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Old 27th Mar 2015, 1:21 am   #61
emeritus
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

I used to have an "ADA" Coronation model washing machine that came with my first house that I bought in 1976. We continued to us it for a couple of years after I married in 1981 before it was replaced by a twin-tub and later an automatic. I still have the manual, and the base (which was fitted with ball bearing-pivoted castors) that I converted for use as a bogie for moving furniture. The manual mentions how any metal that was not corrosion-resistant, was passivated, and I recycled the steel casing by removing the rivets and flattening it out to refurbish an old child's slide we had been given. It certainly lived up to the claims in the manual.

The Sunday, March 22, "Pearls before swine " carton relates to the topic of this thread: go to

http://news.yahoo.com/comics/pearls-...ine-slideshow/

and scroll down to the March 22 date.
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Old 27th Mar 2015, 1:23 am   #62
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When I started in the local radio shop one of my first jobs was charging the accumulators for battery radios, we also sold the 120v and 90v HT batteries and 9v grid bias. We sold bicycles too.

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Old 27th Mar 2015, 8:58 am   #63
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I have been sorting and viewing some 16mm films for the widow of a recently-deceased friend.

Showing the 16mm films to some of the younger generation got total disbelief and some amusing comments.
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Old 27th Mar 2015, 9:40 am   #64
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We had to buy one, plus a set of log tables, when I was at school. Calculus only came in when I left, so I taught it myself when I was in my teens - sad, eh?

When I worked at Thorn EMI, we were shown one of the first mobile phones; this was at one of our annual conferences and they hadn't been shown to the public yet.

Consisted of a huge box with a 12v lead-acid battery in it and on top was a sort of scaled down domestic phone of the time. This lot you hung around your neck on a strap.

My imagination pictures lots of kids on trains or buses with these things!
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Old 27th Mar 2015, 9:48 am   #65
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

Can I suggest that the Sextant is likely to baffle many? I explained the Sextant to the 25-year-old son of a friend by saying "It's the original satellite-based global navigation system".

Theodolites [and Ordnance Survey trig-points] would nowadays perplex many, too. "Surveying" with theodolites, compasses etc [yes, and also including real surveyor's chains with the little brass tags to indicate the units] took up pretty much an entire term's geography lessons in my first year at secondary-school.

[Electronics cross-reference: the classical optical theodolite was often supplemented by a Tellurometer, a microwave-based distance measuring instrument invented by Trevor Wadley who is better known for the "Wadley Loop" frequency synthesis we all know from various RACAL receivers...]
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Old 27th Mar 2015, 9:50 am   #66
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Default Re: Obsolete Technologies that baffle the modern generation.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Phelan View Post
Consisted of a huge box with a 12v lead-acid battery in it and on top was a sort of scaled down domestic phone of the time.
I first saw one of these at a trade-stand at the Preston radio rally about 1982. Would that be about the time you are on about?
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Old 27th Mar 2015, 9:52 am   #67
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A good-quality slide rule is a thing of beauty. I remember when I attended the local Grammar in the 60's, some of the 6th formers had some beautiful ones, really sleek and attractive...ahem, to my eyes at least. I had to make do with one from Boots or somewhere.
I still have a Faber-Castell slide rule from my schooldays.

I also recall our maths teacher showing us a helical slide-rule [two meshed helices you screwed into each-other rather than sliding one straight piece against the other]. He explained that this gave greater setting/reading-precision because it allowed a longer scale. Kinda like the filmstrip tuning-scales on certain comms receivers!
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Old 27th Mar 2015, 10:05 am   #68
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The kids in my school were using portable communication systems around 1950. It did require you to eat 2 tins of beans and get a length of string to join them together. Some kids never could see how it worked despite being told and shown dozens of times.
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Old 27th Mar 2015, 11:10 am   #69
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I have various British Thornton and Staedtler technical drawing instruments. Squares and rules are common enough but some of the more exotic items would probably get quizzical looks.

I have kept my Frank Castle book of logarithms - no doubt baffling to those born after the arrival of the electronic calculator. (Actually, Log tables were baffling to many of us when they were in current use.)
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Old 27th Mar 2015, 11:58 am   #70
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I have my old log tables somewhere, mostly interesting for the graffiti on them these days, although I used to like using them.
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Old 27th Mar 2015, 12:03 pm   #71
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Computers with mice seem to be a dying breed. Touchpads, or more often, touchscreens, are what kids expect these days.
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Old 27th Mar 2015, 12:48 pm   #72
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The quaint notion of borrowing a book from a public library, or even being in possession of a library ticket seems to have been replaced with a constant reference to Auntie Google, reflected in the ever-changing (and diminishing) role of public libraries.
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Old 27th Mar 2015, 8:43 pm   #73
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Russell - all is not lost. My 7 and 9 yr olds are recent proud possessors of a (credit-card like) library ticket. The elder finished the book this morning, which she took out yesterday - I was getting fed up of scouring the charity shops for fresh titles!

And my Polish mate's (see up thread) 6 yr old boy likes pulling apart scrap circuit boards, and can identify (by name, at least) all the components.

Meanwhile, those kids with no such interests now sit placidly before the glowing screen interacting with others like them, electronically. To my mind this beats their meeting in actuality to sniff glue and smash up bus stops, as in my childhood...
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Old 27th Mar 2015, 8:58 pm   #74
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Building a balsa and tissue aeroplane, you can sniff glue too! Come to think of it, building anything.
 
Old 27th Mar 2015, 9:51 pm   #75
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My 5 figure log tables are by Godfrey and Siddons. I must dust them off sometime soon.
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Old 27th Mar 2015, 9:53 pm   #76
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Any computer with a command line interface. A lot of people, of all generations, I have found didn't get their first computer until after windows was the main software in use and have always had a mouse, icons and menus.

However, command line isn't obsolete, linux still uses it, and so do others I'm sure. It's just not so widely used as it was in the 80s.
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Old 27th Mar 2015, 10:23 pm   #77
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Ah yes...the Dos prompt. I remember machine code, opcodes operands assemblers and the like, Entering seemingly endless lists of Hex into a "Microprofessor" only to find it had a bug in it after about the tenth line. I think there is still a coding following amongst the younger people as the Raspberry Pi and Arduino have both been recognised and used by one of my lads. I suppose PIC programming also comes into this category, as most domestic appliances seem to have one nowadays and someone has to write programs for them.
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Old 27th Mar 2015, 10:54 pm   #78
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And that reminds me! Routines using punched card and tape.

The amazing thing about the last forty years is how much technology has come and gone.
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Old 27th Mar 2015, 11:08 pm   #79
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Quote:
Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post
Can I suggest that the Sextant is likely to baffle many? I explained the Sextant to the 25-year-old son of a friend by saying "It's the original satellite-based global navigation system".
I was going to dig my old sextant out to look at the eclipse, a safe way of looking directly at the old "Currant bun".

probably worth nothing now, and to think it cost roughly a months wages for a 3rd mate when I got it.

A.
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Old 28th Mar 2015, 12:12 am   #80
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The kids in my school were using portable communication systems around 1950. It did require you to eat 2 tins of beans and get a length of string to join them together. Some kids never could see how it worked despite being told and shown dozens of times.
I had the upmarket version involving a garden hose and two funnels.

It worked round corners, unlike your version which requires line-of-string.
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