The Amsterdam Fortune, 1920s

Norwegian immigrants in the 1920s saw their chance at financial independence: an Amsterdam bank ran ads in newspapers looking for descendants of Elizabeth Sabo, a Manx woman who ended up in Norway after a ill-fated cow milking expedition. The Amsterdam Fortune was her brother’s, bequeathed to the 6th generation of her offspring, to be paid […]

Jesse James was a Piker, 1959

Advertisement for a regular The Farmer feature known as “The Watchdog.” Full text available here. The use of the word “piker” doesn’t follow most definitions I can find: it usually means ‘miserly’ or a ‘hobo’, but the article uses it in a “thieving” context. If you do happen to be in the Northfield area, Jesse […]

The Invisible Jet Fighter

No, we’re not talking about stealth fighters — Grumman’s invisible jet fighter was an example of a very early flight simulator. Using a Reeves analog computer, Grumman compiled test data using models and simulations to program the computer and ‘flight-test’ imaginary aircraft’s data against actual flight information. Analog simulators had been around for about a […]