11th Jun 2017, 11:22 pm | #121 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Staffordshire Moorlands, UK.
Posts: 5,263
|
Re: Museum of failure.
the trigger-powered torch. Any longer than a few seconds squeezing that thing and your fingers drop off.
__________________
Kevin |
11th Jun 2017, 11:48 pm | #122 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Madrid, Spain / Wirral, UK
Posts: 7,484
|
Re: Museum of failure.
Another flop video format: Funai CVC. camera-portable video tape. Never even seen one in some 3 decades collecting old video equipment.
Probably paved the way for the later 8mm and VHS-C.
__________________
Regards, Ben. |
11th Jun 2017, 11:54 pm | #123 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Bewdley, Worcestershire, UK.
Posts: 4,735
|
Re: Museum of failure.
No-one's mentioned the Hunts Mouldseal yet. However, as these must have remained in production and sold well over several decades, they can't be described as a 'failure', more likely a success with a limited service life. I guess this category would also include the AF117 and its friends.
Would the Tefifon qualify as a failure?
__________________
Phil Optimist [n]: One who is not in possession of the full facts Last edited by Phil G4SPZ; 11th Jun 2017 at 11:57 pm. Reason: Afterthought |
12th Jun 2017, 8:03 am | #124 |
Rest in Peace
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: N.W. Oxfordshire(Chipping Norton)
Posts: 7,306
|
Re: Museum of failure.
No doubt a line could be drawn between actual Failures (e.g. Funai CVC) and things such as 'Mouldseals' & 'waxies', which were surely never intended, or expected , to las 40 or 50 years in use!
|
12th Jun 2017, 11:24 am | #125 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: W.Butterwick, near Doncaster UK.
Posts: 8,923
|
Re: Museum of failure.
If you mention Hunts Mouldseal then include Rifa caps.Having just repaired the church organ that went up in smoke!
The point being though that they ran happily for many many years and just like wax caps they do in the end fail. So,are they a "failure" or not??
__________________
G8JET BVWS Archivist and Member V.M.A.R.S |
12th Jun 2017, 1:20 pm | #126 |
Heptode
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Winchester, Hampshire, UK.
Posts: 636
|
Re: Museum of failure.
Has anyone mentioned Philips DCC (Digital Compact Cassette)? I went to a weekend 'sort of' technical launch for the product, possibly an IEE organised event.
Technically very good, but we knew even then at the launch it was never going to be a success. |
12th Jun 2017, 1:36 pm | #127 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK.
Posts: 5,316
|
Re: Museum of failure.
The Jupiter Ace computer, which used FORTH.
|
12th Jun 2017, 1:38 pm | #128 |
Guest
Posts: n/a
|
Re: Museum of failure.
Seiko Data Bank watch.
|
12th Jun 2017, 2:39 pm | #129 |
Nonode
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Leicester, UK
Posts: 2,505
|
Re: Museum of failure.
On the subject of torches I would add those induction charged ones that you shake to charge. They would just about light up a low intensity LED for a few seconds.
|
12th Jun 2017, 2:56 pm | #130 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,951
|
Re: Museum of failure.
Can I add the "Mondex" electronic-cash thing that was trialled in the early-1990s?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondex In a way it was a precursor of the current contactless credit/debit-cards, but it had the major disadvantage that you had to "pre-load" money onto it from your current-account in advance, and it didn't pay you any interest on the cash it carried (unlike a current-account) so you were minded to keep the lowest amount of money on your Mondex as possible - which rather limited its usefulness. Mondex didn't catch on - the world continued using credit-cards (and getting the free purchase-insurance and 56-days free credit...) though I gather a Mondex-like system is still used at some Universities/Colleges to pay for meals, photocopying/printing etc, as well as the Oyster-card used by TfL. |
12th Jun 2017, 3:20 pm | #131 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: North Wales, UK.
Posts: 6,884
|
Re: Museum of failure.
Hi
It's fascinating to read some old Television magazines - and similar - to see what the next new thing will be. Many of the ideas never made it beyond the prototype if they made it that far. Post # 126 makes a good point - if the 'ordinary' engineer realises that this new gizmo isn't going to be a success why on earth did it make it this far past all the well paid R&D team members? There has to be a distinction between things that worked very well (eg Betamax, DVD-HD, V2000) that failed due to good old market forces and those that were hopeless to start with (QL tape drives, the inevitable Sinclair C5). A customer has just given me an old boxed L-shaped gadget that is supposed to keep your items solid in the car boot. It couldn't ever have worked and doesn't! Glyn |
12th Jun 2017, 3:48 pm | #132 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Worksop, Nottinghamshire, UK.
