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Vintage Television and Video Vintage television and video equipment, programmes, VCRs etc.

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Old 25th Nov 2019, 4:12 pm   #21
TonyDuell
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Default Re: Television set?

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Originally Posted by yesnaby View Post
OT but why washing 'machine'?
Why not? IIRC a machine is a device that 'makes work easier'. Seems to fit 'washing machine' (and for that matter 'sewing machine', 'knitting machine', 'dictating machine'...). I have reprints of books written about 100 years ago that refer to a gramophone as a 'talking machine'

I seem to remember also that a 'calculator' was a person who operated a 'calculating machine' and a 'typewriter' was a person who operated a 'typing machine'.

Getting back to the term 'set', I think that at least in America a 'modem' was a 'Data Set'. A term that lived on for many years in the name of an RS232 control signal (DSR = Data Set Ready)
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Old 25th Nov 2019, 4:39 pm   #22
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I seem to remember also that a 'calculator' was a person who operated a 'calculating machine' and a 'typewriter' was a person who operated a 'typing machine'.
Yes, someone I used to work with was recruited from university by AERE Harwell in the very late-40s and her job-title was "Computor" - doing repetitive calculations on manual calculators.

[She shortly afterwards moved into the world or electronics and was involved in developing some of the first real-time instrumentation computers - predominantly analog - used for reactor monitoring/control]
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Old 25th Nov 2019, 4:54 pm   #23
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"The secret life of machines, Radio" had our dear Gerry Wells explaining that it was called a set as it was a set of parts. See http://www.secretlifeofmachines.com/ for all of them, should be compulsory viewing for any engineer!
 
Old 25th Nov 2019, 6:06 pm   #24
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I seem to remember also that a 'calculator' was a person who operated a 'calculating machine' and a 'typewriter' was a person who operated a 'typing machine'.
I'd agree with you on 'calculator' but not with 'typewriter'. I recall reading correspondence in 'Electronic Engineering' in the 1950's about spelling of 'computer/computor' and the consensus was that the '-er' was the machine which did the action, the '-or' was the person who operated the thing - the 'operator' (which has the consistent ending). As we know now,

But it doesn't seem to be applied consistently. A person who makes a train move is the 'driver' and he control's the train's 'motor'. Not a 'drivor' operating the 'moter.' The 'calculator' is understood to be the machine itself, which ought to be 'calculater.' Anomalies abound!

So the 'Radio Set' is probably just another one...
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Old 25th Nov 2019, 6:18 pm   #25
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My pet hate is to hear a Television referred to as a 'Telly'
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Old 26th Nov 2019, 3:24 am   #26
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Another word that would have been used to refer to the wireless, television, and especially the telephone was "the instrument".
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Old 26th Nov 2019, 9:19 am   #27
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Default Re: Television set?

I remember my father, a solicitors accountant, talking about T/T for money. This referred to telegraphic transfer from bank account to account.

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Old 26th Nov 2019, 9:35 am   #28
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Default Re: Television set?

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Another word that would have been used to refer to the wireless, television, and especially the telephone was "the instrument".
This is certainly true of EMI sets (HMV/Marconi), the term "instrument" is used widely on both the sets and operating instructions, both prewar and well into the 1950's.

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Old 26th Nov 2019, 10:21 am   #29
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'Typewriter' was definitely 'the person', but it ALSO referred to the machine!
It was difficult to receive a 'cable' aboard ship,(unless you were aboard the Telconia), although the use was common. Often called a 'Marconi' or 'Marconigram', although I've never heard of anyone sending a DeForest. Much later, an American would receive a 'radiogram', which would cause further confusion this side of the pond.
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Old 26th Nov 2019, 12:37 pm   #30
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Hi,

I worked in offices all my working life, and I never heard a typewriter user
referred to as anything other than a Typist.

The more 'up market' typists preferred to be called Secretaries
or Personal Assistants!

Kind regards
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Old 26th Nov 2019, 2:32 pm   #31
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Default Re: Television set?

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My pet hate is to hear a Television referred to as a 'Telly'
Dave
I'm guilty of using it, these days "the box" doesn't really work for a flatscreen.
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Old 26th Nov 2019, 2:54 pm   #32
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We use "telly" quite often, normally to say "nothing worth watching on telly".
 
Old 26th Nov 2019, 3:42 pm   #33
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I was quite charmed on an episode of "Hardcore Pawn" on Blaze where Les Gold the proprietor of American Jewellery and Loan repeats the phrase several times "fifty dollars for a TV set!" whilst holding a clearance sale.
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Old 26th Nov 2019, 5:28 pm   #34
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Default Re: Television set?

I use the term telly, it's been a name my parents have used for the 40 odd years that I know of and because I also use it, it just feels right, another one that I still use even though TV's are no longer boxes, (also because my parents also used it) is having the TV being known as "the fog box"

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Old 26th Nov 2019, 5:55 pm   #35
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Default Re: Television set?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave757 View Post
Hi,

I worked in offices all my working life, and I never heard a typewriter user
referred to as anything other than a Typist.

The more 'up market' typists preferred to be called Secretaries
or Personal Assistants!

Kind regards
Dave
I think you would have to go back to Edwardian times to hear Typewriter used in that sense.

If you recall, Hazel Forrest was a character in Upstairs, Downstairs hired by Richard Bellamy as his secretary and typewriter. (They later married). The point was made that the word was used for the machine and its operator, circa 1912.
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Old 26th Nov 2019, 5:57 pm   #36
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Not sure the assembly of parts is the correct origin as set has another meaning as in 'set about', 'set the time', or even 'allow the glue to set'. In this case it is a verb referring to changing the state of something. In the case of a wireless set, it is changing radio waves to sound.
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Old 26th Nov 2019, 6:01 pm   #37
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For me, the term "Television Set" has a grand ring about it, harking back to the time when they were hernia-inducing lumps - like the two depicted here.

Such sets could command attention in the room by virtue of their appearance alone (never mind the tiny picture).

I've never been keen on the term 'TV'. This sounds like it probably came from America and it wasn't known before 1948.

Steve
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Old 26th Nov 2019, 6:27 pm   #38
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Default Re: Television set?

The Baird original was a "Televisor". Mechanical, so we can draw a distinction, but to the public it's just an early television set. Viewers were said to be "looking in", just as you "listened in" to the "wireless". Terminology evolves continually in all walks of life, shedding adherents along it's merry way. No reason at all why we shouldn't use language commensurate with our interests.
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Old 26th Nov 2019, 6:44 pm   #39
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Default Re: Television set?

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Originally Posted by merlinmaxwell View Post
"The secret life of machines, Radio" had our dear Gerry Wells explaining that it was called a set as it was a set of parts. See http://www.secretlifeofmachines.com/ for all of them, should be compulsory viewing for any engineer!
I'm looking for DVD's of the entire series of the Secret Life of Machines.
I wonder if it's available of the US BBC website?
Dave, USradcoll1, as usual!
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Old 26th Nov 2019, 7:35 pm   #40
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Originally Posted by rambo1152 View Post
I think you would have to go back to Edwardian times to hear Typewriter used in that sense.
Hi Graham,

I take your point!

Even my working life doesn't go back anything like that far, although I often feel like it does!

Kind regards
Dave
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