Vintage technology

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ruveyn
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20 Jan 2013, 11:49 am

Cornflake wrote:

^ If that was available, I'd have a Curta out on permanent loan.
Never seen one and worse, never handled one - but after your posts and a spot of research I would really like one...
What a beautiful machine.
They're still available but alas, too expensive for me.

You might be able to get one for 3 or 4 hundred current dollars. This is no bargain from a pure use p.o.v. You can get a lap top that is 10,000 times more capable for the same price. But for sheer beauty and love you can't beat the old "pepper grinder".

ruveyn

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20 Jan 2013, 1:09 pm

Yes, that's about the sort of prices I'd found - plus some much higher.
And it would definitely be bought for the love of the machinery over any practical reason.

Love at first sight for a mechanical device? Apparently so... :lol:

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ablomov
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20 Jan 2013, 1:17 pm

old stuff .....

logarithms are a useful mathematical insight, the person that doesn't know of them is the poorer for it.

also, the slide rule is mighty handy for costing and estimating, still today nothing can deal with or manipulate variables to my advantage.

3 sig figs is all you want fr most eng calculations too .... and of course this will be refuted the instant i press 'submit'

i'm fascinated by thermionic gear.

even got a treadle lathe .....

i dig my earth with hand tools, am expert as the best gunsmith with handfiles, even paint an illuminated capital, can visualise any design or object i want from any direction ...

oh yes and cook a pigeon or a rabbit or make a quick curry.

and for my birthday i would like a differential analyser and the brains to know what to do with it ....

come on techie babes ... come n get me ! !

auntblabby
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20 Jan 2013, 1:35 pm

ruveyn wrote:

auntblabby wrote:

i have an old-fashioned surgical hand drill machined out of titanium. a jewel of a gem of a tool. :thumleft:

Oh Lordy! Your description produced (momentarily) an adolescent stiffening in the groin. I used to collect catalogs of high grade top dollar tools and instruments that only highly funded scientific enterprises could afford. Like the Edmonds catalogue. It was like teenagers looking at centerfold pictures of naked women. I just loved looking at the stuff and I felt a little sad that I could not afford to buy any of them. Even if I could afford it, I was not a research scientist and could not put them to proper use. I wish someone would open up something like a lending library which would enable an admirer of high quality instruments to take a sample home and look at it for two weeks.

it was in the discard bin of a hospital i used to work in, long since superceded by fancy schmancy pneumatic tools. i use it in place of regular electric drills in household drilling tasks. one must crank it and manage to hold it steady so the hole is true, a task i barely can manage. but it sure is polished and pretty.

Arran
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20 Jan 2013, 2:06 pm

Vintage medical equipment doesn't get the attention that it deserves. Has anybody seen the Graseby MS26 syringe driver as a first rate example of a dinosaur of a design that was still being manufactured a few years ago? How about the first generation electronic blood pressure machines and desktop sized pulse oximeters? Patient monitors with CRT displays are now museum pieces and you won't see many in use in western hospitals nowadays.

ruveyn
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20 Jan 2013, 3:42 pm

Cornflake wrote:

You and I have similar crushes. It is irrational but that is the way it is....

ruveyn

Cornflake
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20 Jan 2013, 3:46 pm

:lol: Agreed.

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AspianCitizen
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20 Mar 2013, 11:09 pm

guitarman2010 wrote:

I have a love for old computers

I also love old computer. Older they are more fun they are.
My favorite is the NOVA and I dream of having one working in my lab.

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ruveyn
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21 Mar 2013, 6:28 am

If you like old, get a Curta hand calculator.

http://www.google.com/search?q=curta+ca ... 80&bih=688

Loosing my Curta was one of the saddest days of my life.

ruveyn

AspianCitizen
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21 Mar 2013, 1:11 pm

I can understand that you are sad...

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equestriatola
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19 Nov 2013, 7:37 pm

Here's something I remember: The Zip Drive! When I first got one, it held a then-whopping 100 MB. Nowadays, about 20-30 of those Zip disks is how much memory you can get on a flash drive alone! How far we've come....

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auntblabby
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19 Nov 2013, 7:39 pm

I still have my sony mavica camera that uses floppy discs! :bounce:

equestriatola
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19 Nov 2013, 8:24 pm

Also, Windows 3.1. For several years, my compy that my parents had used it, and we refused to upgrade to Windows 95 until after we moved! That computer served us well for six years, it was a Gateway 2000 P5-60. (Yes, I even remember the model number!) Good times....

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auntblabby
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19 Nov 2013, 8:24 pm

I still have my windows 98se puter circa 1997.

ruveyn
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19 Nov 2013, 10:38 pm

auntblabby wrote:

I still have my windows 98se puter circa 1997.

Hold onto it another 25 years and it will become a valuable antique.

ruveyn

auntblabby
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19 Nov 2013, 10:41 pm

^^^
assuming it still works. it barely works now.

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