Your oldest working on topic gadgets

[BRASSBITS]

I have a tele 150 candlestick telephone
dated 1924

[duncanlowe]

Sharp EL-8146 calculator. Have been meaning to mention for some time, as it's most amazing feature is that it's never had new batteries, it still has the ones it was shipped with, date coded 79/01 And the battery indicator on the LCD says they are still OK!

[barrymagrec]

Originally Posted by John M0GLN

Other than old radios the only thing we have is a 1972 Kenwood Chef which my wife's using at the moment for bread making.

John

Ditto on the Kenwood Chef - inherited from my Mother.

[Ekcoman]

HMV wind up Gramophone bought in a Stoke Newington Junk Shop back in 1971. Guess dates 1940's or earlier.

[electronicskip]

Mine's a 1939 KB 830 Superhet Receiver.

[HamishBoxer]

1931 KB radiogram,possibly as used on Queen Mary and only known one left as far as I am aware.

[PaulR]

Of items not expected to last so long we have a Creda Cavalier cooker that has been in constant daily use since early 1980. The Hoover is a Senior from the early 1960s. Also in very regular use.

I won't count the hi-fi, clocks and radios also in very regular use.

The joy of these old things is that they were over engineered and made to be repaired so that with a little care they can last indefinitely.

Edit - I forgot the 150, 200 and 300 series phones which have to be gathered up and hidden if an engineer calls.

[emeritus]

Just remembered this (one of two, but not a matching pair). They were my late father's and must be 1930's at least. I still use it in preference to a test meter for quick checks of batteries. The brightness gives a pretty good idea of the state of a cell. The bulb is not original!

The tantalum lamp might gave been worth repairing due to having platinum lead-in wires. One of my text books from the 1920's says that tantalum lamps were introduced in 1905. I believe that, a year or so later, GEC obtained the UK rights to make tungsten lamps and licenced third parties rather maintainjng exclusivity, so might not have bothered with tantalum. The GEC catalogue for 1911 only lists carbon and tungsten fiiament lamps.

[Junk Box Nick]

An interesting thread to which to contribute my 1,000th post and becoming an Octode.

I have two Commodore pocket calculators dating from 1976 both still working:

The SR7919D 'Scientific Notation Calculator' has a full suite of scientific functions - I could finally throw my Frank Castle log tables away (I didn't, I still have them) - in a stylish 1970s brown and beige case with a tiny 'nixie' tube style display. I remember that I got it at a college fair early in 1976 and it cost about £13. I had worked in a factory the previous summer - the cost of the calculator was 2/3 my gross weekly wage!

The second is a 796M. The instruction booklet calls it a 'Personal Mini Computer' though it is a very basic calculator with memory and % functions and in the same style case though all in black. Both run on PP3 batteries.

I got the 796M for my mother. She made leather-style vinyl pouches to protect both calculators in which they both still live with their instruction booklets. The major hassle was forgetting to switch them off and the running the battery flat and on my mother's pouch there remains her hand-written reminder: 'DO NOT FORGET TO SWITCH OFF'. She probably found out the hard way! Power supplies were available for both that connected via a 3.5mm jack socket.

Other non-radio/audio/etc., items:

A Hoover Dustette which I occasionally find useful inside the car rather than dragging the Dyson vacuum cleaner out. This was my parents' and seems to date from the late 1940s. I can remember it being stored in its original box but, sadly, that has long gone.

An electric clock by the Franco British Electrical Co Ltd, London, using a Smiths mechanism. I don't know when this dates from - it could be pre-war by the design. Perhaps it was a wedding present or perhaps it came from down from my grandparents. There are a lot of patent numbers on the back which probably could be used to date it. I can remember that it lived on the mantleshelf above the fireplace in the front room of the house I was brought up in and had special plug and socket to connect it to the mains - probably a spur off a two pin socket. (The only 13A socket in the entire house was in the kitchen.) The 'electric clock' was the clock that was always the ultimate reference for accuracy when a bus or train had to be caught. Of course these were the days before wildly fluctuating frequencies! It currently sits on my mantleshelf. I wasn't always keen on its ornate foliage surround design but it is nicely retro now.

A Belling two bar electric fire with a coal effect glow still gets occasional use. I bought it from a small ad to warm my room when I was in a shared house in 1976 and it was a typical junk shop item then.

Other items in daily use here are the Hotpoint oven, cooker hood and a Panasonic microwave oven all dating from 1987.

When stuff leaves here it is well and truly at the end of its life!

[G6Tanuki]

I've still got - somewhere (probably in the sub-attic) a "Baby Burco" water-boiler (the type with a blue lower part to the casing, and a screw-down drain valve on the front with a similarly-blue knob) which my mother had for boiling my nappies before putting them in the 'proper' washer. It must be at least 61 years old.

It last saw use by me to boil-up bits of a Rolls-Royce B80 military engine.

[duncanlowe]

Originally Posted by Junk Box Nick

I have two Commodore pocket calculators dating from 1976 both still working:

Reminds me. I still have my Commodore P50 programmable from School. Commodore did some kind of offer for schools and we could buy them cheap. I even remember (bearing in mind this was late seventies / early eighties) the dissapointment when it didn't work when I got it home. The battery (PP3) contact was a bit loose and it took so much juice (LED 7 segment) that the volt drop was too high. Squeezed it up a bit and all fine, still working today. Took it to work a few months ago and the 'children' were amazed (I mean young Engineers).

