Posted on 03/12/2025 12:42:43 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
Straight from the "What will they think of next?" archive in January 1961...
(Excerpt) Read more at books.google.com ...
I like the way the boss in the background is keeping a close eye on Miss Smith using the latest tech!
I remember my Opa's big console TV around 1960. It had a remote control of the channels! It was an electro-mechanical gizmo that had a motor on the tuning knob. When he pushed a button on the remote for a new TV station, the motor on the TV turned the station tuning knob. Ka-chunk, ka-chunk, ka-chunk. You waited for the know to finish turning. Then you had to rotate the rooftop antenna to the best position using another remote!
I still use that dialer to log into free republic.
The place I’m staying at in Italy has the dish drying rack above the sink in a cabinet, which is open at the bottom.
With commuter rail systems, you can tap your bank card before boarding on a device and then at a second device after getting off the train - no ticket is involved - tap, go, tap again.
We had a hand-me-down sonic remote tv without the remote. By dropping some silverware one evening, we discovered we could change the channels by clanking 2 spoons together!
We were in uptown hog heaven.
I remember the voting machines of the 1960s.
I also remember the train board at Baltimore’s Penn Station.
I also remember Telex machines.
Related to that, and the OP, there is the story of people hacking the AT&T long distance system with a Captain Crunch whistle. Yes, a free item from a cereal box.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/capn-crunch-whistle
She looks pretty hot and well put together, I’d be checking her out too!
LOL...beep beep boop beep scrreeeeee!
LOL...maybe if you picked up tv stations in your tooth fillings, you wouldn’t even need the remote.
I rode on steam locomotive trains.
The phone booth in remote China was powered by a stack of battery cells about 3" diameter and 10" tall. Similar to the EverReady No. 6 "Dry Cell":
LOL...I know your type. You were sneaking peeks at the “Ladies Undergarments” section of the Sears Roebuck catalog when Mom wasn’t watching.
This is still a work in progress:
one of those gizmos would have saved my little “dialing” finger many miles.
When Mrs goo goo and I were high-school-sweethearts (for 3+ years), the last 4 digits of her phone # were 8890. That’s lots of revolutions!
As it turns out, it was worth the effort!
At my prior house I had a nice pot rack above the kitchen sink. It was great! Wash pot/pan, hang, done-zo!
What is email? I remember its predecessor called the twix, spelled twx. It stood for teletypewriter exchange. I have memories of drafting them to be sent over the teletypewriter and also reading the printouts received from others.
Phooey on all that electronic crap. We had party lines so could listen in to the neighbors.
That battery (or one like it) was the very first mass-produced electrical product in the world, made available in the year 1800. It was marketed toward electrical experimenters.
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