Old Tech

[Hindmost]

We all replace technology at a fast rate today. I came across an old walkman in a closet and then looked for any old electronic tech from the past. (since I have moved often, I tend to throw stuff out) I found my old transistor AM radio...from the 60s. It still works.

So, what old tech do you have around the house????

glenn


6000

[Gbob]

My basement is a museum of old electronics.

Atari 2600
Commadore 64
AM/FM only walkmen
Walkment with tapes
Betamax machine
Atari 800XL
Record player


My favorite, for nostalgia reasons, is an electric typerwriter I got for my 9th birthday. At the time, it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. It had a screen that allowed you to view and edit your page before you printed it out. I used it until inkjet printers became cheap enough in the nineties.

[NobbyNobbs]

Atari 2600
Commadore 64


I got that beat. I have a Commodore Vic20, and an old Pong set.

[Jeremy]

I've a Windows 95...

[bruto]

Old film cameras (I kind of collect them), including my weapon of choice: A Nikon F which is 100 percent mechanical and depends on a battery only for its match needle meter.

My trusty Hewlett Packard 11c calculator.

Turntable, tape deck, VCR. I still have and occasionally play a large collection of 78's.

A good old-fashioned TV antenna on the roof.

And a wood stove.

[Horatius]

I've got a wood lathe that was old when my Dad bought it about 40 years ago. We also have the chisels that my great-grandfather used to build log buildings in New Brunswick.

Nothing "electronic" about any of it :)

[andyandy]

love the rubber ducks...they'll never get old :D

[pvt1863]

A my parents' house, we still have an old Atari 2600. They also have the original Pong system. I should probably grab those on my next trip there so I can claim them before my little brother does.

My parents also have a bunch of our old walkmans. Seeing them reminds me of the days as a kid when I'd put in my MC Hammer tape and mow the lawn.

I had a record player at my apartment during my Junior and Senior years in college. The reason I had it was simply because it was built into the sound system I put on our entertainment center, but there was also the neatness factor of having a record player. We only had one record -- music from A Fistful of Dollars, A Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

My parents still have a record player in the dining room of their home. One of our family traditions is that we play Christmas carols on it while we eat Thanksgiving dinner. It's the only time I'm aware of that it is actually used.

As for more modern old tech, I still have my old Rio MP300 MP3 player that I bought in December of 1999. It was one of the first MP3 players available, and I got an amazing deal getting it for about $50 (it retailed for closer to $200, but I had a 50% off coupon and a $50 mail-in rebate). It had a whopping 32 MB of storage, but it was cutting edge. I was the only one in my dorm with one, and it was so cool. The concept of playing MP3s on a portable device blew my mind.

[TX50]

Old technology? A Palaeolithic flint scraper.

Old electronic technology? a "Boots 425 Scientific pocket calculator" circa 1979. It still works perfectly.

[bruto]

I've got a wood lathe that was old when my Dad bought it about 40 years ago. We also have the chisels that my great-grandfather used to build log buildings in New Brunswick.

Nothing "electronic" about any of it :)

I have a shop full of old Walker-turner tools, and the radial arm saw that my dad bought new in 1954, as well as a pretty nice collectionof antique hand tools, and a hand cranked, coal fired forge, but I didn't think to count them as "around the house." :D

If we're getting out the door, I could also find (somewhere under the snow) my 1954 Ford tractor.

I also have (in the house) the 1909 Bausch and Lomb microscope that my grandfather used in his career as a biochemist. He invented the process by which citric acid is manufactured. Really. He's the guy who figured out how to get it from molds instead of squeezing lemons. How cool is that?

[Horatius]

and a hand cranked, coal fired forge, but I didn't think to count them as "around the house." :D




I saw a guy at a local fair with something like that. He said it was developed during the US Civil War, so they could have a portable forge that could follow the armies around. It was pretty cool. Not big enough for wrought iron fences or swordmaking, but you could do horse-shoe or knife sized things in it.

[Pup]

I saw a guy at a local fair with something like that. He said it was developed during the US Civil War, so they could have a portable forge that could follow the armies around. It was pretty cool. Not big enough for wrought iron fences or swordmaking, but you could do horse-shoe or knife sized things in it.

Sigh. Those little hand-cranked metal blowers are the fashion with all the blacksmiths at olde-tymie reenactments and fairs because they're so cheap and convenient to haul from event to event, but it's amazing the ridiculous stories they make up to justify them.

Here's what a real portable forge from the Civil War was like: http://www.oldsouthblacksmiths.com/fw/fw.htm Bellows, not crank. And huge, and horsedrawn.

[rwguinn]

Old film cameras (I kind of collect them), including my weapon of choice: A Nikon F which is 100 percent mechanical and depends on a battery only for its match needle meter.

My trusty Hewlett Packard 11c calculator.

Turntable, tape deck, VCR. I still have and occasionally play a large collection of 78's.