Posts: 5,549
|
Re: Museum of failure.
I am pretty sure the engineers get told to carry on by the marketing men so that you end up with problems later.
CRT computer screens were dreadful if the marketing department wanted the power switch on the other side of the front panel. They used to give the board to the new drawing office boy and later on when assembly time came all the heat sinks fouled the tube so they just cut them down if they hit it or left them with the tops of the fins against the bowl of the tube. The frame chips were the worst. Some never lined up with the ribs in the cabinet floor so that when the ladies man leaned over the screen for a peep it pushed the frame chip through the board. |
12th Jun 2017, 4:56 pm | #133 |
Retired Dormant Member
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Shropshire, UK.
Posts: 3,051
|
Re: Museum of failure.
I'n not sure that the Sinclair C5 really counts.
Certainly, as a practical roadgoing vehicle it was a failure, but as a proof of concept (which was its original purpose) it demonstrated that the idea had potential. |
12th Jun 2017, 5:16 pm | #134 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Haarlem, Netherlands
Posts: 4,184
|
Re: Museum of failure.
Funai CVC led to Bosch Quartercam a.k.a. Philips Lineplex (also a failure, it used the same shitty mechanisms to name one cause).
DCC development led to improved tapestreamers and microfilters to filter out bacteriaea and spores from a.o. foodstuff and indirectly to the modern heads as used in harddisks. While Hunts capacitors cannot really be considered a failure as their quality was roughly in the same ballpark as the competition, any RIFA paper capacitors made after MKP capacitors became reliable in the late 1970's should be considered a failure as they could not keep up with the market, qualitywise. |
12th Jun 2017, 6:11 pm | #135 |
Heptode
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK.
Posts: 872
|
Re: Museum of failure.
I'd nominate:
The Fairy 'Rotadyne' (a jet rotor'd shuttle helicopter). The Princess Flying Boats (again jet powered - just let to rot out on the Solent). And .............. The Nigerian Aerostat National TV broadcast relay system ..... that one was a cracker - featuring metalised tethered balloon ground stations ..... that exploded with spectacular results after lightning strikes during the rainy season. (It never worked, was obsolete prior to completion {was never completed} and of course ...... cost hundreds of millions of dollars!)
__________________
Red to red, black to black. Throw the switch and stand well back! |
12th Jun 2017, 7:38 pm | #136 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Cornwall, UK.
Posts: 13,454
|
Re: Museum of failure.
|
12th Jun 2017, 8:11 pm | #137 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,951
|
Re: Museum of failure.
A few more:
934MHz UK-only-band CB radios "Magnetic Bubble" memory - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_memory "Wireless Application Protocol" [WAP] and the clunky cellphones that used it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirele...ation_Protocol |
12th Jun 2017, 8:47 pm | #138 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Penrith, Cumbria, UK.
Posts: 3,684
|
Re: Museum of failure.
Could 'Firewire' be considered a failure, or just one solution that was overtaken by the ubiquity of USB? My Gateway laptop (XP new-out vintage) had a 'Firewire' port but I didn't know anyone who used it.
__________________
Regds, Russell W. B. G4YLI. |
12th Jun 2017, 8:50 pm | #139 |
Heptode
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: Nottingham, UK.
Posts: 645
|
Re: Museum of failure.
My nomination would be the personal CD player. Remember those things that played one disc into headphones and got through a set of batteries almost in one disc? They didn't like being bumped, and where were you supposed to carry all your discs? Handbag/manbag perhaps..?
Nothing wrong with the audio CD format, but for personal use this was a non starter in my opinion. SJM. |
12th Jun 2017, 9:09 pm | #140 | |
Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Fife, Scotland, UK.
Posts: 22,799
|
Re: Museum of failure.
Quote:
Some failures are tiny, some are silly, those were monstrously huge. I don't think anyone's mentioned 'Stenode Reception' yet. Cold fusion is probably worth a small exhibit. David
__________________
Can't afford the volcanic island yet, but the plans for my monorail and the goons' uniforms are done |
|