Open Thread Update: What’s Your Old School Tech?
Readers chime in with their vintage tech, from manual typerwriters and VHS players to rotary phones to one really unique bit of cookware from the 70’s.
Last time we asked about vintage technology – and typewriters, VHS players and rotary phones lead the parade….led by Reader Sharon H.
I have a beautiful 1940’s Royal manual typewriter that I used for almost 20 years working at a university library. Other people got fancier electric typewriters, but I was the only one who could type along the very top edge of a card catalog card. :-) I keep it because it is an engineering marvel and works great, I still use it occasionally. Kids love to see it working, “Wow!!! It prints as soon as you type! That is so cool, we should have one too.”
Reader Bren’s manual has some history.
I have a manual typewriter that was my mothers. I am 78 years old so this typewriter is old old old. I keep it because it was my mothers. My mother came from rural VA but her parents sent her to DC for more opportunity. She went to Cortez Peters Business School where she became an expert typist and qualified for a federal government job as a clerk typist. Over the next 30 years she rose through the ranks and retired as a contract specialist. I used this typewriter in college.
Reader Francis helped out all those manual (and early Selectric) fans with a bit of advice – a source for typewriter ribbons! Who knew?!
Check out http://www.ribbonsunlimited.com for a replacement ribbon!
They have ribbons for every imaginable machine, in all sorts of colors and combinations.
HOLD THE PHONE!
Rotary phones got love from Reader Beth, who uses her in emergencies…and to prank the youngsters.
My rotary corded vintage gold phone is the only one that works if the power goes out for any length of time. Besides, it is fun to show youngsters and ask them to try to make a call. They have no idea what to do.
Other old school tech fans are Reader Dorothy and her camera collection (even a Brownie!) and several VHS fans (PR’s VHS camcorder) and Dr. Jeanne‘s trifecta of trimline phone, Smith Corona and a VHS player – keep on trucking, Dr. J.! And I can relate to Reader Cary, a fellow vintage audio equipment owner…
I still have a stereo component system (amplifier, turntable, speakers) set up in my den that dates back to 1970. It still works, perhaps because I haven’t used it regularly over the last couple of decades. But I need it to play any of my 100 or so vinyl albums I still have from the 1960s/70s.
(Here’s a tip for Cary and other old school audiophiles with tube amps, check out TubeDepot.com.)
MOST UNIQUE VINTAGE TECH
Reader Nancy takes the crown with this one…
I have a Farberware UltraChef machine from the late 70s….food cooks in a closed glass cylinder that rotates. Everything I’ve made in it is delicious…
Here’s a Youtube from another owner that shows it in action.
We’ll keep this open for more entries from readers – is there someone with a bit of vintage tech older than 1940? Let’s hear it!
ORIGINAL COLUMN
No ‘old school’ technology is really ‘vintage” if it still works. Sort of.
One of my laptops is by modern standards, ancient. It’s still running Windows 7, which is the last version of Windows that a person could actually own. The battery is dying and finding a replacement is Holy Grail-level difficult.
I don’t care. I can’t reconcile myself to buying a new laptop because I dislike the idea of paying over and over for something I should be able to buy once and keep (and yes, I lost the CD).
And that’s not even my oldest technology – I have a Dell Dimension XPS-B series from…wait for it…the 90’s. It’s still running XP and I still use it because my legacy programs won’t run on anything else.
I also have an original “La Machine” from the late 80’s – a vintage item still cranking along, and missing a few parts….kind of like me!
I thought I won the “Oldest Technology” contest but I heard a rumor some folks still use…rotary phones.
YOUR TURN
What about you? What’s the oldest technology you own and why have you kept it? Tell us about it in the comments!
Virge Randall is Senior Planet’s Managing Editor. She is also a freelance culture reporter who seeks out hidden gems and unsung (or undersung) treasures for Straus Newspapers; her blog “Don’t Get Me Started” puts a quirky new spin on Old School New York City. Send your suggestions for Open Threads to her at editor@seniorplanet.org.
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Comments
I just gave my 200lb, twin 8-inch diskette floppy drives, S100 bus computer to an antique computer club to show at a festival before passing it on to computer museum. I built it from board kits beginning in 1977 through 1980 when it first booted successfully. It booted the MROS operating system, a DOS work-alike that included some improvements and a nice programming environment for assembly and a couple of other early programming languages. It displayed text visual output to a CRT terminal.
wow! You are a real pioneer! where is the computer museum?
Where to buy vintage typewriter (for my own us e, I miss this)
I still have my father’s c.1950 Victrola, c.1950 Royal portable typewriter, and c1950 Keystone 16mm film projector. I have my mother’s c1950 Sunbeam Mixmaster and the family’s 1953 17″ Emerson b&w tube TV. I still have my
c1963 Kodak Hawkeye Flashfun roll film camera, c1965 Zenith transistor radio, c1970 Rival Crockpot, c1970 Hitachi portable b&w TV, c1972 Super 8 movie camera and Dual 8 film projector (forgot brands), c1985 RCA VHS camcorder, c1985 Sharp VCR, c1990 computer, c1995 CD player.
WOW! You win!!! And they all still work, and you don’t need a smartphone, right? who needs as fridge that tells you the time!
I have a beautiful 1940’s Royal manual typewriter that I used for almost 20 years working at a university library. Other people got fancier electric typewriters, but I was the only one who could type along the very top edge of a card catalog card. :-) I keep it because it is an engineering marvel and works great, I still use it occasionally. Kids love to see it working, “Wow!!! It prints as soon as you type! That is so cool, we should have one too.”
My rotary corded vintage gold phone is the only one that works if the power goes out for any length of time. Besides, it is fun to show youngsters and ask them to try to make a call. They have no idea what to do. However, it is not used on a regular basis and is stored away in an obscure corner.