Mercedes: 1st model ever

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Mercedes logo 1902

German name: "Mercedes 35 PS" (35 Pferdestärke)

English name: "Mercedes 35 HP" (35 horsepower)

Category: Cars

Subcategory: Torpedo

Designers: Wilhelm Maybach, Paul Daimler

Producer: Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (founded by Wilhelm Maybach and Paul Daimler in 1890)

Production start: 1901 - Stuttgart, Germany

Features: Its front-mounted four-cylinder in-line engine was bolted directly to the new, pressed-steel frame and had the sensational output of 35 hp (26 kW). The engine speed was regulated between 300 and 1000 rpm by a lever on the steering wheel. The cylinders and cylinder head formed a single unit, and for the first time the crankcase was made of aluminum. The power-to-weight ratio was now only 6.6 kilograms per horsepower, and one year later it fell to just 4.6 kg/hp. The intake valves were no longer controlled automatically, but by camshaft, like the exhaust valves. The car featured a spray-nozzle carburetor, honeycomb radiator, cooling fan, gear-type oil pump, water pump and magneto ignition. Equally new features of the car included a very compact, self-adjusting spring-band clutch, a single gearshift lever moving in a gate to operate the four-speed transmission, and a heavily inclined steering column. The significantly longer wheelbase, wider track and wheels of virtually equal size on both axles gave the car a high level of handling stability. The brakes were matched to the raised engine performance. The Mercedes was fitted with 30 centimeter wide drum brakes on the rear wheels, operated via a linkage by a manual lever. The foot-operated service brake acted on the drive shaft.

Interesting facts: The Mercedes 35 HP (German: Mercedes 35 PS) was designed in 1901 by Wilhelm Maybach and Paul Daimler, for Emil Jellinek. Emil Jellinek was a wealthy Austrian businessman and Austro-Hungarian diplomat living in Nice on the French Riviera. His daughter Adriana Manuela Ramona Jellinek, 10 years old at the car's construction, was given the pet name "Mercédès". Jellinek used to name his possessions after her, such as his mansions, the automobiles he sold, his racing car team, etc.

Property: Daimler AG

Producer website: http://www.daimler.com

Mercedes 35 PS (passenger side)

Mercedes 35 PS (front)

Mercedes 35 PS (driver side)

Mercedes 35 PS (back)

Mercedes 35 PS at the Nice-La Turbie races (March 25-29, 1901). At Nice Week works driver Wilhelm Werner pilots his 35 hp Mercedes to victory in the 392-km Nice - Salon - Nice race. Werner also wins the Nice - La Turbie hillclimb at an average speed of 51.4 km/h. This picture shows Baron Henry de Rothschild's 35-hp Mercedes Simplex racing car during the Nice-La Turbie hillclimb, March 29, 1901. At the wheel Wilhelm Werner, who was to become the Kaiser's driver.

Mercedes 35 PS at the third Semmering Race (September 22, 1901). Driving a 35 hp Mercedes, Dr Richard Ritter von Stern takes first place overall in the third Semmering Race to win the Challenge Trophy of the Austrian Automobile Club, endowed by Theodor Dreher.

The first Mercedes model implementers

Left: Wilhelm Maybach (Heilbronn, February 9, 1846 - Stuttgart, December 29, 1929), engineer.
Center: Paul Daimler (Karlsruhe, September 13, 1869 - Berlin, December 15, 1945), engineer.
Right: Emil Jellinek (Leipzig, April 6, 1853 - Genève, January 21, 1918), entrepreneur.

Mercedes-Benz C-Class, the best-selling Mercedes line ever (here in 2019)

Pac-Man

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Pac-Man
character logo 1980

Original name: "Puck Man"

Names:
--- "Pac-Man" (USA)
--- "Pakkuman" (Japan)

Category: Video games

Subcategory: Arcade

Genre: Maze

Inventor: Toru Iwatani

Developer: Namco Ltd. - Tokyo, Japan

Publishers: Namco (Japan), Midway (North America)

Released: May 22, 1980 (Japan) - October 1980 (North America)

Platform: Arcade

First price: 1 play 1 coin - 25 cents

Toru Iwatani
(Tokyo, Jan. 25, 1955)
video game designer
and creator of the
arcade game Pac-Man

