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Two really strange questions
Topic Started: Jan 10 2012, 09:48 PM (624 Views)
rmcelwee
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1) In the early 70's I had a toy that was like a flashlight that shined through wax paper (probably black or clear) with designs and stuff on it. I think there would have been pictures of ghosts or stars or something. You shined pics of the ghosts on the wall (would have been magnified to huge images) and used a little gun or something attached to the flashlight to punch holes in the paper. This would shoot the ghosts or stars or whatever. What was the name of this toy?

2) When did liquor start being sold in metric measurements and not fifths, half gallons, etc?

Links to further info would be really nice!!!
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rmcelwee
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Hmmm, I think I already found the answer to one:

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I searched for 30 minutes earlier today for the answer to the liquor question but came up blank...


FWIW, here is an ad for the ghost gun for $5.99:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19770124&id=498hAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DqEFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5099,2517034

One just sold on ebay for $122.50. I should have bought a truck load of them!
Edited by rmcelwee, Jan 10 2012, 09:57 PM.
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Memphis metro


The ghost gun looks cool. I bet it would sell well today! I had a helicopter that was attached to a hand held controller when I was a kid.
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billy508
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billy508

Standards of fill ( Link http://inebrio.com/thescotchblog/?p=442 )
It all started in the mid to late 1970′s when there was a push for America to join the rest of the world and move to metric standards. Of course, Americans are too resistant to change and the metric implementation was apparently only taken seriously by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms who duly passed regulations to switch the bottle sizes of alcoholic beverages from ounces to milliliters (unfortunately they didn’t get rid of the concept of “proof” at the same time – but that is another story).
Prior to December 31, 1979, the standards bottle sizes were defined at:
1 gallon
1/2 gallon
1 quart
4/5 quart
1 pint
4/5 pint
1/2 pint
1/8 pint
1/10 pint
1/16 pint (brandy only)
After January 1, 1980 the standards were changed to:
1.75 liters
1.00 liter
750 milliliters
500 milliliters (Authorized for bottling until June 30, 1989)
375 milliliters
200 milliliters
100 milliliters
50 milliliters
So, why did the US go with 750 ml as opposed to 700 ml?
Hold on. I’m getting there – the answer is simple, but will be made even more simple as I demonstrate my mad skillz with Excel:
(Ed. NOTE. The graphic didn’t make the transition to WordPress. Will Recreate as soon as I can)

Prior to 1980 the most common bottle size for alcohol was the “4/5 quart” – commonly referred to as a “fifth” (as it equates to
one/ fifth of a gallon).
Looking out for the consumer was a priority for the regulators, so the decision to go with a 750 ml bottle was a simple one.
At 25.6 ounces the 4/5 bottle was very close in volume to 750 milliliters – which is
the equivalent of 25.36 ounces.
Had the BATF decided to go with a 700 ml bottling, Americans would have been short-changed by the previously mentioned 1.69070113 ounces. It was decided, in the interest of consumer protection, to stick with a bottle size that was as close as possible to the old 4/5th bottle.
Due to the small difference in capacity, most people are hard pressed to discern between a 700 ml and a 750 ml bottle without a peek at the label. Worried that some unscrupulous producers MIGHT have offered the 700 ml bottle at the same price as the 4/5 bottle, the BATF decided to standardize on the 750 ml bottle.Taking that decision further, the BATF decided to disallow the
importation of 700 ml bottles for the same reason – to eliminate potential fraud on consumers.
Math in the real world
Let’s use a real world example to see the true difference between the 700 and 750 ml bottles:
Interestingly, the 750 ml bottle is still commonly referred to as a ”fifth”, though as you can see, this is no longer accurate. The “fifth” was the preferred single serving size for most hard drinking metal bands of the 1980′s. So let’s use a mythical band we’ll call DC/AC.
The members of DC/AC would drink five (5) – 4/5th quarts to consume a full gallon of booze.
They would have to drink five (5) – 750 ml bottles AND an additional 1.2 ounces to consume that same full gallon of booze.
By comparison, using 700 ml bottles, the band would be forced to drink five (5) of the 700 ml bottles AND an additional 9.65 ounces to reach their gallon quota.
In conclusion
So, we get a bigger bottle here in the US – but the downside is that we miss out on all those good 700 ml bottlings.
Want to have a chance to have the 700 ml bottles imported? You’ll simply have to petition the TTB. Any one up for that? The average $60 bottle of Scotch (theoretically) would come down in price by $2.37 – BUT with more choices, we could see further price reductions…I’m game.
Bonus Answer
Edited by billy508, Jan 10 2012, 10:20 PM.
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