So we can add - TV sets that were deep enough to support a box on top.With cables thicker than an undersea data cable that were rigid enough to flick set-top boxes off the top of the set
So we can add - TV sets that were deep enough to support a box on top.With cables thicker than an undersea data cable that were rigid enough to flick set-top boxes off the top of the set
Set top boxes are very much still a 'thing', despite no longer sitting atop a set. A linguistic remnant, like dialing a number.So we can add - TV sets that were deep enough to support a box on top.
My parents had one from before I was born, I'm fairly certain it lasted into the early nineties after I had left home. Don't ever recall seeing the spray gun attachment, we always thought the blowing function was to help clear the hose if something got stuck in itI've found our one, though without the spray gun attachment. The fourth picture shows where the hose fits into the output end.
I reckon that's an even more niche website than railway history onesVacuum Cleaner Collection - electrolux_zc65
This website is dedicated to a great italian collection of vacuum cleaners - Sito dedicato a una importante collezione italiana di aspirapolverewww.vacuumcleanercollection.com
Not relating to household items but back in the 80s I worked in the IT department of a major PLC. I was managing an office move and asked about binning a drawer full of punch cards in one of the cabinets. Response from the manager of the team owning the cabinet was a sudden panic, that was the back up for the mainframe operating system, I assume only needed if all machines at both centres went down at once (I was not on the ops side). He went rather quiet when I reminded him that we had scrapped our last card reader a week earlier.Amazed you've still got working 8" drives. If you do find a supplier check if they've got any punched cards and paper tape while you're at it
Ah ha - Maplin !, sadly gone. About ten years before that Tandy (branded Radio Shack) went under.Talking of window signs, how about the Blue Arrow you were supposed to put in the window when you were expecting a delivery from the catalogue.
Or catalogues generally for that matter. We always had the Kays and Marshall Ward catalogues for getting disappointing new clothes from, and I had a Maplin catalogue for ordering mystifying new electrical components from
I need one now, or some fly paper.Not sure if they have already been mentioned, but Vapona fly killer blocks were commonplace hanging in many houses during the summer back in the 60s and 70s.
I suspect that rather depends on your definition of "more common". I doubt that a larger percentage of houses had them in the past since, in real terms, they are considerably more affordable these days. What might well be true that as a percentage of "home entertainment devices" they certainly would have been as early TVs, radios and hi-fi's would have been prohibitively expensive. According to Wikipedia the earliest 12" TV cost the equivalent of $8,000 in 2019 dollars, an upright piano can be had for less than half of that.Don't recall seeing them listed above, but I think that "real" pianos were more common than they are now.
They last a long time. I suspect the opposite, downhill trend since some time 100-200 years ago.I suspect that rather depends on your definition of "more common". I doubt that a larger percentage of houses had them in the past since, in real terms, they are considerably more affordable these days.
They do last a long time, but that article seems to treat them like they only last a year. Given that a large proportion of the 1978 pianos will still be kicking around somewhere, along with a decent number of earlier ones, and a good number from later, it's not unlikely that a good solid 5% of homes have a piano now.They last a long time. I suspect the opposite, downhill trend since some time 100-200 years ago.
Hard to find evidence though, this seems to make sense from the USA...
Who Still Owns a Piano?
Our population has grown, but it seems fewer households have pianos now. Have sales increased or decreased?—Talbott Miller, Dallas, Texas They have been decreasing for decades. In 1900, when Americans numbered about 76 million, some 171,000 pianos were sold, so you would find one in every 178...parade.com
We're actually saying the same thing, but approaching it from different directions.They last a long time. I suspect the opposite, downhill trend since some time 100-200 years ago.
Oh, without a doubt. Cheaper, take up less space and more functional.I suspect that there are probably a lot more electronic keyboards about than conventional pianos.
Oh, without a doubt. Cheaper, take up less space and more functional.
Encyclopedia (volumes of)
I think a full Encyclopedia Britannica would be a big cost and space commitment. We had the 20 (smaller) volume Children's Britannica, which was affordable for a not particularly rich family. I don't think anybody else I knew had one though.Yeah I wondered about that. When I was growing up the Encyclopedia Britannia was the source of knowledge to look-up in the same way Wikipedia is today. I even remember going to the local library a few times to look up their copies for bits of school homework. But I wonder if it was ever truly commonplace in people's homes? I'm sure it would've been pretty expensive to buy a set and would require a lot of storage space, so I'm guessing it would only be posh/wealthier families who were either of an intellectual bent or wanted to give that impression who would've owned them.
Chambers dictionary, yep. Pears Cyclopedia, yep.I think a full Encyclopedia Britannica would be a big cost and space commitment. We had the 20 (smaller) volume Children's Britannica, which was affordable for a not particularly rich family. I don't think anybody else I knew had one though.
You also got rather smaller reference books like the big single-volume Chambers or Oxford dictionary, and the Pears Cyclopaedia.
Might have been popular, but I've never heard of it . One definite plus of the various Brittanicas was that they were tastefully leather-bound, so if you got the set and put them on a rich mahogany bookshelf then you'd really made it.I was thinking of something more common like the Reader's Digest Great Encyclopedic Dictionary in 3 volumes.
I wouldn't necessarily call servants "commonplace"!Servants?
I mean, everyone seems to have them in period TV shows.