Time Life

Color television wasn't widespread until 1966, but some Swedes armed with nylon stockings tried to get it four years earlier. They fell victim to a hoax by Sweden's Sveriges Television, which trotted out a "technical expert" to explain on-air  in thoroughly technical terms  how a thinly stretched nylon screen in front of a television would bend light's wavelengths and produce a color image. The thousands who tried it learned quickly that there was no such trick  and were out a pair of stockings to boot.

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