TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/caps/60s/60p_c

Text File | 1990-10-22 | 7KB | 139 lines

Products & Consumerism

  [Americans bought and used a vast number of new products and
processes. Among the most innovative and memorable:]


                                                     (March 13, 1964)

  Du Pont has spent $100 million to develop Teflon and similar
substances, and so many uses have been found for Teflon that it has
taken its place as one of the "miracle" products. To the astonishment
of U.S. housewives, eggs, meat, even cheese and pancakes, required no
fat for frying and could quickly be removed from the pan without
sticking.

  U.S. companies have since begun making many cooking utensils with
Teflon, but the material has moved far beyond the stove. Electronics
companies are making printed circuits out of Teflon, which can be
sliced to one two-thousandths of an inch. Teflon is used in barbecue
gloves that will not scorch, in missile nose cones and in fireproof
suits. Ovens and muffin tins are coated with Teflon, and a coating of
Teflon is applied to some electric irons to make them slide more
easily across cloth. Surgeons are using Teflon tubing successfully to
replace artery sections. Steinway even turns out a piano with 1,130
Teflon bushings that replace conventional cloth, which shrinks,
expands and eventually rots.


                                                    (April 17, 1964)

  This week Ford's new Mustang sports car, one of the most heralded
and attention-drawing cars in autodom's history, drives into showrooms
all over the U.S. In it rides both a big bundle of Ford's future and
the reputation of the man who daily test-drives a different Mustang
between Bloomfield Hills and Dearborn. The man is Lido Anthony Iacocca,
general manager of Ford's Ford Division, which accounts for roughly
80% of the company's sales.

  With its long hood and short rear deck, its Ferrari flare and
openmouthed air scoop, the Mustang resembles the European racing cars
that American sports-car buffs find so appealing. Yet Iacocca has made
the Mustang's design so flexible, its price so reasonable and its
options so numerous that its potential appeal reaches toward
two-thirds of all U.S. car buyers. Priced as low as $2,368 and able to
accommodate a small family in its four seats, the Mustang seems
destined to be a sort of Model A of sports cars--for the masses as
well as for the buffs.


                                                  (October 30, 1964)

  The newest fad in U.S. business offices is the copy break--that
unguarded moment when clerk or perhaps even vice president slips over
to the office copying machine, quietly reproduces everything from old
love letters to check stubs. Half a million U.S. offices now have one
or more copying machines, which this year will turn out well over 10
billion copies, or 50 for each person in the nation.


                                                   (April 21, 1967)

  Though basically kin to such familiar cards as American Express and
Diners Club, bank credit cards aim more at the ordinary needs of
middle-income families than at travel and expense account
entertainment by executives. In a few cities, doctors, dentists and
veterinarians already accept bank cards; in Chicago, several
mortuaries and ambulance services have signed up, and at the city's
Cheetah Twistadrome Boutique.

  The obvious goal for any ambitious bank or bank group is to span
the U.S. with a single credit card system. In the race to go
transcontinental, the giant Bank of America has grabbed an early lead.
Last year it began licensing banks outside its California domain to
use its highly successful (2,057,000 members, $228 million annual
billings) BankAmericard. Fifteen banks have signed up, adding
1,500,000 cardholders and 30,000 retailers to the system.


  [Americans embraced consumerism and fought for safer food,
manufactured products, homes, cars and workplaces.]

                                                  (December 12, 1969)

  Ralph Nader is by now an almost lengdary crusader who would--and
could--use a fly to instigate a congressional investigation. As the
self-appointed and unpaid guardian of the interests of 204 million
U.S. consumers, he has championed dozens of causes, prompted much of
U.S. industry to reappraise its responsibilities and, against
considerable odds, created a new climate of concern for the consumer
among both politicians and businessmen. Nader's influence is greater
now than ever before. That is partly because the consumer, who has
suffered the steady ravished of inflation upon his income, is less
willing to tolerate substandard, unsafe or misadvertised goods. It is
also because Nader's ideas have won acceptance in some surprising
places. Last week, for example, Henry Food II went farther than any
other automobile executive ever has in acknowledging the industry's
responsibility for polluting the air and asked--indeed, prodded--the
Government to help correct the situation.

  Nader was able to force off the market General Motors' Corvair,
which was withdrawn from production this year. Corvair's sales had
plunged by 93% after Nader condemned the car as a safety hazard in his
bestseller, Unsafe at Any Speed. That influential book, and Nader's
later speeches, articles and congressional appearances, also forced
the Department of Transportation to impose stricter safety standards
on automobile and tire manufacturers.

  Advocate, muckraker and crusader, Nader has also been almost soley
responsible for the passage of five major federal laws. They are the
National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, the Wholesale
Meat Act of 1967, the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act, the Radiation
Control for Health and Safety Act and the Wholesale Poultry Products
Act, all of 1968. This week Congress will almost certainly pass the
Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act, which Nader and a group of
insurgent mine workers supported against the wishes of complacent
union leadership.

  From witness chairs and podiums, he has also taken aim at
excessively fatty hot dogs, unclean fish, tractors that tip over and
kill farmers, and the dangerous misuse of medical X-rays.


                                                      (March 8, 1963)

  When the old Nash Motors Co. came out with seat belts as standard
equipment in 1949, customers tore them out and cut them off with razor
blades. Last week, as Studebaker became the first U.S. auto-maker now
in business to make set belts standard equipment, no one had any fear
that motorist would once more lay hold of their razors. Finally
convinced by safety authorities that seat belts can prevent many
traffic deaths, U.S. motorists are buying them so fast that sales have
risen threefold since 1960 to $63 million last year--and this year are
running at double the 1962 rate.

  Beltmakers see an almost unlimited potential for their product. So
far, only 8,000,000 of the 65.5 million cars on U.S. roads have seat
belts. Making them standard equipment in Detroit would add more than
$114 million a year to sales--not counting the millions of auto owners
who would then be inspired to install belts on their own.