Kooky Technology

They just don't make stuff like they used to, but we all know that by now.

very cool post.

 

it would be so awesome to case mod a 4 pedal control into something that would work on a modern tv. You have to give up everything but channel and volume, but that's all I use anyway.

 

I have a TV with that remote--TV works, but does not respond to clicker. Probably microphone fulla lint...
Gonna look at it tonight. I got the thing for free, garbage find while walking the dog, remote right with it. Think it's the two ****on.

 

I found it pretty interesting to hear about Jay Lenno's Duesenberg that had mechanical mechanisms on the engine in that activated lights on the dash that told you when to change the oil and service the car. All driven on gears like a pocket watch.

I also sold a 27 stutz radiator to a guy once, and he was telling me about his Stutz still having working water filled brake lines. No hydrolic fluid. Just water. heh. pretty neat.

 

The 300 will cause a Chihuahua to jump three feet straight up. The 4 will cause a Saint Bernard to do a backflip and the Chihuahua to explode.

 

i still got a beta with the 2 ****on remote thats corded..not quite as old as the zenith there, but i still get a kick out of seeing it in the closet

 

my first TV when i moved out had that remote, i could shake a jar of pennies & change the channel!!
My father in law had a TV with a "eye" in each corner of the cabinet & you got a flash lite & shined it into the eye & the volumn would go up & down & another would change the channels.I always told him to sell it on e-bay, might get as much as the "general lee" for it!!lol
It was a "plant stand" that she sold with the house about 5 yrs ago.
JimV

 

Forgot, what about the foot controlled "wonder bar" on GM cars!! Or the 45 record player for under the dash!!
JimV

 

I love that thing, my grandfather used to have one I think.

Some great stuff like that when you look through the backs of old Popular Science and even Scientific American, like microwave waffle irons or things like that. I think that some guy was even trying to sell a jetpack, back in the 50's....crazy

When I get home tonight I'll try to find those issues and post some things tommorow.

 

I remember those. My "rich" uncle had one in the early 70s that had several ****ons. My dad liked to mess with it by shaking his keys. It would hit the right note and change the channel or alter the volume level.

Dad also liked to hit two ****ons at once to see what the TV would do. Sometimes it would chnge something that neither ****on was supposed to control.

Dad had a better remote than his brother. He had a son. "Go change the channel to the Night Stalker, and turn it up!"

Slonaker

 

Here's mine. Still works like a charm, The weird part is the tv will turn on all by it self sometimes......Lucky

 

As far as cars go, I'd have to vote for the 78 rpm record player I saw in an old Chrysler from the '50s.
Those big ugly window coolers are pretty cool too!

 

I WANT the 4! I hate Chihuahuas. Neighbors dog never stops yapping.

That's where the term "clicker" for the remote control came from. I used to have a remote control car as a kid that worked that way. Everytime you clicked the remote, it would change direction.

I miss hearing "solid state", "hi-fi", "stereophonic", "technocolor", and other old buzz words of the era.

 

Hmmmm...look at all those silly streetrodders buying remote control 17 function fobs that allow them to open the ashtrays in their damnfool cars from 100 feet away...
How about a traditional clicker remote..."click click" and the glove compartment falls open...oops, damn deuce doesn't ha`ve a glove compartment.

 

Some things just work and many now think of it as kooky technology. Example.

I'm taking my kids and a couple of their friends to the mall in my Chevy. I reach up to wind the clock. They all got a kick out of how you actually had to wind the clock to get it to work.

One of the kids noted "hey listen, you can even hear it ticking".

Then again, I found an old hearing aid the other day.



Micronic radios are fairly well sought after today. Hearing aids, no so much.

 

My parents had one in the 60/70's
When anyone moved the bed sheets, you would get static pop....thus the TV would change....took us for ever to figure that one out.
And I still use the term CLICKER.....

 

I had an old (well it wasnt old at the time) TV with the clicker and it would come on or go off when I jingled my keys. Drove me crazy when it first happened. Would take keys out to lock the door on the way out and damned TV would come on. GO turn it off and if keys jingled again on the way out it would come on again! Finally figured it out and left the TV on and would jingle keys on the way out to turn it off. COme home and jingle keys on the way in the door and turn it on. Used to freak out my pot smokin buddies (of course I never did that ) by talking to the tv when I jingled the keys and told em that It responded to my voice. That was before voice recognition was invented......HELL that was before PC's! GOD IM OLD!

 

I guess it was around '62 or '63, my grandparents had a TV that worked off a remote similar or like that.
They also had a Lazy-Boy recliner that had a spring that went "boing" if you reclined it while pushing out a bit on one of the arms, and it would change the station...
Grandma didn't know this, but I did.
So, one day I was visiting, she had the remote and was all frustrated because she'd change the station and then it would change back for no apparent reason.
Then she saw and heard me move the recliner, and caught on...
That was fun.

 

Not from the 'golden age', but I'm sorta fascinated with the vacuum cylinder remote trunk release in our '62 Invicta. Much cooler pulling that plunger than pushing some stupid ****on.

Also, the VW Beetle windshield squirter that uses air pressure from the spare tire... that's pretty cool.

 

My dad's boss has a '52ish Cadillac with hydraulic power windows, and seat heaters that are basically heater hose from the engine with a thumb valve at the seat base. Both are ingenious.. the windows are silent. But I've heard the lines can explode and you've got an oily mess in the bottom of your door.

 

A body shop that I worked in while in high school had a late 30's or 40's Lincoln coupe with hydraulic power windows and seat heaters. The car was in parts ready for paint so I never saw either system work.

 

Our TV didn't have a remote it was just a big wooden box with knobs on the side. It probably wasn't even a big box at all I was just real small.

I think the thing that most amazed me was a crystal radio I got for christmas; I was about 5 or 6 and me and my dad put it together. When it was done it looked like a sputnic you listened through an earphone and changed the station by pulling the antenna up or pushing it down. My mom still has it and it still works, to this day I have no clue how.

 

here's a space commander 600 and a tv...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ZENITH-SPACE-CO...66QQihZ009QQcategoryZ3638QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

I just love how everything used to have awesome names that made ordinary things seem like the bomb. Cruise-o-Matic and Powerglide transmissions come to mind.