Old Tech thread

[mosaix]

C'm on, it's Bugsy - nothings going to happen. Now, if it was Daffy doing it...

Nothing's going to happen if the shells are made by Acme.

 

[Ursa major]

Well, someone has to re-fuse those shells....

 

[Danny McG]

A nearby pub to me often has big barbecues in the summer.
They have the classic half an oil drum for the charcoal and use the sides and bases of shopping trolleys as the grill.

At one side of the yard is a steadily growing mound of trolley wheels/handles etc and the burned through older trolley sides, at the end of summer they take these to the scrap metal man.

I've never been there when it's happened but allegedly they've said at times "will someone go for another trolley? Two free burgers if you do"

 

[dask]

Pre-Wi-Fi:

 

[Vince W]

That is some fine cable management.

 

[Astro Pen]

Curta Mechanical Calculator.
@thaddeus6th brought this device up a few years back on another thread but it is worth putting Steve Mold's short vid about it on here.

 

[farntfar]

Curta Mechanical Calculator.
@thaddeus6th brought this device up a few years back on another thread but it is worth putting Steve Mold's short vid about it on here.

Yes. Very nice.

 

[Ursa major]

Looking up the Curta's page on Wikipedia, it amused me to discover this:

It was not long before Herzstark's financial backers, thinking they had got from him all they needed, conspired to force him out by reducing the value of all of the company's existing stock to zero, including his one-third interest. These were the same people who had earlier elected not to have Herzstark transfer ownership of his patents to the company, so that, should anyone sue, they would be suing Herzstark, not the company, thereby protecting themselves at Herzstark's expense. This ploy now backfired: without the patent rights, they could manufacture nothing. Herzstark was able to negotiate a new agreement, and money continued to flow to him.

I do like a story with a happy ending.