Are You Nostalgic for Venerable Old High and Low Technology Devices?

[Slammin Sammy]

Please see my comments on IanW's setup here: http://www.thorncycles.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=10115.msg72371;topicseen#msg72371

I thought it might be fun to explore this further. Are you a Luddite who can't countenance progress, or don't they make 'me like that anymore?

 

[IanW]

Err, well yes I am, but on a very select basis, i.e the device meets at least 2 of the following:

1) It has to be something that, at the time, did any given job, very well and indeed probably did the job better than any other contemporary device.

2) I still need to perform that "job" for which that device was the ideal.

3) My instance of said device is beginning to wear significantly or indeed has worn-out.

4) I can no-longer get that original device, nor is there anything now available that is as at least as good, if not significantly better.

For examples:

Before the advent of coreless electric screwdrivers / drills, there was the Stanley "Yankee" spiral ratched screwdriver.
I have had two of them for over 30 years, and apart from the physical effort / energy input, they knock the spots of most cordless electric screwdrivers.

An old GEC desk fan. I think it must have been hewn out of solid bronze. It took more than 30 seconds to spin up to full speed. The lights dimmed when it was initially switched on. It had sparse wire guard and would happily break fingers if inserted into spinning blades. It sounded like a WW2 propeller plane taxying. It moved serious amounts of air. And it is now "dead" only for the same of some carbon brushes.

A 1950's genuine Hoover vacuum cleaner, "all metal" chassis construction, seriously good suction power, ruined only when asked to pick up a 3-inch steel wood screw, which it did pick up, but then caused the cast metal fan rotor vanes to break-off.

A SupraExpress 56k data+voice+fax modem. Nothing beat it for speed or reliability or consistency or quality. Shame acoustic modems have gone the way of the dodo.

[DAntrim]

As we know Murphy's Law states If anything can possibly go wrong, it does and then laugh at your attempts to get out of trouble

Not nostalgic, but do believe the reliance on GPS technology has lead to a decline in people's ability to navigate with only a map / compass.

[energyman]

No ! (On the grounds that I do not wish to be blamed for collapsing most modern economies)
Having cycled to night school in pitch darkness along farm tracks and very poor quality roads with a dynamo LED light, I do appreciate the brightness of modern lights compared to the old style lights.
Ref the GPS, I do agree. A couple of days ago I was hiring a van and whilst waiting my turn clutching my much used road map I noticed the other five or so in front of me were clutching their SAT NAVS.
As my granny used to say Use it or loose it !

[Slammin Sammy]

You can be nostalgic for devices (or techniques) even though the modern equivalent does the job infinitely better.

To use the GPS example, most people these days would never have seen one that didn't do navigation, let alone mapping. Smart phones have dumbed down the task of working out where you are on this blue orb even further.

But the old gear was bullet proof (certainly waterproof), and I could hammer a nail with my original GPSR. It gave me the raw data in a form I could use externally, and you could adjust everything about the machine.

Ian, your comment about the Yankee drill gave me a pang remembering my late father, who never had an electric drill and yet was very handy around the house, using his Yankee for 30 years or longer. I moved to Australia, and so did not inherit this fine old tool - my city-dwelling brother must have it unused in his moribund toolbox. 

[julk]

+1 for the Stanley ‘Yankee’.

I still have and use one.
I also acquired the drill bit extras which are good for drilling a hole in wood very close to something where a normal drill chuck is too wide.
And, of course, they work in a power cut.

They were my favourite wedding present to give for a while…
Julian.

[JimK]

Here is a real pinnacle of technology:

[John Saxby]

No longing here for the products of Joseph Lucas, Prince of Darkness, except as a limitless source of terrible mocking jokes.
That said, and allowing that I'm not really sure what qualifies as "old", here's a few items that I venerate, long for, and indeed use. Readers can judge what's "high" and what's "low" tech:

    > Still have my old (1960's) heavy (steel) sorta-portable Olivetti typewriter. The action of the keys is soooo slick.  I don't use it any more, but I refuse to get rid of it.  A few years ago, our daughter discovered it in the basement, opened it up, tried it out, and said, "Dad, how cool! This feels so nice!"  She used it for a while, too.

    > Stanley Aladdin 32-oz stainless-steel narrow-neck thermos, which I bought new in the mid-70's:  Best thermos flask I've ever used, or for that matter seen--kept hot drinks hot (not lukewarm) or cold for 24 hrs. We no longer need that volume, so I gave it to our son and daughter-in-law in Oz, as they are starting a family. (I kept one of the two quality cups I had for it, which I use now and then for a whisky at evening on the back deck.)  Expect the Aladdin will last indefinitely, and give unmatched service. They don't make 'em any more.

