Things in living memory which seem very anachronistic now

[Peter Mugridge]

This is certainly an anachronistic thing from living memory...

...an annual season ticket for the cross channel hovercraft!!

 

[AndyPJG]

At school in the 1960s, I had a book of 5-figure tables. But working on road schemes in the early-mid 1970s, we did our setting-out calculations using books of 7-figure tables, which were hardbacks about an inch and a half thick. We finally scrapped our last office copy in an office move around 2006.

Same here, setting out on M3 motorway using 7 figure log tables and a wind up calculator, working out of a mobile site office with gas lighting and heating.
Ironic part was as that contract was imperial units, having to convert distances measured in metric (by Wild DI 10? distomat) to decimal feet. 3.2808 ft to metre seems to be ingrained in memory to this day.

 

[John Webb]

Re: Slide Rule
Following this conversation I’ve been on the t’internet (Amazon) to find a slide rule similar to what I would have used back in the 1960’s/1970’s but with no success. I’m guessing they don’t exist any more?

After two years in my first job, in leaving in 1969 to go to a research laboratory, I was given a slide rule as a goodbye present. Hardly ever used it as when I got to my new job there were very early mains-powered calculators available and then eventually pocket calculators which also enabled the ditching of trigonometry tables.

 

[DelW]

Same here, setting out on M3 motorway using 7 figure log tables and a wind up calculator, working out of a mobile site office with gas lighting and heating.
Ironic part was as that contract was imperial units, having to convert distances measured in metric (by Wild DI 10? distomat) to decimal feet. 3.2808 ft to metre seems to be ingrained in memory to this day.

That must have been one of the last imperial jobs, maybe it had been in design for a long while. My first site as a student engineer was on the (then) A45 in Suffolk in 1973, which was already all metric. Presumably you worked in decimal feet rather than feet and inches, which would have added an extra complication?

We also had a Wild distomat on site but only the chief surveyor was allowed to use it, since it was alleged to have cost £10,000, we ordinary engineers weren't allowed near it! I did get to use a DI 3 and DI 3s on later jobs, way more accurate and quicker than multiple uses of a steel tape.

The odd number which sticks with me is for setting large radius circular curves, 1718.9 x chord length ÷ radius, IIRC that's the deflection angle in minutes of arc.

 

[gg1]

I think that was the Comptometer, a sort of adding machine that gave access to all numbers on each digit of the numbers entered. It was in it's time a role that needed training in order to use them at speed.

For that reason they were actually faster than an electronic calculator when used by a skilled, experienced operator and hung on in some sectors well into the 80s. I used to work with someone who was a Comptometer operator from the early 60s to mid 70s, I found her description of how the things worked fascinating, I didn't know such a thing even existed before I met her.

 

[3141]

After two years in my first job, in leaving in 1969 to go to a research laboratory, I was given a slide rule as a goodbye present. Hardly ever used it as when I got to my new job there were very early mains-powered calculators available and then eventually pocket calculators which also enabled the ditching of trigonometry tables.

In science fiction stories of 60 or more years ago, engineers frequently used slide rules, often referred to colloquially as slipsticks. This name was sometimes applied to the engineers themselves. That seems especially prevalent in stories by Robert Heinlein. Readers today must wonder what it all means.

It's interesting that some writers imagining a world centuries in the future assumed that slide rules would still be in use, though there were others who did envisage some sort of personal calculator. Perhaps it's relatively easy to imagine the calculator but more difficult to imagine the form it would take. When pocket calculators began to become available in the 1970s few people would have expected it to exist in a much more advanced form on a smartphone. I won't try to predict its form fifty years from now!

 

[swt_passenger]

In science fiction stories of 60 or more years ago, engineers frequently used slide rules, often referred to colloquially as slipsticks. This name was sometimes applied to the engineers themselves. That seems especially prevalent in stories by Robert Heinlein. Readers today must wonder what it all means.

It's interesting that some writers imagining a world centuries in the future assumed that slide rules would still be in use, though there were others who did envisage some sort of personal calculator.

You could include football commentators in this, the younger generation still sometimes refer to a “slide rule pass” meaning highly accurate, although they have probably never seen a slide rule…

 

[nw1]

One might be tempted to say using feet rather than metres for elevation, or pounds and ounces rather than kilograms and grams.

As long ago as about 1979, in the earlier years of primary school, we has a session on weights and measures, the metric system was used, and the message was very much that it was the contemporary system, fit for the late 70s and 80s. Later of course, in science subjects at secondary school, the SI system was very much the thing to use.

However just this morning I see a boy of about the age I was in the late 70s talk about something (I don't know what) as being "3000 feet up in the air".

 

[najaB]

However just this morning I see a boy of about the age I was in the late 70s talk about something (I don't know what) as being "3000 feet up in the air".

That's likely because aircraft altitudes are measured in feet (outside of Russia and China) so he'd be more familiar with that than metres.

 

[nw1]

In science fiction stories of 60 or more years ago, engineers frequently used slide rules, often referred to colloquially as slipsticks. This name was sometimes applied to the engineers themselves. That seems especially prevalent in stories by Robert Heinlein. Readers today must wonder what it all means.

