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Old 2nd Apr 2015, 5:27 pm   #161
Miguel Lopez
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

Not sure if this was already presented.

The Mechanical Alarm Clock

http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/mecha...ock-793189.jpg

PS. Althought vintage and obsolete, there are a lot of them still working in Cuba.
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Old 2nd Apr 2015, 5:29 pm   #162
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

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Originally Posted by Junk Box Nick View Post
They still come without batteries!
Strewth! Even at that price I am sorely tempted by the return to childhood. I don't think that SWMBO would be impressed, but there again, you never know.....
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Old 2nd Apr 2015, 6:15 pm   #163
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

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Originally Posted by Herald1360 View Post
Browsing the back in time for dinner thread reminded me of the Hipolito (Primus type) stove I was using in the '80s- obsolete even then but great fun. A 7lb biscuit tin was essential starting equipment when it was windy.
I know this is an old post on this thread, but I have such a great tip for primus users on windy days (who I feel sure are looking at this thread) that I want to share it.

Use a tin of foodstuff, but make it a small one - tinned carrots or peas sometimes come in this size. The length of the tin wants to be from the top of your primus fuel tank, to a little shy of the top of the burner.

Cut top *and bottom* out of it.

Punch a row of large holes around one end of the cylinder.

Light meths in circular tray as usual, then drop whole thing over the burner with your punched holes at the bottom - these let the air in to keep the thing alight. The burner will heat up quickly even in a high wind, and you leave it in place when you pump, and cook. You'll get a couple of years out of it before you need another tin of veg
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Old 2nd Apr 2015, 6:20 pm   #164
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

I have that very traction engine from the late 1960s. I had it for Christmas. Of course I don't know the price but let's say it cost £9.19s.6d, and according to this:
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/educa...h/default.aspx
the current price is about the same when you factor in inflation.

Now, £9.19s.6d: that would baffle a few youngsters, and plenty not so young...
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Old 2nd Apr 2015, 7:03 pm   #165
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

In a business/commercial context I'd suggest the following as being beyond the comprehension of anyone under-40::

Pitman shorthand-competent secretaries. At one time it seemed even humble clerks in many corporate environments were eligible for an [invariably female] secretary/typist.

Audio-typists, and the electrical/electronic infrastructure to support them [I'm avoiding using the trade-name Dictaphone™ here because numerous other systems were available].

Typing-pools. And it taking you several days to get a correction made to a typed document.

Drawing-boards and Drawing-offices. I'm old enough to have done an O-Level in "Technical Drawing" at secondary-school and can still crack out a third-angle projection if the occasion demands.

In-store cash-transit systems - either wire- or pneumatic-based. For example http://www.brassregisters.com/lam/lam.htm

or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsDq14yRtW0


"Lamson Paragon" were, from memory, the big player in the UK.

These avoided staff on the shop-floors having to reconcile payments - instead they put the customer's money and the bill into a capsule, then either pulled the handle [cable version] or released the air-pressure [pneumatic version] and it was sent to a central cashier's office. A variable-time later the capsule was returned with the customer's change and a stamped/authorised receipt.

I remember being fascinated by a wire-version of this in "McClures" department store in Shrewsbury in the 1960s.
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Old 2nd Apr 2015, 7:56 pm   #166
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

My father was on the design staff of Lamsons, had some Patents in his name (jointly with the company) and so I saw many of their machines, new and old, when I was young.

As I am sure many here will recall, food didnt come ready-prepared.
My Christmas job for several years was plucking turkey, goose and chickens for the customers.
And skinning rabbits.

The remnents of feathers were burned off using a gas lighter "pistol", something that used to be on the side of most gas cookers but has now vanished.
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Old 2nd Apr 2015, 8:05 pm   #167
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

Using a mechanical calculating engine.

Winding your own coils.

Grinding a quartz crystal to a higher frequency.

Reading a micrometer

Editing and splicing tape.

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Old 2nd Apr 2015, 8:19 pm   #168
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

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Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post
In-store cash-transit systems - either wire- or pneumatic-based.
Haven't I seen systems like these pneumatic devices recently in Sainsbury's supermarkets?

I recall in my earlier years in Birmingham seeing the cable-type in our local grocery and the pneumatic-type in a department store the city centre. This latter always fascinated me as I couldn't work out how the cartridge "knew" where to go. The conduits weren't obvious as they were hidden away and my younger self imagined there must either be hundreds of individual tubes going to and fro, or some kind of automatic valve system working like a signalling-system on the railway.
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Old 2nd Apr 2015, 8:26 pm   #169
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

An acquaintance who follows-me-but-doesn't-post here says that pneumatic-post payment infrastructure is also used at the checkouts at ASDA supermarkets, and cites the 'Westlea' Swindon branch as an example.
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Old 2nd Apr 2015, 8:40 pm   #170
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

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And skinning rabbits.
Guess what I was doing earlier this evening? I grew up learning how to set and check snares, and how to 'tickle' trout in the local bournes.