    > I regularly venerate and use Hans, my mid-'80s 800-cc BMW R80RT touring twin.  Great bike--fast enough, comfortable, durable, economical. reliable. (I could use the same adjectives for my Raven, prompting the obvious question, "How many RT's does one person need?")  (Answer: "Question is out of order, yer honner -- we're in the domain of wants, not needs.")  Hans took me to the West Coast & back last summer, 12,000 kms in three weeks of riding, only one hiccup, a leaky carburettor fixed in Calgary.  Dan can attest to its functionality and style, evident in the foto below.  I don't use my airhead for tours so much now -- Osi, my Raven, is my ride of choice. (I do admit to being spoiled for choice.)

[John Saxby]

Jeez!  I wasn't paying attention to the electrical nature of the thread ... maybe my venerated things fit under the "etc." of the title.

[Danneaux]

Dan can attest to its functionality and style, evident in the foto below.

Yes, in sworn testimony!

Corker of a bike, John!

All the best,

Dan. (...who thinks one can never have too many RTs)

[leftpoole]

I love anything from the 1950's except modern cycles which are superb (lighting included). I hate modern things and modern life. I really wish we did not have most modern things including Internet! Life would be better with all retro. I'm older now and know how life has changed!
John

[Neil Jones]

They may not be devices so to speak but after just having spent half an hour applying Wax Dressing and Proofhide to my Carradice bags and Brooks saddle I was marvelling on how good these simple, well made products are. It's also great that they are one of the few things still made in the UK.

Love the RT John, I had a R100s a few years back, lovely looking bike in Smoke Red, sold it with 90,000 miles on the clock, looked as good as new.

Neil.

[John Saxby]

Thanks, Neil.  They are nice bikes indeed -- look good, and they're fine touring machines.  There's a loyal clutch of riders and mechanics who attend to them, and the factory still produces most of the essential parts.

The Brooks must be one of the few really long-lived quality products available these days, although Those Who Know Them say that their quality has been diluted.  And made in the UK too, as you note.  In the latter vein, a few years ago I was dumbfounded to read that Lucas made magnetos for F1 cars; don't know if that's still the case, but who knew??  Maybe Lucas do a better job of building a few hundred a year, or whatever numbers F1 car consume; certainly "mass production" for English motorcycles was a challenge they couldn't meet.  To finance my Raven, I sold a mid-50's ex-comp AJS scrambler which I had rebuilt. The magneto on that, I have to say, was reasonably reliable; the dynamo, not at all.  Happily, there's a French firm which makes modern, powerful, stainless-steel 12v generators with identical dimensions to Joe Lucas' devices ... My Ajay is now thundering around Hamilton (Ont.), its lights well supported by a thoroughly modern variant of a 1950's product which so far as I can tell was never much good at all. (Further evidence: each Feb., in the depths of winter, the Toronto chapter of the Canajan Vintage Bikes Group, stages the Lucas Memorial Push, a pub crawl where the number of pubs visited and the beers consumed are kept within bounds by the fact that the participants are pushing Triumphs, Beezers, Nortons, etc.)

[Slammin Sammy]

Jeez!  I wasn't paying attention to the electrical nature of the thread ... maybe my venerated things fit under the "etc." of the title.

Saved by a technicality! 

I share your nostalgia for tried and true "airhead" BMW boxer twins, as I'm sure I've mentioned in previous posts (although I can't be certain just when...). And our relationship with, and appreciation of these things is precisely what I was referring to!

And John (leftpoole), I can't agree that modern = contemptible, as I'm sure there are a few future classics making their way to the fore amongst the plethora of "things" we surround ourselves with. But every once in a while, a "thing" develops to such a point of perfection that any modern "improvement" changes its very nature, and therefore diminishes its perfection. My R100GSPD (Paris Dakar) was a 1994 model, and among the last of the airheads sold. Besides power, reliability, tractability and a sweet note, it could be dismantled down to the engine and transmission in the field, without tools! No electronic injection, no computer to fry, just well thought out mechanical reliability and serviceability. Sigh... 

[Andre Jute]

Apple's Newton did something really well that the modern iPad/iPhone generation doesn't even attempt, handwriting recognition. I would sit in concerts in darkness and write on the screen with the included stylus or my finger, and the gubbins would translate my writing into text that I could edit quickly under the applease and modem through to De Paper no later than ten minutes after the concert. The other critics' papers never worked out why we beat them so consistently by a day, in most cases two days. I still have a complete Newton kit but of course the ports on the Macs are now different, so it is impossible to use it for anything that requires storage (and most of my work requires storage) without extreme contortions and inconvenience.

And here's the killer consideration: My iPad requires a huge, heavy, thick, inelegant Griffin Survivor case to be as sturdy as the Newton, so that it weighs more and is large than the Newton in its elegant leather case with all its accessories. The Newton, bare or cased, could be casually thrown over my shoulder into the back of the car. Try that with an iPad and you'll soon be out of real money...

Of course, a Newton with all the bits cost four or five times what an iPad costs even when you throw in a Griffin Survivor case. But it was worth it, a workman's tool against the iPad, which by comparison is a girl's toy.