three-quarter ton truck, which costs about $2,200, and may also include the extra conveniences of a special axle for fast highway travel, heavy duty springs and a 110-volt, engine-operated generator powerful enough to run a TV set. Units may be removed from the truck, though the more elaborate ones are permanent fixtures. Automakers expect to sell 75,000 trucks for this purpose in 1964, predict that there will be 500,000 on the road...