My late uncle was also a dab-hand at sniggling/broggling [ country skills associated with eel-catching and sometimes using a sort-of fork/trident with barbs on the tines which when thrust into the River Teme under cover of darkness would bring out plenty of fresh, wiggly Eels! ]

I still have his "sniggling-stick" in my attic.
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Old 2nd Apr 2015, 8:45 pm   #171
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

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Originally Posted by Miguel Lopez View Post
The Mechanical Alarm Clock
You're unlikely to see any alarm clocks around in younger peoples' bedrooms. Their beloved phones have made those yet another archaic curio, of course!
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Old 2nd Apr 2015, 9:11 pm   #172
Phil G4SPZ
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

Aladdin lamps using paraffin fuel, a circular wick and a mantle.

Selecting a particular track from an LP.

Lighters fuelled by petrol and ignited by a flint.

Valve rubbers.

Wet-process photocopiers using intermediate sheets, one per page.

Wallpaper that you had to trim along one edge, and stick to the wall with home-mixed flour and water paste.

Spring-driven wind-up radios.

Weighing scales using weights that slide along a balance beam.

And have we had this one yet? Analogue radios that have to be tuned-in manually... although technically this technology isn't obsolete (yet) but most people under 30 haven't had to learn how to do it.
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Old 2nd Apr 2015, 9:16 pm   #173
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

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Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post
An acquaintance who follows-me-but-doesn't-post here says that pneumatic-post payment infrastructure is also used at the checkouts at ASDA supermarkets, and cites the 'Westlea' Swindon branch as an example.
My local Tesco has one, and a few years ago they dug up the car park to extend the system out to the petrol station.

Safer and more secure than doing cash uplifts from the tills on the shop floor.
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Old 2nd Apr 2015, 9:22 pm   #174
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

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Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post
In a business/commercial context I'd suggest the following as being beyond the comprehension of anyone under-40::
Audio-typists, and the electrical/electronic infrastructure to support them
Audio typists are still used in many commercial offices especially law, although it's now likely to be PC-based dictation and the transcribers are sometimes in India.

I remember when working in an estate agent's office going to the local photo mini-lab and getting the photos printed for the schedules then sticking them on with double-sided tape.

Only one photo per schedule unless the property was really expensive.

And two large photos for the window display boards inside and outside.

And getting print-from-print when I lost the negative.
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Old 2nd Apr 2015, 9:25 pm   #175
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

I can vaguely remember a shop in Newcastle that had an overhead cable cash transfer system. It must have really caught my interest as it is one of the few things that sticks in my mind from - I guess - about the age of four or five.

I also remember a later time in a big department store where the pneumatic capsule system was used.
Strangely enough in our local Tesco store it looks like there is a modern version of this contained within the pillars near the checkout tills but I have never seen it used.
The building isn't that old but it was used by another retailer before Tesco, so maybe they installed it. Next time I'm in I'll have to see if I can work out exactly what it is.

Also...who remembers making a flying scale model balsa wood plane by pinning the wood to the plans on a board, ribs, bulkheads, stringers, leading and trailing edges, tissue paper and dope, connecting an AD34 1.5V radio battery to the glow plug on an engine, trying not to cut your fingers off when the prop started or kicked back, the smell of Nitro 15 glow fuel which became ingrained in your hands, chasing a free flight model across fields wondering when the fuel would run out and hoping your precious model would land safely?

Or building and flying a kite, tying every last piece of nylon line on you could find to make it go even higher, and slipping a disc of paper onto the line to hear it make that noise as it whizzed up?

Last edited by Mike Phelan; 3rd Apr 2015 at 9:55 am. Reason: Breathless.
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Old 2nd Apr 2015, 10:02 pm   #176
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

The overhead wire cash transporters seem to go by various names, but there is a UK web site, "The Cash Railway Website" dedicated to both wire and pneumatic systems here:

http://www.buxton.talktalk.net/cash/index.htm

It lists the businesses that used to have them, broken down by county for England, as well as some in other countries. A quick looks indicates that you can only find the wire type in museums these days, but I didn't go though the entries for all counties.

When I got my first house someone did give me an old paraffin blowlamp, but it was deadly: while I managed to get it going OK, and it certainly produced a powerful flame, after a few minutes it would send out a jet of burning paraffin instead of a nice blue flame.
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Old 2nd Apr 2015, 10:42 pm   #177
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

Lamson Tube systems were very popular in some large civil defence bunkers, presumably for distributing messages.

A lot of businesses and institutions still use pnuematic tube systems.
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Old 2nd Apr 2015, 11:14 pm   #178
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

Domestic plumbing these days seems to consist almost entirely of push-fit plastic fittings.
Before long, many will be unaware of compression fittings, not to mention the Yorkshire variety.
I doubt that one in ten 'plumbers' can now make a decent wiped lead joint (not that there's much call for them, I suppose).
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Old 3rd Apr 2015, 12:28 am   #179
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

Several more posts deleted, please re-read post 11.
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Old 3rd Apr 2015, 12:32 am   #180
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

Lighting a coal fire and if it's a solid fuel boiler keeping it going throughout the winter without it going out, removing of a stretched cassette tape from cassette recorder or even worse a car stereo then using a pen to rewind the tape back into the cassette, wiring a 3 pin 13A plug, trying to find a weak and fading Radio 1 or Radio Luxembourg on a very crowded medium waveband on a radio using pointer and dial tuning.
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