Old Tech thread

Commodore Pet, the first computer I used.

I remember being blown away when the school upgraded the cassette storage to a floppy disc drive!

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Peter V said:
Commodore Pet, the first computer I used.

I remember being blown away when the school upgraded the cassette storage to a floppy disc drive!

View attachment 54296
Click to expand...
Same here. There was nothing finer than the warm tones of a cassette desperately seeking the file you wanted. Unless it was the ear shattering thunder of the teletype printing said file. (y)
 
I had a Smith Corona Personal Word Processor before I finally bought a personal computer. Being able to type without needing tipex felt like entering a whole new world. I would have never have dreamed that only a few years later you would be able to create and format newspapers, graphs and charts at home. When I wrote my dissertation in the mid 1980's I had to draw graphs by hand. The ability of Excel to produce instant pie charts would have seemed like black magic, and to put them on a Powerpoint and show them on a white board....
 
My mother used an Amstrad word processor with its non-standard disks, but the local computer shop was able to somehow port her documents to a floppy when she got her first PC.
 
Who remembers what this is for besides as a battle axe outside the bar? Believe it or not, many people today, don't realize you can use this yourself even though their are instructions with it.

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Here's something else they can't believe is for everyone to use... I won't show the wrench to change the filter. That might be too much :oops:

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Hey kids, this may come as a shock, but televisions used to be the size and weight of a casket with a body stuffed in it. I introduce to you, the Curtis Mathes. The only 13" television set that weighed more than your car. No USB or HDMI ports, no smart home options, and the only way it was ever wireless is when your dad made you get up and change the channel. Plus, it generated enough heat to cook a chicken on a spit. I actually witnessed one of these things short out and catch on fire as a kid.
 
@MikeAnderson You need to also show them what's under those end or mid top lid(s)... Likely a turntable and receiver:

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That said... Tell me that you wouldn't want this in your home, right now! Oh sure, you might fit in a new monitor where the CRT resides, but the design to me below is a gas ;)

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There is even an add-on top option:

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Of course, the simpler option does have its pluses ;)

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K2
 
Suddenly, having my telephone/telex/typewriter/fax machine/television/hifi/record collection/video games/video player/library/music studio, and you lot in my pocket seems like it's not such a bad idea after all.
 
I can remember someone my mother knew had a radiogram, old valve AM (LW/MW) radio coupled to a record player/gramophone !
I always wanted one, but I guess we were to poor!
Have noticed an annoying trend lately on film and tv, people calling a gramophone a phonograph, they both use the same recording tech. but are completely different machines, one playing a disc while the other a cylinder.
It's a bit like calling a typewriter a word processor!
 
One bit of old tech I have just remembered, which I would think now days would be very illegal!
Does anyone remember the toy called Jet-X, basically it was a tiny solid rocket motor designed to fit on flying model aircraft/gliders!
The rocket ( if I remember correctly ) had a base that was fitted on its side which in turn was fitted to the craft.
It was powered by solid fuel pellets, these fitted in the rocket case behind a wire mesh and were ignited with a match.
The rocket burned for a few seconds, launching your plane high into the air, goodness knows how many boys got their fingers burned in the process!
This was back in the fifties and sixties, my brother had a kit and I remember him lighting it while clamped to my dad's work bench, don't know if he actually used it on a model!
He was a good balsa wood airo modeler, I never had the skill or patience or brains for this, my only models were courtesy of Airfix.
 
BigBadBob141 said:
One bit of old tech I have just remembered, which I would think now days would be very illegal!
Does anyone remember the toy called Jet-X, basically it was a tiny solid rocket motor designed to fit on flying model aircraft/gliders!
The rocket ( if I remember correctly ) had a base that was fitted on its side which in turn was fitted to the craft.
It was powered by solid fuel pellets, these fitted in the rocket case behind a wire mesh and were ignited with a match.
The rocket burned for a few seconds, launching your plane high into the air, goodness knows how many boys got their fingers burned in the process!
This was back in the fifties and sixties, my brother had a kit and I remember him lighting it while clamped to my dad's work bench, don't know if he actually used it on a model!
He was a good balsa wood airo modeler, I never had the skill or patience or brains for this, my only models were courtesy of Airfix.
Click to expand...
My dad had a book on how to make balsa wood models published by the Eagle comic. Of course one model was of Dan Dare’s space ship which you could fit to a line and fly it down the garden like a sci fi cable car. This model was powered by an engine which sounds very much like a Jet- X.
 
Sounds a bit like the model rocketry kits I used to build.
BigBadBob141 said:
One bit of old tech I have just remembered, which I would think now days would be very illegal!
Does anyone remember the toy called Jet-X, basically it was a tiny solid rocket motor designed to fit on flying model aircraft/gliders!
The rocket ( if I remember correctly ) had a base that was fitted on its side which in turn was fitted to the craft.
It was powered by solid fuel pellets, these fitted in the rocket case behind a wire mesh and were ignited with a match.
The rocket burned for a few seconds, launching your plane high into the air, goodness knows how many boys got their fingers burned in the process!
This was back in the fifties and sixties, my brother had a kit and I remember him lighting it while clamped to my dad's work bench, don't know if he actually used it on a model!
He was a good balsa wood airo modeler, I never had the skill or patience or brains for this, my only models were courtesy of Airfix.
Click to expand...
It's alive!
Jet-x Model Jet Planes & Engines – Fly Higher Fly Faster
 
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