A good old-fashioned TV antenna on the roof.

And a wood stove.
Gotcha beat:
Minolta SR-1. Doesn't even have a light meter.
Corona Manual typewriter
Kenwood Turntable (for thos "Big, Black CD's"
Fender Tube Amplifier (circa 1960)
ETA:
That doesn't include the muzzle loading rifles, candle lanterns, Spokeshave and other "primitive" stuff I use for my Fur-trade era Rendezvous hobby...

[bruto]

Sigh. Those little hand-cranked metal blowers are the fashion with all the blacksmiths at olde-tymie reenactments and fairs because they're so cheap and convenient to haul from event to event, but it's amazing the ridiculous stories they make up to justify them.

Here's what a real portable forge from the Civil War was like: http://www.oldsouthblacksmiths.com/fw/fw.htm Bellows, not crank. And huge, and horsedrawn.


The freestanding hand cranked forges were made in large quantity for farm shops. Nowadays you'd be hard put to see a farm workshop without a welding rig. A century or so ago, that shop would have had a forge.

[Hindmost]

Hmmm, didn't think about some of these...I have an old hp15c calculator hanging around. And a turntable--linear tracking. I really need to dig up my old aurora cars from the basement. I have had those for over 40 years.

glenn:)

andyandy: The pirate ducks always get me too.:D

[pvt1863]

I also had an old typewriter that I picked up in college because I thought it would be fun to tinker with. After it sat in my parents' basement for a few years, my father asked me if I was ever going to do anything with it. I told him I probably wouldn't, and that he and my mom could throw it out.

Before they did so, my mom decided to see if it was actually worth anything. She found a collection of typewriter enthusiasts online and sent them pictures. To her surprise, she found out that it was an Underwood from the 1900's (the decade), and that it was a very sought after model. They said it was going to rewrite the history books on that model based on the serial number.

The collectors started making offers, and I ended up selling it to a guy in Europe (Switzerland, if I remember correctly) for $450 and he took care of the shipping. He actually had to smuggle it in to keep it from being emminent domained into a museum. He said this one was going to be one of the centerpieces of his collection. Some of the American collectors who made offers grumbled that they like to see them stay in this country, but nuts to them.

And I was going to throw it away!

[Hindmost]

Well some digging came up with...

6017

6018

glenn:)

[Soapy Sam]

There are several flint arrowheads (c.1000BC) and two large Roman nails (83-86AD) on my bedroom wall. All are still totally functional.

[fishbob]

Slide rule
Minolta Hi-Matic 35mm camera - with boxes of color slides, and a broken slide projector
Boxes of vinyl LPs
Hand crank shop grinder
Marlin .32 rim-fire lever-action rifle (about 50 years since last bullets were made)

[Fnord]

Hickock RF signal generator (circa 1950's)
Pickett slide rule.
TI-99a computer
IBM-XT computer (DOS 6.22)
Commodore C-64 computer
A Farfisa Mini-Combo organ
A box full of Mattel's Major Matt Mason figures and equipment.
A tin-type O-gauge 3-rail electric train set (circa 1930's)
1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual
Adam's Apple

[Wowbagger]

I've a Windows 95...
I've got Windows 3.1. It's on a Virtual Machine, right now, but it is still fully functional!

I've also got a copy of Windows Me. For some reason, it's not.


I have a friend with a 3DO gaming system, that still works pretty well.

[Hokulele]

My beloved HP 11c calculator.
An A/B Printer switchbox (my first home computer "network").
My husband's 1960's Fender Princeton Reverb tube amp.
My 1969 Fender Stratocaster (with original pickups, case, and whammy bar).
A 1950's BMW R50 motorcycle.
A whole bunch of old/antique wood shop tools in my husband's shop.
A telephone just like the picture in the OP (but white, not brown).
A bunch of 5 1/4" floppy disks (no idea why I am saving those).

[Ravenwood]

I've got an Astrolabe, Quadrant, Cross staff & Nocturnal on my wall, next to my other re-enactment stuff... :)

[Hokulele]

I've also got a copy of Windows Me. For some reason, it's not.



Do you remember when Windows issued CE for hand-held devices, ME for home computers, and NT for workstations? When you tried to put them all together, the result was Windows CEMENT.

(Sorry, bad IT joke. I'll stop now.)

[joobz]

Well some digging came up with...

6017

6018

glenn:)
I have an old Odessey and a TI/99-4a with tape drive.

BTW, with all those duckies, are you a zefrank fan?

[Cactus Wren]

I keep my journal with a dip pen.

[osmosis]

For that olde-tyme feel, I've got the mame32 emulator with way-too-many-to-count ROMs of the old classic arcade games like Pac-Man and Space Invaders.

[Hindmost]

I have an old Odessey and a TI/99-4a with tape drive.

BTW, with all those duckies, are you a zefrank fan?