It's interesting that some writers imagining a world centuries in the future assumed that slide rules would still be in use, though there were others who did envisage some sort of personal calculator. Perhaps it's relatively easy to imagine the calculator but more difficult to imagine the form it would take. When pocket calculators began to become available in the 1970s few people would have expected it to exist in a much more advanced form on a smartphone. I won't try to predict its form fifty years from now!

Slide rules obviously went out very quickly, for I never encountered them. Having said that, I do rememeber calculators still being a luxury item so there was probably a small window (late 70s, very early 80s) when neither were widespread. I got my first calculator in 1981, and it seemed very futuristic, yet only a short time later I'd have my first computer (the Sinclair Spectrum). A model with a black screen and green digits, it was branded Boots but was actually a Timex-made device.

And to quote Sam Cooke I still don't really "know what a slide rule is for"...

 

[Ediswan]

Slide rules obviously went out very quickly, for I never encountered them. Having said that, I do rememeber calculators still being a luxury item so there was probably a small window (late 70s, very early 80s) when neither were widespread. I got my first calculator in 1981, and it seemed very futuristic, yet only a short time later I'd have my first computer (the Sinclair Spectrum). A model with a black screen and green digits, it was branded Boots but was actually a Timex-made device.

Prior to that, Boots sold own-brand slide rules.

 

[GordonT]

Something which has greatly declined in popularity and which some would regard as anachronistic is self sufficiency in producing "home made" food products. Perhaps with the assistance of well-thumbed pre-WW2 recipe books.
An example would be growing copious amounts of rhubarb and using it to make copious jars of rhubarb jam.

 

[bspahh]

Slide rules obviously went out very quickly, for I never encountered them. Having said that, I do rememeber calculators still being a luxury item so there was probably a small window (late 70s, very early 80s) when neither were widespread. I got my first calculator in 1981, and it seemed very futuristic, yet only a short time later I'd have my first computer (the Sinclair Spectrum). A model with a black screen and green digits, it was branded Boots but was actually a Timex-made device.

My first calculator was £4.95 from a promotion on the back of a Cornflakes packet in ~ 1976. That is ~£48 adjusted for inflation.

 

[najaB]

My first calculator was £4.95 from a promotion on the back of a Cornflakes packet in ~ 1976. That is ~£48 adjusted for inflation.

And it appears to only do the four basic arithmetic operations, so almost £12.50 per function. Now you can get a scientific calculator with over 400 functions for about the same amount!

 

[McRhu]

My first calculator (circa 1975/6 I think) was a beauty with a bright green LED display and 'proper' keys which I used it for keeping darts scores. I later on shot it with an air rifle (popular with adolescents and miscreants back in the day and widely available with no restrictions = anachronism) for some reason and I bitterly regret it now. It did the basic arithmetic operations and had no memory: not even a fraction of a KB, but it was gorgeous and that's what matters. RIP

 

[Ediswan]

My first calculator (circa 1975/6 I think) was a beauty with a bright green LED display and 'proper' keys which I used it for keeping darts scores. I later on shot it with an air rifle (popular with adolescents and miscreants back in the day and widely available with no restrictions = anachronism) for some reason and I bitterly regret it now. It did the basic arithmetic operations and had no memory: not even a fraction of a KB, but it was gorgeous and that's what matters. RIP

Given the date, more likely vacuum fluorescent than green LED.

http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/calculator_displays.html

There is no known calculator before 1980 with a green LED display

 

[Tazi Hupefi]

Got a request from the wife to pick up some black treacle today. Realised I hadn't purchased any for at least a decade.

 

[McRhu]

Given the date, more likely vacuum fluorescent than green LED.

http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/calculator_displays.html

Ah. Thanks. It lit up beautifully with a hypnotic emerald glow that transcended mere arithmetic, and to switch it on was to be transported to realms ethereal.

 

[Killingworth]

Ah. Thanks. It lit up beautifully with a hypnotic emerald glow that transcended mere arithmetic, and to switch it on was to be transported to realms ethereal.

My first calculator seemed brilliant about 1975, a Pye 640. Found a picture online. Cost over £30, probably discounted as already being superseded but a significant sum back then. Also available without memory or with scientific functions.

In 50 years time the price of the phone I'm using now will be laughably high too!

 

[Western Lord]

One might be tempted to say using feet rather than metres for elevation, or pounds and ounces rather than kilograms and grams.

As long ago as about 1979, in the earlier years of primary school, we has a session on weights and measures, the metric system was used, and the message was very much that it was the contemporary system, fit for the late 70s and 80s. Later of course, in science subjects at secondary school, the SI system was very much the thing to use.

However just this morning I see a boy of about the age I was in the late 70s talk about something (I don't know what) as being "3000 feet up in the air".

Whatever was taught at school, remember that as soon as they went home children were back in an imperial measure environment, with their parents using imperial measures. As children spend more time out of school than in it is no surprise that everyday use of imperial measures continues to this day

 

[gg1]

Slide rules obviously went out very quickly, for I never encountered them. Having said that, I do rememeber calculators still being a luxury item so there was probably a small window (late 70s, very early 80s) when neither were widespread. I got my first calculator in 1981, and it seemed very futuristic, yet only a short time later I'd have my first computer (the Sinclair Spectrum). A model with a black screen and green digits, it was branded Boots but was actually a Timex-made device.

