Old Tech thread

[Ursa major]

Or how about this one?

That's clearly a musical instrument that's been extracted from the Burgess Shale.

 

[Pyan]

That's clearly a musical instrument that's been extracted from the Burgess Shale.

And probably re-assembled upside-down, to boot...

 

[Vladd67]

Or how about this one?

A swiss army guitar?

 

[dask]

 

[Dave]

That's certainly a cool thing, but surely that kit has to be a prop? Something made much more recently mocked up to look like it's old. I've seen some very clever, but similar Steampunk items, and there are some very clever and creative people who do this just as a hobby (if not employed in film and TV production themselves, and also not necessarily to fool people in a Lovejoy kind of way) just for fun.

 

[Vladd67]

That's certainly a cool thing, but surely that kit has to be a prop? Something made much more recently mocked up to look like it's old. I've seen some very clever, but similar Steampunk items, and there are some very clever and creative people who do this just as a hobby (if not employed in film and TV production themselves, and also not necessarily to fool people in a Lovejoy kind of way) just for fun.

There was an article in Fortean Times showing how to build a vampire hunters box, starting with a small victorian era box. But then again you get this

A Vampire-Hunting Kit Purportedly From the 19th Century Sells for $20,000 in the U.K., Exploding Its Meager $2,400 Estimate | Artnet News

According to the auction house, the kit first belonged to Lord Hailey, a one-time administrator of British India.

news.artnet.com

 

[SilentRoamer]

The height of armaments. Anyone remember building their own guns?

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

View attachment 101295

There was a big industry in Victorian times based around novelty items like this. Also fake medievel chastity belts and torture devices. Many museums have been fooled, I'm sure.

 

[Dave]

I knew about museums being fooled by the fake Piltdown Man skull, and of faux taxidermy where heads of one animal were put on bodies of others, but I didn't think about other items too. It stands to reason though. Even before public museums, there were travelling circuses and exhibtitions of the Ripley's Believe it or Not kind, and even before that, there were religious artifacts to fake - the Shroud of Jesus, the Holy Grail - ashes in an Urn, or just a very small piece the clothing or belongings of various different Saints - so a big money making business!

 

[JunkMonkey]

There was an article in Fortean Times showing how to build a vampire hunters box, starting with a small victorian era box. But then again you get this

A Vampire-Hunting Kit Purportedly From the 19th Century Sells for $20,000 in the U.K., Exploding Its Meager $2,400 Estimate | Artnet News

According to the auction house, the kit first belonged to Lord Hailey, a one-time administrator of British India.

news.artnet.com

Aha! another subscriber?

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

There was an article in Fortean Times showing how to build a vampire hunters box, starting with a small victorian era box. But then again you get this

A Vampire-Hunting Kit Purportedly From the 19th Century Sells for $20,000 in the U.K., Exploding Its Meager $2,400 Estimate | Artnet News

According to the auction house, the kit first belonged to Lord Hailey, a one-time administrator of British India.

news.artnet.com

“These enigmatic objects transcend questions of authenticity. They are part of the material culture of the gothic; aspects of our shared literary and cinematic passions made physical. Lacking any surviving artifact of vampirism either folkloric or fictional, fans of the gothic had created one to fill the gap.”

Really well put by Jonathan Ferguson of the Royal Armories.

 

[dask]

 

[Vince W]

This ain’t like dusting crops, boy.

 

[JunkMonkey]

View attachment 101385

That's straight from one of the Myst games.

 

[mosaix]

I knew about museums being fooled by the fake Piltdown Man skull, and of faux taxidermy where heads of one animal were put on bodies of others

They initially suspected the duck-billed platypus was one such animal.

 

[Vladd67]

They initially suspected the duck-billed platypus was one such animal.

Apparently you can see scissor marks on one of the first stuffed platypus sent to a UK museum.

 

[Dave]

I've seen a live one, so I'm a believer that they are real!

Much smaller than I had expected, mostly nocturnal, and swim underwater, so difficult for those first explorers to have found I would think?
Also, if they aren't already odd enough, they have venom in their hind claws, and they glow blue-green under a UV blacklight.

But this is a Tech thread, sorry!

 

[Parson]

View attachment 101385

This is the ideal setting for a steam punk story.

 

[farntfar]

One for the 300,perhaps

 

[dask]