Number of players: Up to 2 players, alternating turns

Cast of characters (original names):
--- Puck Man
--- Red ghost: Oikake, nickname Akabei
--- Pink ghost: Machibuse, nickname Pinky
--- Cyan ghost: Kimagure, nickname Aosuke
--- Orange ghost: Otoboke, nickname Guzuta

Cast of characters (American names):
--- Pac-Man
--- Red ghost: Shadow, nickname Blinky
--- Pink ghost: Speedy, nickname Pinky
--- Cyan ghost: Bashful, nickname Inky
--- Orange ghost: Pokey, nickname Clyde

Music by: Toshio Kai

Features: The player controls Pac-Man through a maze, eating pac-dots (also called pellets). When all pac-dots are eaten, Pac-Man is taken to the next stage. Between some stages one of three intermission animations plays. Four enemies (Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde) roam the maze, trying to catch Pac-Man. If an enemy touches Pac-Man, a life is lost and the Pac-Man itself withers and dies. When all lives have been lost, the game ends. Pac-Man is awarded a single bonus life at 10,000 points. Near the corners of the maze are four larger, flashing dots known as power pellets that provide Pac-Man with the temporary ability to eat the enemies. The enemies turn deep blue, reverse direction and usually move more slowly. When an enemy is eaten, its eyes remain and return to the center box where it is regenerated in its normal color. Blue enemies flash white to signal that they are about to become dangerous again and the length of time for which the enemies remain vulnerable varies from one stage to the next, generally becoming shorter as the game progresses. In later stages, the enemies go straight to flashing, bypassing blue, which means that they can only be eaten for a short amount of time, although they still reverse direction when a power pellet is eaten; in even later stages, the ghosts do not become edible, but they still reverse direction.

Interesting facts: This game has a bug in it that prevents it from being completely finished. This bug occurs at the 256th board, where it will cause an overflow in the the 8-bit byte distinct values. As a result, the final board as unplayable, with the right half replaced by a series of garbled symbols and letters.

Slogan (1980): «A labyrinth of fun & amusement!»

Property: Namco Ltd.

Official website: https://pacman.com

Pac-Man, original sketches by Toru Iwatani

Pac-Man, screenshot of the play area

The Japanese cabinet by Namco (left) and the North American version by Midway, which changed the game's name from "Puck Man" to "Pac-Man" in an effort to avoid vandalism from people changing the letter 'P' into an 'F' to form the word 'Fuck'.

Puck Man "cocktail table" cabinet by Namco (top) and the Pac-Man version by Midway

Midway Pac-Man arcade machine review

Puck Man (Namco) advertising (1980)

Pac-Man (Midway) advertising (1980)

Pac-Man (Midway) advertising (1981)

Pac-Man cartridge for Atari 400/800 home computers (1982)

Pac-Man celebrates 40th Anniversary (May 22, 1980 - 2020)

Motorola (cellphone)

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Motorola logo 1955
by Morton Goldsholl

Name: "Motorola DynaTAC 8000X"

Categories: Electronics, Home - Office - School

Subcategory: Telephony

Inventor: Martin Cooper

Producer: Motorola, Inc. (founded by brothers Paul V. and Joseph E. Galvin in 1928, as Galvin Manufacturing Corporation)

Prototypes made since: 1973

Martin Cooper
Chicago - Dec. 26, 1928,
the inventor of the
handheld cellular Mobile,
phoneholding his
prototype DynaTAC
cellphone in 2007

Production start: 1984 - Schaumburg, Illinois, USA

First price: 3,995 USD

Features: The world's first commercial handheld cellular phone, the Motorola DynaTAC (abbreviation of Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage) 8000X phone, received approval from the FFC (U.S. Federal Communications Commission) on September 21, 1983. It weighed 28 ounces (790 g) and was 10 inches (25 cm) high, not including its flexible "rubber duck" whip antenna. It offered 30 minutes of talk time and 8 hours of standby, and a LED display for dialing or recall of one of 30 phone numbers. In addition to the typical 12-key telephone keypad, it had nine additional special keys: Rcl (recall); Clr (clear); Snd (send); Sto (store); Fcn (function); End; Pwr (power); Lock; Vol (volume).