[Philco-Pete]

Originally Posted by Junk Box Nick

The SR7919D 'Scientific Notation Calculator' has a full suite of scientific functions - I could finally throw my Frank Castle log tables away (I didn't, I still have them) - in a stylish 1970s brown and beige case with a tiny 'nixie' tube style display. I remember that I got it at a college fair early in 1976 and it cost about £13.

I still have my Commodore 7919D on the desk at work and make a point of using it regularly.
Mine is the black cased version - I remember getting it for my 15th birthday in December 1974 which I believe was quite early in its availability.
I think it was priced at £14.95 and though it originally replaced log tables and a British Thornton Slide rule for O levels it continued its usefulness way beyond that.
Does chew through batteries though

Pete

[jamesperrett]

My oldest gadget is probably a large floor standing wind up gramophone that was probably made in the 1930's which, as far as I know, belonged to my grandparents. The next oldest is a Hoover Constellation which looks like one of the first ever made with some of the tools made from wood (although I replaced the hose when I got it) which also came from my grandparents.

I think I still have my first Commodore calculator from around 1976 somewhere (which sounds a bit like the one Pete had - even down to the price) but I definitely have a Casio scientific calculator from the early 80's which has never had its battery replaced.

[JohnBHanson]

A dixons Prinzsound led clock radio bought about 1977 or maybe a bit before for university from dixons in Exeter. Shop no longer there, but the clock radio still wakes me up in the mornings.

Clock was modified before I went to Uni to have a output socket that could connect to a relay when the timer ran and used to control a cassette recorder via a relay. Thus I could make timer recordings...

[Paul_RK]

Longevity does seem pretty common in calculators, this Casio fX-1 is still giving service when required and closing in on its 50th year. I've only had it for about 30 years, I couldn't have afforded it new when I was 12 or 13: and in any case there are situations where greater portability helps.

Paul

[Jim - G4MEZ]

I have a PW Winton amp in daily use, often on from 4AM until 8PM and not infrequently left switched on day and night!

It was a Practical Wireless project featured in the March to May 1979 editions... Mine was built from a kit. I didn't build it but acquired it in payment for repairing a Leak Stereo 30!

The amp is still a very good and reliable performer and has only needed new main smoothing electrolytics and a new volume pot in my ownership...

I've often wondered how may Wintons were built and how many remain in use today? The kit was not cheap, costing, I believe, around £110 in 1979...

The tuner is the old Leak Stereofetic cunningly disguised as the Delta with an AM section tacked on...

[MotorBikeLes]

Am I allowed a home build? And not mine.
Anyway, when I started work back in '57, I struggled to wake up in the morning, and was often late for work. I could sleep through ANY normal alarum clock, so I built my own. A Westclox had two holes drilled in the base, and was screwed to a wooden board. I soldered a length of brazing rod onto the alarum winding handle and arranged that when it sounded, it unwound until it made contact with the centre prong of a twin cell cycle front light battery. A wire soldered to the top prong was soldered to a bell, also screwed to the wooden board, and a wire from the other terminal was soldered to a scratched off area of the clock's base. That woke the neighbour before me sometimes.
A few years later, my brother in law changed his job to one where he worked shifts, and needed to wake early and decided he needed one the same. I built an second unit for him. Not sure what happened to mine, but about 3 weeks ago, he phoned me full of pleasure. He had just had a major tidy up of his shed, and found the one I built for him. Still had the twin cell, but it looked a bit second hand. He got his son to replace it with a different battery and is now using it again. He does not need an alarum at 86 year, but is over the moon with the memories it brings back to him now he lives alone. (My sister died three years ago).
Les.

[Tractorfan]

Hi,
My main 'oldie' is the 1967 Grundig tape recorder bought by my parents. Since then it's had a couple of valves and still works well. I think it's still got its original belt!
Like us all, I've got older stuff, but they're not used quite as often.
Cheers, Pete.

[Graham G3ZVT]

Originally Posted by MotorBikeLes

Am I allowed a home build? And not mine.
Anyway, when I started work back in '57, I struggled to wake up in the morning, and was often late for work. I could sleep through ANY normal alarum clock, so I built my own. A Westclox had two holes drilled in the base, and was screwed to a wooden board. I soldered a length of brazing rod onto the alarum winding handle and arranged that when it sounded, it unwound until it made contact with the centre prong of a twin cell cycle front light battery. A wire soldered to the top prong was soldered to a bell, also screwed to the wooden board, and a wire from the other terminal was soldered to a scratched off area of the clock's base. That woke the neighbour before me sometimes.

Great minds think alike Les.

When I was learning Morse in preparation for my Amateur Radio licence, subliminal learning was all the rage. The theory was that if you recorded a lesson and played it back while you were asleep, you would remember it.

I needed to improvise a time-switch for my battery powered reel-reel tape recorder. A length of sewing yarn was wound the alarm winder of my Westclox so that when it went off a metal weight with a wire attached was lowered onto a metal tray with another wire attached.

I tried to muffle the gong, but it still usually woke me up!

[Sideband]

My Philips 1934 radio is the oldest working set that I have. It features in 'Success Stories' here https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...t=philips+274A

Recently further improved by fitting a new output valve.