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-   -   Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc. (https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showthread.php?t=96824)

Brigham 28th Feb 2019 3:59 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Amazing how quickly people have forgotten how to put a record on!

Steve G4WCS 28th Feb 2019 4:17 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
not vintage, but in the specsavers hearing ads advert at the arctic base where he asked on the radio for supplies and got a "surprise", Im a bit perplexed as too whey there is a farnell signal generatot sat atop his short wave transceiver

PaulR 28th Feb 2019 4:29 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
I would have thought that to anyone with the slightest bit of mechanical insight the correct position of a gramophone arm would be obvious. As Andrew says it has become very common recently. As the use of technology increases the understanding of what is actually going on seems to decrease.

Fortunately my 1 year old granddaughter has become very attached to my recently restored Decca AMG111 record player and the pile of 78 rpm children's records we play on it. At least she may carry on the tradition!

Herald1360 28th Feb 2019 10:53 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Technically I suppose that positioned as per Endeavour with the arm on the wrong side but the needle still trailing it would play. The tracking angles would still be miles out, though.

Graham G3ZVT 1st Mar 2019 1:00 am

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
2 Attachment(s)
(I posted about this elsewhere in the forum, apologies for the repetition)

The Manchester Metrolink used this record player analogy on a poster to promote its new ticketing scheme.

Attachment 179213

The corresponding image on their website seems to have been corrected.

Attachment 179214

electronicskip 2nd Mar 2019 12:49 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Not exactly vintage but on Doctors, the lunchtime soap, I noticed that the police were wearing Baofeng 2mtr handhelds as their police radios!

Funny I've never heard any police on my identical model ha ha.

SteveCG 2nd Mar 2019 1:24 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
On the latest episode of Endeavour. This was loosely set in about 1969/1970 I guess by the previous episodes. In which case the skyline of the village without a single Band I/III aerial in sight as well as UHF designs that somehow looked too modern for that era, had me smiling...

Radio Wrangler 3rd Mar 2019 12:58 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
I was just thinking of how much hassle it would be to change all the TV aerials in a village as a temporary measure for a few days of filming. Then I thought about what they'd think were suitable aerials considering their grasp of all other technologies.

David

julie_m 3rd Mar 2019 1:21 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Surely changing the aerials on roofs is something you could do in post-production? It isn't as though you would have to draw every frame individually by hand these days .....

emeritus 3rd Mar 2019 1:34 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
I remember noticing all the TV aerials on the roofs of a Georgian terrace in a 1960's film set in the Victorian era. I think it was "The Wrong Box" featuring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, but not absolutely sure, it was circa 1968.

Herald1360 3rd Mar 2019 1:41 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
I've just watched that (found it in a caravan I bought) and didn't notice anything. I'll have to have another look!

Mike-repairman 3rd Mar 2019 1:51 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Nickthedentist (Post 1124562)
Yes, spotted that! It also looked suspiciously like an LP!

Yes you can see the separate tracks if you look closely.

Well that's put paid to that LP with that nice steel needle!

Electronpusher0 3rd Mar 2019 10:47 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
I've just watched the Netflix film "The boy who harnessed the wind", a great piece of drama "based on a true story" about a boy in Malawi who built a windmill generator from scrap and used it to pump water so his village could have a harvest in the dry season. Indeed at the end they showed actual footage of the boy in question.

Unfortunately they compressed the actual steps he took in developing this and showed him charging a 12V car battery using a 6V bicycle dynamo and then using it to power a pump at the top of the well to suck up the water, without priming it first.

I have just ordered the autobiography to find out what really happened.

Peter

Grubhead 1st Apr 2019 6:52 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Last night's Victoria on ITV had a steam loco with the British Railways emblem on the tender. And I thought the railways were nationalised in 1948!

PaulR 1st Apr 2019 10:18 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
I have just seen a recording of Victoria and commented to my wife that the loco was in BR livery and was not at all Victorian only to be accused of being a nerd and told just to enjoy the programme!!!

dave walsh 2nd Apr 2019 12:30 am

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
It's artistic lie sense chaps. Unfortunately we can see what 99% of the population are blissfully unaware of and would prefer to ignore. The best example was the Beatles ad for the [recovered] single "All Those Years Ago" which had a "wrong date" radio" but looked absolutely right! I can't explain why or the difference:shrug: That's why we are not Androids [I think???] My daughter has a very accomplished friend who looked just the same as her at nine years of age and they were often assumed to be sisters. The friend was a mathematical prodigy but worked in Care Homes [aged 15] and has now qualified as a Doctor [that's not very common]. My artistic daughter only felt inadequate once by comparison but I pointed out that when we took her friend to see Great Expectations at the local theatre, not only was she unable to suspend disbelief [somewhat essential during a play] she couldn't deal with a "Young" Pip stage left and an "Older" Pip stage right, at the same time... all of which my daughter took in her stride. Really obvious blunders in a specific Documentary might be another matter I agree. Some of the new information "buried" in Ch5's new Eygptian series on Sunday nights [for example] is very interesting but the presentation there is awkward and awful.

Dave W

Mike-repairman 2nd Apr 2019 8:26 am

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by PaulR (Post 1133542)
I have just seen a recording of Victoria and commented to my wife that the loco was in BR livery and was not at all Victorian only to be accused of being a nerd and told just to enjoy the programme!!!

I get called that too; usually keep it to myself now. ;)

ColinTheAmpMan1 23rd Apr 2019 9:27 am

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
I saw the film "Red Joan" yesterday. It relates to a woman who gave British secrets on the making of the atomic bomb to the Russians, but was eventually found out when she was in her eighties.

There were a couple of scenes that struck me as being a little inaccurate. One was set in a physics lab at Cambridge University, where the woman in question was studying. She was using an enormous soldering iron to do some work on a Wheatstone bridge and was wearing welding goggles for some reason.

In another scene, she walks into an office where an important chap (subsequently to become her husband, I think) is sitting at a desk with a blackboard behind him. On the blackboard is a feasible-looking diagram of a triode valve circuit. What surprised me was that a cathode bypass capacitor was labelled in nF. This was before WW2 started and I recall capacitors only being labelled with pF or uF up to the sixties and possibly later.

Colin.

mole42uk 23rd Apr 2019 11:59 am

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Strangely, I noticed both those! Did you also see that the Solon iron had a badly frayed mains cable?

ColinTheAmpMan1 23rd Apr 2019 12:16 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
No, I didn't. But I couldn't help feeling that it would have been odd for an undergraduate to be doing any repairs on a Wheatstone bridge - what are technicians for? And what repairs might necessitate a huge soldering-iron (with a frayed cable)?

I'm pretty sure that those with more acute vision (and the ability to stop-frame) will be able to identify some of the chunks of electrical gear piled up at Cambridge and Montreal Universities and other establishments that "Joan Smith" (the secrets-distributor) worked at.

It was interesting that she suggested centrifuging gaseous compounds of uranium to separate the isotopes. I also noticed some mention of heavy water from one of the boffins in Canada. Wasn't that Heisenberg's abortive route to an atom bomb?

I did look out for incongruous and anachronistic TV antennae and the like, with no success. Surprisingly, there were no oscilloscopes in evidence, though they are usually "go-to" props for any science laboratory.

Colin.


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