Interesting facts: On April 3, 1973 Cooper and Mitchell demonstrated two working phones to the media and to passers-by prior to walking into a scheduled press conference at the New York Hilton in midtown Manhattan. Standing on Sixth avenue near the Hilton, Cooper made the first handheld cellular phone call in public from the prototype DynaTAC. In 1984 Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was the first cell phone to be offered commercially in the world.

Slogan: «This is a Motorola cellular portable telephone. Take it to work, to play, to lunch and still keep up with your customers, your suppliers, your life».

Property: Motorola, Inc.

Producer website: http://www.motorola.com

Motorola DynaTAC (1973)

Motorola DynaTAC trademark (filed October 19, 1973). Bottom-right: «SN 4,076. Motorola, Inc., Chicago, Ill., by merger and change of name from Motorola, Inc., Franklin Park, Ill. Filed Oct. 19, 1973. DYNATAC - For Radio Telephone Communications Systems Comprising Transmitters, Receivers, Controls and Parts Therefor (U.S. Cl. 21). First use June 30, 1973».

Motorola DynaTAC review (Business Week, April 7, 1973). «Motorola invents the take-along phone».

Motorola DynaTAC review (Popular Science, June 1973, cover and extract). «NEW TAKE-ALONG TELEPHONES Give You Pushbutton Calling to Any Phone Number».

DynaTAC 8000X, the first model of Motorola cellphone (1984)

Motorola DynaTAC 8000X advertisement

Motorola DynaTAC 8000X advertisement

Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (in the foreground) and his prototype

Martin Cooper with some of his creations

Motorola, an advanced model ("Moto G" - December 2013 - the biggest selling smartphone in the company's entire history until 2015)

Ray-Ban (sunglasses)

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Ray-Ban logo

Name: "Ray-Ban Aviator"

Category: Fashion

Subcategory: Sunglasses

First producer: Bausch & Lomb (founded in 1853 by John Jacob Bausch and Henry Lomb)

Prototype made in: 1936

Production start: 1937 - Rochester, New York, USA

First price: 6.00 USD in 1939

Features: The prototype, known as "Anti-Glare", had plastic frames and green lenses that could cut out the glare without obscuring vision. It was remodeled with a metal frame the following year and rebranded as the "Ray-Ban Aviator".

Interesting facts: The history of the Ray-Ban Aviator dates back to the 1930s, when many US Army Air Service pilots were reporting that the glare from the sun was giving them headaches and altitude sickness. In 1929, US Army Air Corps Lieutenant General John MacCready asked Bausch & Lomb, a Rochester, New York-based medical equipment manufacturer, to create aviation sunglasses that would reduce the headaches and nausea experienced by pilots, which are caused by the intense blue and white hues of the sky. A new kind of glasses were introduced; on May 7, 1937, Bausch & Lomb took out the patent, and the Aviator was born.

Slogan (1938): «Champions and Leaders wear Ray-Ban Anti-Glare»

Property: Bausch & Lomb - Luxottica

Official website: http://www.ray-ban.com

"Ray-Ban Aviator", the first model of Ray-Ban sunglasses

Douglas Mac Arthur (Jan. 26, 1880 - Apr. 5, 1964), the US Army Air Corps Lieutenant General who asked the creation of Ray-Ban sunglasses

First Ray-Ban advertisement, 1938

Ray-Ban advertisement September 1939

Ray-Ban advertisement 1939 (Von Lengerke & Antoine, spring and summer catalog)

Ray-Ban newspaper advertisements 1940
(The Key West citizen, Key West, Fla., left: March 23, right: March 30)

Ray-Ban newspaper advertisements 1940
(The Key West citizen, Key West, Fla., left: April 6, right: April 13)

Ray-Ban newspaper advertisements 1940
(The Key West citizen, Key West, Fla., left: April 20, right: April 27)

Ray-Ban Aviator, an advanced model (2009, model: RB 8301 Green Classic G-15 - «This model reinterprets the iconic teardrop Aviator style. The carbon fibre temples are combined with the bold shape of the metal front with a double bridge, for a strong, decisive personality» - Luxottica)

Frankenstein (film)

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Frankenstein
(1910) film title frame

Title: "Frankenstein"

Category: Movies

Subcategory: Horror

Director and screenwriter: James Searle Dawley

Based on: "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley

Starring:
--- Augustus Phillips (Dr. Frankenstein)
--- Charles Ogle (the Monster)
--- Mary Fuller (Elizabeth)

James Searle Dawley
May 13, 1877
- March 30, 1949,
director
and screenwriter
of Frankenstein

Producer - Distributor: Edison Manufacturing Company

Released: March 18, 1910 - New York City, USA

Running time: 13 min.

