Talk:Ronald Maddison

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This now has a book and two news articles as sources - time to remove the unsourced article tag? Rodgerd 20:42, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

I have a book (in german though) that mentions his case... have to find it, but the story was even lately mentioned in news due to the payment to his family after his death —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.108.103.172 (talk) 02:59, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Documentary called CIA Secret Experiments by National Geographic has information about this, would that be a reliable source? 1:50pm AEST 24 May 2009

Spouse or girlfriend?

Info box says spouse was Jane, but the text says that his girlfriend was Mary Pyle. Is this an error or do we need to explain why? The joy of all things (talk) 07:36, 12 February 2017 (UTC)

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Hyperbole?

"Maddison was offered 15 shillings and a three-day leave pass for taking part in the experiments. He had planned to use the money to purchase an engagement ring for his girlfriend, Mary Pyle." In 1954 15 shillings was 3/4 of a pound, which translated into 2024 USD is around twenty bucks (). Unless her engagement ring was going to be made from iron or tin, it is unlikely that he was going to "use the money to purchase" it; at best it would have been a minor contribution to money he was saving for the occasion. I suspect we are referring to a bit of color that was generated by reporters of the day. Unless adding the emotionally-gripping verbage does something to improve the value of this article, I suggest that it be dropped. It is at best unneccessary and at worst misleading. 2601:243:2581:B100:6175:19B6:7272:94B8 (talk) 17:52, 20 March 2024 (UTC)

A couple of points. Your maths is wrong. The source you use says £1 in 1954 is £34.31 today, so 15 bob would be £25.73, so about $30, not $20. Secondly, there are a several methods to compare values over time. The website Measuring Worth gives a range of values from £24.37 to £106.10 for 15 shillings from 1954, using inflators for Retail Price Inflation, Wage indexes, GDP per capita, and GDP. I rather suspect that for jewellery the Wage index (£58.12) or per capita GDP (£79.42) would be nearer the mark. And then we have the question of the price of an engagement ring in 1954. Specifically, the sort of ring a Leading Aircraftman might buy. I haven't been able to find pay scales for the time, but to give you a rough idea, a National Serviceman would have been on 28 shillings a week, before deductions. A few minutes searching and I found a 1954 advert for silver brooches priced from 8/6 (42.5 new pence). So I suspect one could buy a perfectly respectable ring for 15/, especially if one bought second-hand. DuncanHill (talk) 21:04, 20 March 2024 (UTC)

References