Old Tech thread

[Harpo]

The Space Shuttle’s teleprinter weighed 59 pounds, adding over a million dollars to the cost of each flight.

 

[dask]

Thought it was a mimeograph machine at first glance.

 

[Parson]

Only 23 years ago

I believe I had an identical phone to that. It had the distinction for me that I drove over it (with a car) and it survived in good shape. FULL DISCLOSURE there was snow on the ground.

 

[dask]

 

[hitmouse]

View attachment 121713

Those Nikes are now worth far more than the boombox ever was.

 

[Pyan]

Looks like a meeting of the Geordi La Forge Appreciation Society...

 

[Parson]

Looks like a meeting of the Geordi La Forge Appreciation Society...

The only problem is the date it's before STNG, but I think I now know where the idea for Geordi La Forge's "glasses" came from.

 

[Ray Zdybrow]

Virtuality 1000CS arcade game. Note the word "CYBER" written in large letters on the side.
Pic is from "Mondo 2000 User's Guide To The New Edge" (Virtual Reality chapter, there is also a "Virtual Sex" chapter), which is itself "Old Tech", a book which is struggling to be a website (published in 1992, the year before Mosaic was released).

 

[dask]

 

[Pyan]

Amphibious bicycle, 1932.

 

[Vertigo]

Amphibious bicycle, 1932.

View attachment 122680​

That wouldn't do much for his suit trousers and shoes!

 

[dask]

 

[Pyan]

1950's rail/road bus from Germany. It normally ran on rails, using two detachable bogies, but could be dismounted to run on the road to places with no railway tracks. Ran from 1952 until 1967, when the last was scrapped, apart from one retained in the Transport Museum in Nuremberg.

 

[Dave]

That wouldn't do much for his suit trousers and shoes!

I thought that too.

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

1950's rail/road bus from Germany. It normally ran on rails, using two detachable bogies, but could be dismounted to run on the road to places with no railway tracks. Ran from 1952 until 1967, when the last was scrapped, apart from one retained in the Transport Museum in Nuremberg.

View attachment 122911​

Here in Ontario I've seen pick up trucks with the adapters required to do this. Used for maintenance purposes (of the line and surrounding infrastructure) rather than for transport.

 

[Pyan]

And, of course, there was the Top Gear solution...

 

[Ursa major]

The TV programme, Secrets of the London Underground, recently featured a road/rail vehicle that's used for shunting.

 

[Pyan]

 

[Dave]

I'm sure that the Greeks had those in at least 356 BCE!

And here is one from Rothschildschloss castle, Austria:

 

[farntfar]

The less hi-tech version.