Trusting Internet Research:The Bees in my Bonnet

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Trusting Internet Research:The Bees in my Bonnet

I write fiction built on the past.

compliment of wikipedia

In 1947, Raytheon built the “Radarange”, the first commercially available microwave oven, It was almost 1.8 metres (5 ft 11 in) tall, weighed 340 kilograms (750 lb) and cost about US$5,000 ($52,273 in today’s dollars) each.

An early commercial model introduced in 1954 consumed 1.6 kilowatts and sold for US$2,000 to US$3,000. In the 1960s, Litton bought Studebaker‘s Franklin Manufacturing assets, which had been manufacturing magnetrons and building and selling microwave ovens similar to the Radarange. Litton then developed a new configuration of the microwave: the short, wide shape that is now common. Sales volume of 40,000 units for the U.S. industry in 1970 grew to one million by

tabletop model

1975.

Formerly found only in large industrial applications, microwave ovens increasingly became a standard fixture of residential kitchens. By 1986, roughly 25% of households in the U.S. owned a microwave oven, up from only about 1% in 1971. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that over 90% of American households owned a microwave oven in 1997.

Also, Liven’s design for the domestic dishwasher did not become a commercial success, and dishwashers were only successfully sold as domestic utilities in the postwar boom of the 1950s, albeit only to the wealthy.

I HATE WHEN THIS HAPPENS!

http://www.retrowaste.com/1950s/ This site is colorful and appears to offer much accurate information to inform us all of eras of the past. Go to this site to discover erroneous statements:

“The household also became much more modern. Many appliances that we take for granted now were invented or perfected in the 1950s. Truly it was the decade of the modern American family, who finally had enough money to buy these new conveniences. The average fifties household had a television, a microwave, a dishwasher, electric appliances and much more.”

Furthermore, as a writer of historical fiction, I wrote a comment suggesting they remove the microwave and dishwasher from the sentence explaining why. That moderated comment was promptly deleted. In fact, the only comments you will see on this site are those praising the site for what a fine job they are doing.

Then, I wrote a comment indicating that inaccurate web sites were why the internet could not be trusted as a source for accurate information. This was promptly removed, as well.

What would it take for them to remove microwaves and dishwashers from the average 50s household affordable appliances? Delete two words, use other examples.

That tells me that they know they are wrong and don’t care.

The site is awesome in many ways, but it is filled with inaccuracies. You cannot trust the internet. You must double; triple check internet sources or your work is not going to be accurate or believable. With the era I write in, much of my long term memory is very good. I still recall my phone number from 1969. But sometimes I need a quick reference for fashion, toys, music, cars.

Some sites don’t care, as long as they feel you are being somewhat entertained.

Be careful! You could contribute the Cadillac to Henry Ford if you are not cautious. I have seen it done.

I read Sylvia Plath’s “Bell Jar” was published posthumously and wrote that in my book. I later discovered it was not. It was awarded the Pulitzer posthumously. The novel was, in fact, published under a pseudonym three weeks before her death.

One error like that and you can lose your credibility. I had to revise that with my book and still need to update in my paperback version. Why?

With much writing, “The Devil is in the Details!”

You owe it to your readers to be accurate. It would be most ridiculous to read about a housewife popping TV dinners into the microwave in the 1950s. They were baked in the oven, also served in aluminum trays back then BTW, and coffee was perked on the stove top. A word spellchecker doesn’t like.