Retro-Technology Update

"QUANTUM SHOT" #88


Vacuum Tube Radio / Interior Design Piece

One obscure shop in Japan sells these:



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An alarm clock with all its cog-wheels spilling out.
...from the same store:





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Speaking about cool steampunk-ish clocks, these ones go on your computer desktop.



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Recently you could buy on Ebay this cool Cold War-era Russian phone
(from a subterranean nuclear bunker):


- but it would only work if you speak in Russian.
(the text says: "Remember! The Enemy is listening!")

and a quite collectible retro calculator:

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Cool Steampunk Computer Case Mod

Found on a Russian site
The original link is here





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For the more radically inclined (not satisfied with mere external case modifications) - there is a Tinkertoy wooden computer. Entirely in a class of its own, this is a unique, if rather slow computer concept:



Read its description here. Apparently it's good enough to beat humans at the "tic-tac-toe" game.
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Nixie Tube clocks
Exotic, practical clocks built around wonderfully obsolete Nixie display tubes.




"NIXIE" numeric displays: introduced in 1952, they quickly became the most common numeric display device in laboratory/industrial equipment until they were instantly forgotten in the early 1970's.

Source: WPS
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Unique Clock-Voltmeter



Believe it or not, this is also a clock. "The Model 13 is a one of a kind clock, partially a design study in the use of an analog meter movement for information display. The clock is housed in a portable AC voltmeter, available from the late 1930's through the mid-1950's. The original meter movement was retained, and the meter card recalibrated with scales necessary to display time and date. A fairly complex set of software routines are necessary to accurately present time on the primitive and decidedly nonlinear meter movement.
As far as is known, no commercial clock ever used this type of display, though it is compact and efficient. Its meter scale shares the same principles with the slide rule."
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...We finish with something altogether wild:
A hair dryer from the Twenties:
(found by Bluefenox)



Permanent Link...
Category: Technology,Vintage
Related Posts:
Wooden Laptop & Other Cool Steampunk Mods
Retro Potpourri, Part 1-2