TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/caps/60s/60p_c

Text File | 1992-09-25 | 6.9 KB | 152 lines

                piò                                                          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.