A day at the office in 1972 as seen from 1922.  We've got your radio-controlled planes, your radio-controlled ships, radio-powered heaters, radio-powered clock, radio-powered roller skates (roller skates?), and your gigantic and very terrifying power-transmitting radio tower.  Do you have a feeling that radio was going to be a big thing in the future? 

Take a look at the man's work station.  On the right you have a radiophone/television set for talking to the wife and kids.  The globe on the right isn't ornamental, it's the future's version of a switchboard/yellow pages.  Stick the pin in the globe and hope your hand is steady enough so you get New York instead of Jersey City.  To the left is the radio business controller.  We use our desktop marvels to make spreadsheets, play freecell, and download porn.  This chap is using his to do everything up to and including unloading a ship by remote control.  How does he manage this feat of science?  Apparently courtesy of two very large rheostats.

Whatever happened to those huge open-faced rheostats with the bare copper connectors?  Technology just hasn't been the same since they went out of fashion.

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