Vintage technology

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How many of us out here are fascinated with vintage technology? I am amongst one of those said people.

I love old technology. Some of it looks fascinating, and it shows us how far we have come as far as that goes, and how much we can do still to make things better.

I have a love for old computers

i love 70's through 90's electronic audio equipment. i still have a pair of 80's magnapan speakers that still perform just as new.

I also wish I had an LP player, music played from such sources sounds more 'warmer', IMO, but I love my iPod a lot, though.

Then you will love the late 1950 and 1960 vintage computers that filled entire large rooms and required humongous air conditioning to operate correctly.

The 1960 disk drives were unbelievably bulky. A disk drive holding a disk with a 500,000 byte capacity was the size of a bowling ball cleaner.

ruveyn

I think the magnetic tape storage technology is also interesting.

I am always amazed as to how when new technology comes out, it is pricey; but as the years go by, it becomes cheaper.

Like when microwaves came out, they were about $600, now the average one is about $80.

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The average calculator was $100 in 1974, the equivalent of maybe $1200 today. Now, they're throwaway items, you don't even replace the battery when it croaks, you just toss it. You can still find old calculators on Ebay. Buyer beware though-they ARE 40 years old.

i like 1964+ plymouth valiants. - they had such classic lines, as well as a relatively refined and supple torsion beam suspension, not to mention that oh so cool push-button automatic tranny gear selector .

I'm into vintage civil defense radiation detection gear. So far, I have a fairly complete set from the US. I also want a set from the USSR and the UK, but the costs are too high for me to afford them...yet. I also like dealing with older cars. I prefer them because parts are cheaper and enough data is usually available on them to mix and match parts and build them into what I want the end product to be. Plus, people have scienced them out enough that it is easy to find data on repairing known faults.

Before the hand held electronic calculators came out there was the nifty German manufactured Curta Calculator which could do all 4 arithmetic operations to 12 places and it was totally mechanical. No electrical components at all.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curta

I regret having sold mine. It would be worth close to $1000 these days and I could still use it for calculating.

ruveyn

Tube amps

they are an amazing display of mechanical engineering prowess that's for sure.

there is a myth that one part of the mechanism is virtually identical to the one used in the timing fuzes of german bombs during ww2, the z17BM to be specific.

Do swords count?

single-ended triode audio power amps, paired with klipsch corner horns/ la scala center fill- a winningly euphonic combo, if ya ask me

also, the DBX DX-3 cd player was a winner, with features duplicated in no other machine- it could compress or expand dynamic range to a useful degree, compress or expand the stereo image spread, or flatten/augment dynamic impact of music signals. it was one of the better-sounding cd players. too bad working examples seem to be rare as hen's teeth.

I use hand-tools in preference to power-tools a lot. I prefer a Mouli to a blender (much smoother sauce too), a hand grinder for spices and beans and hand meat mincer. They all produce a better result than the power version, get the job done as fast, are quieter and are much easier to clean.

I also prefer hand saws, chisels and planes to the power versions.