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General Vintage Technology Discussions For general discussions about vintage radio and other vintage electronics etc.

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Old 30th Mar 2015, 8:14 pm   #121
Brased
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

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Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post
And of course someone's bound to put a plastic kettle on the gas-ring.
I remember when the local ironmonger obtained a supply of newfangled polythene buckets. For one customer these seemed to be a clear improvement over the old-fashioned galvanised iron bucket which she had previously been using to boil up her washing on the gas cooker hob.

He did give her money back on the return of the remains but explained carefully to later purchasers that this new technology, whilst it wouldn't rust, did have other limitations.

Edward
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Old 30th Mar 2015, 8:16 pm   #122
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

Close to me there was the place where Gestetner made the paper for their duplicators, and there was a large sign in the corner of a field with their name on it (with no further alaboration)

I always thought there should have been a row of identical signs.

Gestetner
Gestetner
Gestetner
Gestetner
Gestetner

I remember fighting with those things as a schoolkid. Meeting a xerox machine was a revelation.

Ah, now there's another mystery for the youngsters, and relevent to electronics and all engineering. A diazo print and the copying machine, seasoned with a set of Rotring pens and stencils.

David
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Old 30th Mar 2015, 8:24 pm   #123
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Hi David, no chance with a Diazo machine now. H&S would not like the ammonia concentrations they used.

Note that until recently it was a requirement of the PPL that you had to work out course corrections for wind on a circular slide rule (whizz wheel)

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Old 30th Mar 2015, 8:36 pm   #124
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Another challenge would be running the traditional coke-fired boiler to provide hot water for kitchen and bathroom. They needed careful firing and manipulation of the flue damper and ash-pan vent to ensure that they would keep burning all night or if they had to be left for several hours during the day. They also required regular breaking up and removal of any clinker but with care they could be kept burning for weeks without relighting.

I suppose now that they would be considered another safety hazard as the top of the boiler and the cast iron flue could get dangerously hot.

Edward
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Old 30th Mar 2015, 11:14 pm   #125
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

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I haven't seen party lines mentioned yet- and the phantom ringing or occasional bell tinkle, caused by poor mains equipment earth's.
You must have missed post 32!
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Old 31st Mar 2015, 4:00 pm   #126
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

Even as a kid I wanted to understand older technology - and did quite well to find out. As an 8 year old in the 1980's I was using WW2 electrical bits, experimenting, repairing 1950's portable record players and radios. I even got into wind-up gramophones. Yet I still had time for CD's, the latest technology and looking forward to what was to come. So why not the children of today? Where has the curiosity gone? Surely this is a bad thing - if they don't question and understand what works and what does not then we will end up with lower quality than we should be getting. I can already see signs of this with the latest AV gear.
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Old 31st Mar 2015, 7:21 pm   #127
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

When I was a kid the commonplace technological gadgets of today were things of science fiction and James Bond.

I remember the excitement of discovering offshore pirate radio stations on the single family radio that we possessed. The novelty of hearing pop music amongst the whistling heterodynes and fading and the realisation that it was emanating from a storm-tossed ship was as exciting as it was fascinating. Consumer electronics were expensive items and for me to get my own receiver meant making something. A school friend had the luxury of a homemade crystal set by his bed and I got going with a Philips Electronic Engineer kit. Though it wasn't, it seemed to us like frontier technology. There was a whole world for us to explore.

My parents were of the make-do and mend generation and so the making and fixing gene was handed down in the blood. School was full of kids who made things from soap box carts to bicycles to model railways and Meccano. I took a homemade transistor radio to school and to listen in at lunch time was a novelty.

I don't blame today's kids. They are as much a product of today's times as we were of ours. Mobile phones, MP3 players, televisions, tablets and computers are disposable everyday items that are taken for granted. When you have a smartphone in your pocket it's hard to get excited about listening to radio hams on the TRF you made yourself.
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Old 31st Mar 2015, 9:26 pm   #128
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Hi Gents, all is not lost. At the museum where I volunteer we were running the old steam and gas engines (only on barring motors, H/S) and there were some young school kids (8/9) watching and asking a few questions. One particularly bright boy who was asking a lot of good questions observed that the toys of his fathers day were much better than computer games! And yes he did have his fathers Meccano!

There is hope!

Ed
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Old 31st Mar 2015, 10:28 pm   #129
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How about 'our' sort of item?

A TRF radio with reaction control.
A storage 'scope with a storage CRT.
A true inductance (or resistance or capacitance) bridge.
A 'scope camera.
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Old 31st Mar 2015, 11:58 pm   #130
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

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I remember when the local ironmonger obtained a supply of newfangled polythene buckets. For one customer these seemed to be a clear improvement over the old-fashioned galvanised iron bucket which she had previously been using to boil up her washing on the gas cooker hob.

He did give her money back on the return of the remains but explained carefully to later purchasers that this new technology, whilst it wouldn't rust, did have other limitations.
Isn't this "Modern technology that baffles the obsolete generation" ?
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Old 1st Apr 2015, 12:10 am   #131
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A telephone number with three digits - that's what we had when we moved in here.

Peter
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Old 1st Apr 2015, 12:22 am   #132
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

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.
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Old 1st Apr 2015, 11:28 am   #133
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

And the same technology (without the Smiths crisps tin) for stripping paint.
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Old 1st Apr 2015, 12:48 pm   #134
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I came across my father's old Yankee pump screwdriver at the weekend, a tool I know was expensive in it's day and treasured by my Dad. I kept it but I doubt it will ever get used again. Same for his old Surform.
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Old 1st Apr 2015, 1:13 pm   #135
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The "Surform" type device still lives, I bought a replacement for my old one only yesterday, the quickest thing for taking an arris off I know of. Our Daughters have used them, they figured it out as expected, no problem.

Lawrence.
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Old 1st Apr 2015, 1:22 pm   #136
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

A "Yankee" screwdriver can still be useful, when (not if .....) your cordless drill / driver runs out of juice with only a few screws left to put in.
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Old 1st Apr 2015, 4:15 pm   #137
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

Three posts about modern technology deleted.
Please keep the thread title in mind, there must be a final few obsolete puzzlers left.
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Old 1st Apr 2015, 5:15 pm   #138
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

From what I make out from our neighbours two children (10 and 13) if there isn't an APP for it then its a no no, something that the parents sort out..................
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Old 1st Apr 2015, 5:42 pm   #139
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

Think Bill means a paraffin blow lamp for plumbing and paint stripping jobs. I remember the smell and the scraper for removing paint when we had the outside of the house done.



No plastic windows then.


Phones with three digits were still in use till at least 1990's.
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Old 1st Apr 2015, 5:58 pm   #140
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

In the same vein as the paraffin blowlamp, the tilley lamp.

Al
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