Greetings all,  In MMD 990706, Phillipe Rouille asked, with reference
to calculating inflation:

> Could anyone send me such an index (or publish it on the MMD,
> because it may interest many of us), or at least give me an idea of
> what a 1900 US$ (and a 1920, and a 1940 ...) would be worth today ?

I have had some fun (and a few shocks!) using an on-line inflation
calculator at:  http://www.westegg.com/inflation/  You enter the amount
in US$, the beginning and ending years, and it does the rest.

A more useful tool would, I think, be a man-hour conversion table of
some sort.  How many hours did a carpenter need to work to buy a
specific item in 1910, 1950, etc.  I haven't found anything quite like
that so far, but the above URL can be useful nevertheless.

Dean Randall
pianolists@earthlink.net