Had to look up zefrank as it was new to me. The pirate ducks came from a town on Long Island. The town people seem to fancy themselves as pirates...as do some on the forum, so I guess they followed me home.

Wish I still had my old SR-50. Got me through the first two years of college. I had a subsequent TI with a tape drive, but I forgot the number.

glenn

[Zep]

Got a museum full of stuff like this:

http://www.acms.org.au/museum/dec/pdp-8/photos/pdp8-02.jpg

A magnetic drum from the late 40's or early 50's

http://www.acms.org.au/history/SNOCOM/i0000108.jpg

[Soapy Sam]

I've got one like that in my washing machine!

[ponderingturtle]

Sigh. Those little hand-cranked metal blowers are the fashion with all the blacksmiths at olde-tymie reenactments and fairs because they're so cheap and convenient to haul from event to event, but it's amazing the ridiculous stories they make up to justify them.

Here's what a real portable forge from the Civil War was like: http://www.oldsouthblacksmiths.com/fw/fw.htm Bellows, not crank. And huge, and horsedrawn.


Also hand crank bellows are no longer manufactured. Only electric now.

[ellindsey]

My wife has an Amiga 2000 and Amiga 4000 with Video Toaster, Commodore Monitor, and a rack full of old analog video editing gear. It all still works, though it's all quite obsolete. She refuses to get rid of any of it despite not having used any of the gear in years.

[ktesibios]

Nothing interesting at home, but where I work is loaded with old tech- stuff like:

Neumann microphones: U47 (introduced 1949, ours is from before the 1956 redesign), M49 (introduced 1952), KM54 (introduced 1954)

AKG C-12 (produced 1953-1963)

RCA 77DX (produced ca. 1944-1974)

Ampex ATR-102 analog tape machines (produced 1976-ca.1980 and still one of the best mixdown machines around).

Teletronix LA-2A, Gates Sta-Level, RCA BA-6B, Fairchild 670 (these are all tube compressor/limiters from the mid-'50s to early '60s).

We even have a limiter which was manufactured by Wilcox-Gay for the Civil Aeronautics Administration which I fixed up for studio use. Judging from the components and construction techniques it was probably built in the late '40s to early '50s. Since the CAA was replaced by the FAA in 1958, it can't be any newer than that.

The prices some of this gear command today are surprising. The Neumann U47 retailed for $360 US in 1960 (equivalent to about $2500 today); nowadays they can fetch 10 grand on the vintage equipment market. A C-12 in good condition can bring $12,000, and that Fairchild 670 is worth $25,000-$30,000.

[blutoski]

The quaintest things I have are:

Old:
1. Grandpa's slide-rule from the 1920s.
2. Grandpa's Zeiss Ikon camera (with bellows extender) from the 1920s.
3. Great-great-grandpa K's pocketwatch, from the 1890s.

Not-so-old:
4. One of those rotary-dial phones from the 1950s. Quaint.
5. My first Motorola cellphone, from around 1990. Quite the brick.

[blutoski]

Oh! And I have a cassingle of "I Don't Remember" (B:side is "Solsbury Hill"). There's your time machine.

[blutoski]

Oh, and the oldest artefact I own is a Roman coin my G-g-grandfather dug up in his yard as a child in the 19th century. Approximately 1800 years old. I'm not sure if coins count as 'tech,' though.

[autumn1971]

I have an Atari 2600 and about 50 games sitting in my closet. The great thing is that only two or three years ago I had the thing set up and working, and my stepson, seven or eight at the time, loved it. He would beg to play its crappy version of Frogger or Space Invaders.
On a related note, in the mid-nineties, while I was in college, my roommate and I set up our apartment living room with televisions in opposite corners. In his corner were all of the Nintendo systems avaliable to that time, from the original NES to the "Super-Nofriendo". In my corner was the little 2600, getting played ten times as much.
I maxed out Megamania.

[Foolmewunz]

Had to look up zefrank as it was new to me. The pirate ducks came from a town on Long Island. The town people seem to fancy themselves as pirates...as do some on the forum, so I guess they followed me home.

Wish I still had my old SR-50. Got me through the first two years of college. I had a subsequent TI with a tape drive, but I forgot the number.

glenn

Slight Derail... I just came from four days in Shenzhen, and the hotel actually gives you a yellow rubber duckie in the tub! How cool. No explanation... just a little friend to swim with you!

See below link for more on unsinkable rubber duckies.... They can follow you anywhere! I thought this was only famous in my business (I'm in logistics but specialize in ocean freight), and have been surprised over the years to see stories around the world on the famous traveling flotsam....


http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/elements/shoes.htm

[EvilBiker]

I did some digging as well and came up with my old ZX Spectrum, complete with tape recorder storage device and Lone Wolf game :jaw-dropp . Fired it up and got all nostalgic about BASIC again. Not.

Hello World!