Dawn is working as an intern at the San Jose History Museum performing an inventory, revising the docent manual and doing research on the display materials in the Doctor's and Dentist's Offices.
We rode the trolley around the village and toured the trolley barn where they recondition the trolleys and some old autos.
There is a nice example of an old metal service station building. It brings back memories of my childhood, walking down to the corner of the street I lived on in Bakersfield. It looked very much like this station, except more used. I particularly liked the soft drink dispenser they had at that station. It was one of the old type that was filled with water. You would slide you choice out and it was nice and cold, pleasant treat in hot Bakersfield. New vending machines never get the drinks cold.
There was also a nice reconditioned little Fiat car that was being used for a photo shoot. Looks more like a roller skate. Note the spare on the rear bumper.
In old San Jose, they tried street lighting. They had an interesting method. They built the tower (above left) and tried using an artificial sun to light the town.
We had a very nice tour of the printing office. The docent was very knowledgeable and it was quite interesting.
San Jose is the home of broadcast radio. In 1909, twelve years before the government thought to issue licenses, Charles Herrold created a broadcast radio station. In 1921 it was licensed as KQW, later becoming KCBS which moved to San Francisco. In 1909 he also started Herrold College of Engineering and Wireless in San Jose. His radio station was the first to broadcast music and news. KQW also originated advertising in broadcasting. I'm not sure that is a valued legacy.
Charles Herrold above left. On the right above is an old microphone that required cooling with water. The microphones became very hot after 30 minutes or so of use. That is the origination of "Is the microphone hot"
Th KQW studio above.
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