Word: pushbutton
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...American Way of Life is fast becoming one big sssssssssss. The ubiquitous hiss comes from the vast, ever-expanding array of aerosol cans that has brought the pushbutton age to everyday living. There are already more than 300 products available in aerosol cans, and their uses range from the routine to the recondite; they perfume rooms, freshen mattresses, renew golf balls, stiffen petticoats, bandage wounds, de-ice windshields, inflate flat tires, wax furniture, varnish oil paintings, scare off snakes and ward off pregnancies...
...cope with the staggering information explosion in both business and government, a whole new electronic technology is fast developing that can store, catalogue and recall facts and figures in a pushbutton flash. Among the more sophisticated "information-retrieval" systems, Stromberg-Carlson has produced its 4020, Eastman Kodak its Recordak Miracode, RCA its 3488 and IBM its Walnut, which is used by the Central Intelligence Agency. Last week California's Ampex Corp. introduced the latest retrieval machine, a completely automated microfiling system that allows the searcher to edit his material as he selects...
...spurred all sorts of safety devices-not only elaborate fences required by local laws, but also resuscitation kits, "pool-sitter" lifeguards ($1.25 an hour), and electronic monitors that ring bells when trespassers plunge or fall in. Since a pool cover is probably the best idea, builders now offer a pushbutton elevator that rises out of the pool bottom until it decks over the pool as a play slab for parties. Unhappily, the gadget costs at least $1,500. Happily. $150 or so buys a polyethylene mesh cover that supports...
...just about any eventuality: late this year it will finish a $200 million underground cable across the U.S. that will be able to carry important calls even if all above-ground wires are destroyed in a nuclear attack. It is also developing a wide array of new equipment, including pushbutton phones, which have just gone into use in 35 cities, and a new electronic switching system so swift that it will be able to handle 1,000,000 telephone calls between two ticks of the clock...
...even greater field for expansion lies in the area of business phones, which already account for fully half of A.T.&T.'s revenues. The company's new pushbutton Touch-Tone, which reduces the average "dialing" time from nine to four seconds, will make every business phone a candidate for replacement. Cost: $5 for installation, plus $1.50 to $1.90 extra a month. Another innovation that A.T.&T. recently introduced is the Card Dialer, which enables a user to reach frequently dialed numbers by slipping a punched-hole plastic card into the base of the phone. It cuts dialing time...