And to quote Sam Cooke I still don't really "know what a slide rule is for"...

Whatever was taught at school, remember that as soon as they went home children were back in an imperial measure environment, with their parents using imperial measures. As children spend more time out of school than in it is no surprise that everyday use of imperial measures continues to this day

That was the case for me, my dad exclusively worked in imperial measurements so I picked up both (give or take a year or two I'm around the same age as @nw1 )

The advantage of that is I find converting the most commonly used measurements from imperial to metric or vice versa very easy, the downside is I use a mix of both:

Dimensions and short distances - metric
Longer distances - imperial
Altitude (of aircraft or mountains) - imperial
Weight of a person - imperial
Weight of literally anything else - metric
Temperature - metric
Volume - metric (unless it's in the context of fuel consumption when I use the imperial mpg)

 

[AM9]

That was the case for me, my dad exclusively worked in imperial measurements so I picked up both (give or take a year or two I'm around the same age as @nw1 )

The advantage of that is I find converting the most commonly used measurements from imperial to metric or vice versa very easy, the downside is I use a mix of both:

Dimensions and short distances - metric
Longer distances - imperial
Altitude (of aircraft or mountains) - imperial
Weight of a person - imperial
Weight of literally anything else - metric
Temperature - metric
Volume - metric (unless it's in the context of fuel consumption when I use the imperial mpg)

Used imperial throughout school (although familiar with metric linear, mass and volume measure), and transferred to metric at work around 1970. My mix is:

Liinear and areal measirement, (envisage in metric or imperial but use metric)
Distances for travel, either
Distances on maps, prefer km
Altitude (aircraft only - ft but terrain m)
Body weight - kg, - in my case still too many, lb is a totally useless measurement for body weight but st & lb OK
All other weights , kg
Temperature - celcius
Volume - litres/cc only
Power, - always W

 

[najaB]

Body weight - kg, - in my case still too many, lb is a totally useless measurement for body weight but st & lb OK

Stones make zero sense to me. Give me pounds or kilos any day.

 

[AM9]

Stones make zero sense to me. Give me pounds or kilos any day.

I agree, but they aren't as daft as £sd.

 

[GusB]

My dad had a slide rule made by British Thornton. It was housed within a two-part plastic case and I had no idea what it was for. I'm fairly certain that he held onto it, so I'll have to ask my brother if he came across if when clearing the house.

He also had a Sinclair calculator - one of the Oxford models, if I remember correctly. It was fairly basic and used a PP3 battery (the type that made your tongue tingle...) I've no idea what happened to it, but it had a port for a plug-in mains adaptor if required.

I had a scientific calculator before I went to secondary school (I can't remember the brand), but the LCD screen got damaged and I eventually bought one of the Casio Fx82 range - I think it was a "c". I preferred plastic keys over the rubber ones that my previous calculator had, and the Fx82s had a solid plastic case rather than the wallet type, so they were fairly robust.

In my final year at school I bought one of the new-fangled "graphics" calculators that allowed you to plot graphs and things; I recall that it cost about £50 (early 90s prices), so it was quite expensive for the time - I think there was some sort of school discount involved, though. Unfortunately it stopped working completely when I had to change the battery. It's still kicking about somewhere.

Of course, nowadays we can do all this stuff on a single device.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

A Rovex model locomotive....were these taken over by Tri-Ang?

 

[Killingworth]

A Rovex model locomotive....were these taken over by Tri-Ang?

In a word, yes.

See; http://www.tri-ang.co.uk/rovex.htm

 

[dangie]

It despairs me a little nowadays when people use a calculator for even the most simple of calculations.

It despairs me even more, that as a 73 year old who used to pride himself on his mental arithmetic, I am rapidly becoming one of them

 

[nw1]

My first calculator (circa 1975/6 I think) was a beauty with a bright green LED display and 'proper' keys which I used it for keeping darts scores. I later on shot it with an air rifle (popular with adolescents and miscreants back in the day and widely available with no restrictions = anachronism) for some reason and I bitterly regret it now. It did the basic arithmetic operations and had no memory: not even a fraction of a KB, but it was gorgeous and that's what matters. RIP

Interesting, looks like calculators came in earlier than I thought, I'd have guessed around 1978/79. I remember my parents getting one at the end of 1980 and I was fascinated to the extent that they got me one of my own a few months later.

 

[Bald Rick]

Interesting, looks like calculators came in earlier than I thought, I'd have guessed around 1978/79. I remember my parents getting one at the end of 1980 and I was fascinated to the extent that they got me one of my own a few months later.

In my early days I worked for a company where the boss had an electronic calcuator he had bought in 1971. It was about the size of an A5 pad, but much deeper, had a rechargeable battery, and worked in a different way to the calaculators I was used to in the 80s (perhaps a ’register’ calculator? I can’t remember). Whatever, he told me on more than one occasion that it was £90 or so when he bought it in 1971. That’s getting on for £2k now…