Color: B/W, color

Language: Silent

Music by: Life Toward Twilight

Summary plot: Frankenstein, a young medical student, trying to create the perfect human being, instead creates a misshapen monster. Made ill by what he has done, Frankenstein is comforted by his fiancée but on his wedding night he is visited by the monster. A fight ensues but the monster, seeing himself in a mirror, is horrified and runs away. He later returns, entering the new bride's room, and finds her alone.

Interesting facts: For many years, this film was believed to be a lost film. In 1963, a plot description and stills were discovered published in the issue of an old Edison film catalog, "The Edison Kinetogram" (below). In the early 1950s a print of this film was purchased by a Wisconsin film collector, who did not realize its rarity until many years later. Its existence was first revealed in the mid-1970s.

Property: Edison Manufacturing Company

Frankenstein on "The Edison Kinetogram" film catalog (cover, March 15, 1910)

Frankenstein on "The Edison Kinetogram" film catalog (clipping, March 15, 1910)

Frankenstein announcement (The Film Index, New York City, March 5, 1910). «"Frankenstein," Mrs. Shelley's famous story, will be released by the Edison Company very soon. The possibilities of this weird tale from a dramatic and photographic standpoint are tremendous, and in their development the Edison people have set themselves to a task that will exhaust every resource at their command».

Frankenstein announcement, plot and review (The Film Index, New York City, March 12, 1910). «"FRANKENSTEIN" Ambitious Effort of the Edison Producers Should Attract Widespread Attention - Other Releases. "Frankenstein," which will be released March 18, is a liberal adaption of Mrs. Shelley's famous story under that title. As told in the film story shows Frankenstein, a young student of the sciences, leaving his father and sweetheart to persue his studies at college. In the course of his researches he discovers the awful mystery of life and death and immediately determines to realize his one consuming ambition - to create the most perfect human being that the world has ever seen. Alone in his room he conducts the experiment and after an almost breathless suspense is rewarded by seeing an object forming and rising from the blazing caldron in which ha has poured his ingredients, - a vague, shapeless thing at first but gradually assumes a human form and exhibits sign of animation. His joy at the success of his experiment is quickly turned to horror and dismay, however, when he finally beholds the fruition of his labor; for the evil thoughts that swayed his mind before and during the experiment have so influenced his handwork that, instead of a human being endowed with beauty of face and form, he has created a hideous monster of a colossal, unshapely proportions and most frightful mien. The agony he endures in the days that succeed in trying to keep his awful secret from the world, and especially from his sweetheart as their wedding day draws near, is most realistically depicted upon the film. The monster, unwilling to be separated from his creator, haunts his footsteps with canine-like devotion, jealous of and resenting his attentions to any one else. The object of the creature's especial hatred is Frankenstein's sweetheart, whose room he invades on her wedding night, driving her shrieking into her husbands' arms. Broken down by his unsuccessful efforts to be constantly with his creator and appalled as well at his own reflection, the monster stands in an attitude of entreaty before the mirror and here the psychological theory of the whole story is demonstrated, viz: that when Frankenstein's love for his bride shall have attained its full strenght and freedom from impurity the creature cannot exist. The monster gradually fades from view, leaving only hid reflection in the glass, which strange to say remains as the reflection of Frankenstein himself as he enters the room and approaches the mirror. Gradually, however, under the influence of his now better love and nature the image of the monster disappears and Frankenstein, freed from the awful burden he has been carrying, finds happiness in his bride's embrace. The actually repulsive situations in the original version have been carefully eliminated in its visualized form, so that there is no possibility of its shocking any portion of an audience; but the dramatic strenght of this gruesome story clings to its dramatization, and it is safe to say that no film has ever been released that can surpass it in power to fascinate an audience. The scene in the laboratory in which the monster seemed to gradually assume human semblance is probably the most remarkable ever committed to a film. "Frankenstein" is a production that will hold an audience spellbound and is certain to excite a very great deal of attention and comment».

Frankenstein (1910), complete film ready to play (13 min.)