# Oldest machines that are still in practical use **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 14, 2015, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-machines-that-are-still-in-practical-use/722508 "2015-06-14T14:09:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2015, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-machines-that-are-still-in-practical-use/722508/41 "2015-06-14T21:23:42Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > maintain that the best, most accurate machines must be decades old, not only due to the better quality of production in the first half of the twentieth century, but also for the stability of the structure that comes with age. Could also be survivor bias. The machines that were not accurate decades ago got replaced eventually with machines that were accurate enough. This is a major reason why older machines that are still in use today tend to be “better made” than newer machines. It isn’t that, out of the new machines being manufactured today, at a significant fraction of them are probably made as well or better, but 50 years from now, only those well made machines will still be in use from this era. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2015, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-machines-that-are-still-in-practical-use/722508/42 "2015-06-14T21:49:52Z")
> [@Habeed](#): > > Could also be survivor bias. The machines that were not accurate decades ago got replaced eventually with machines that were accurate enough. This is a major reason why older machines that are still in use today tend to be “better made” than newer machines. It isn’t that, out of the new machines being manufactured today, at a significant fraction of them are probably made as well or better, but 50 years from now, only those well made machines will still be in use from this era. Yes, that is a common counter-argument. I’m an agnostic on the subject myself, but many people are passionately on one side or the other. But for the purpose of this thread, these machines \*are \*quite old and \*are \*still in use. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2015, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-machines-that-are-still-in-practical-use/722508/43 "2015-06-14T21:53:31Z")
> [@Vaevictis](#): > > Yeah the whole B-52 thing is mostly that what electronics it has and what it can do are radically different from its older versions. I was sitting the cockpit of a B-52H a couple days ago. And I just want to say that this is not necessarily true. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2015, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-machines-that-are-still-in-practical-use/722508/44 "2015-06-14T21:58:47Z")
Some people here seem to be getting away from the OP’s criteria: > [@](#): > > Please give me examples of old machines that are still in use - not because of nostalgic value but because they are still doing their job so well they don’t need to be replaced or redesigned. So the OP is not interested in tourist attractions… ---
**Author:** ![Jaguars](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaguars/32/5879_2.png) [@Jaguars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaguars)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2015, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-machines-that-are-still-in-practical-use/722508/45 "2015-06-14T22:34:05Z")
My brother worked in a sawmill that produced chlorine as a byproduct. They turned it into chlorine for swimming pools. Apparently the machine that did most of the work was some sort of huge compressor or gassifier that dated from 1917. It was brought to NZ as war reparations at the end of the first world war. It had been used in the production of chlorine gas for the front lines. He said that when a vital part of it broke, they had to ask the manufacturer to dig out the original plans, which dated from even further back, to make a replacement part. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2015, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-machines-that-are-still-in-practical-use/722508/46 "2015-06-14T22:53:51Z")
“Dirty Jobs” had an episode at an artisan tannery which featured a machine that looked like a player piano, and it was used to determine the square footage of animal hides. Mike Rowe told the employee, “I suppose nowadays they use lasers?” and was told, “Yes, and they calibrate them with these machines.” IIRC, the machine had been installed when the company was founded 100-plus years ago. ---
**Author:** ![bubba001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f17d59/32.png) [@bubba001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubba001)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2015, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-machines-that-are-still-in-practical-use/722508/47 "2015-06-14T23:03:52Z")
> [@Jaguars](#): > > My brother worked in a sawmill that produced chlorine as a byproduct. They turned it into chlorine for swimming pools. Apparently the machine that did most of the work was some sort of huge compressor or gassifier that dated from 1917. It was brought to NZ as war reparations at the end of the first world war. It had been used in the production of chlorine gas for the front lines. > > He said that when a vital part of it broke, they had to ask the manufacturer to dig out the original plans, which dated from even further back, to make a replacement part. My dad had a small Tool & Die shop. He did a lot of work for TACOM, making small parts for obsolete thingys. One part he made over a lot of years, into the 1980’s, was a brass breech plug for a 75 mm pack howitzer. The print was dated 1909. I understand it was going to South America, they still used them there. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2015, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-machines-that-are-still-in-practical-use/722508/48 "2015-06-14T23:07:50Z")
Google is failing me on a cite, but I understand that at least one newspaper in the US is at least partially printed on a 100-year old, but still perfectly functional and economically viable, printing press. ---
**Author:** ![Jaguars](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaguars/32/5879_2.png) [@Jaguars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaguars)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-machines-that-are-still-in-practical-use/722508/49 "2015-06-15T00:49:27Z")
> [@bubba001](#): > > My dad had a small Tool & Die shop. He did a lot of work for TACOM, making small parts for obsolete thingys. One part he made over a lot of years, into the 1980’s, was a brass breech plug for a 75 mm pack howitzer. The print was dated 1909. > > I understand it was going to South America, they still used them there. It’s quite surprising how old low-tech gear in the military can be. In basic we used wired field telephones for one exercise that looked like something out of _Dad’s Army_. The Unimog trucks are some of the last vehicles on the road with white letter-on-black-plate number plates, indicating they’ve been in continuous registration since prior to 1987, and many of the rifles we use date from then as well. Sometimes I even get one that is younger than I am! (1991 usually) ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-machines-that-are-still-in-practical-use/722508/50 "2015-06-15T03:38:14Z")
Our local NPR affiliate enters their fund drive information on an Apple IIe. They use it only for that, and it works just fine, so why change things? They have more modern computer equipment for everything else, however. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-machines-that-are-still-in-practical-use/722508/51 "2015-06-15T04:08:19Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Are there any old canal locks in use in Europe? Yep; I can’t tell you when was the last time those in the Canal Imperial de Aragón were replaced but not within my lifetime. In el Bocal (“the mouth”, the hamlet where the Canal is born) you can see the machinery that moves the big ones - most of the locks along the Canal are small, lateral ones opening and closing irrigation zones. Every time the Canal gets drained there is talk of maybe changing some of the locks; every time, they’re still working fine so long as any outside-the-water parts are oiled, so they don’t get replaced. The Imperial in the name comes from Carlos V of Spain / Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, who had the Canal built. > [@PastTense](#): > > And surely some Dopers have a treadle Singer (or other brand) sewing machine. My aunt has grandma’s. My BFF’s mother has an automatic Singer and a foot-powered one: she still uses the foot-powered one for straight, simple jobs. > [@nearwildheaven](#): > > “Dirty Jobs” had an episode at an artisan tannery which featured a machine that looked like a player piano, and it was used to determine the square footage of animal hides. Mike Rowe told the employee, “I suppose nowadays they use lasers?” and was told, “Yes, and they calibrate them with these machines.” > > IIRC, the machine had been installed when the company was founded 100-plus years ago. That’s quite common in a way: how do you make sure your fancy cholorimeter is working well? You compare its readings against those obtained with an old fashioned set of colored chips or freshly-made colored solutions. Similar techniques are the ultimate reference behind electronic scales, pHmeters, and all kinds of fancy equipment. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-machines-that-are-still-in-practical-use/722508/52 "2015-06-15T05:20:55Z")
We visited a place where they made stone ground wheat and they had just recently replaced the stone, after about 90 years of use. Some mills have waterwheels that are still in use. The Cyclone roller coaster on Coney Island in New York was built in 1927 and is still in use. They constantly have to check it out and replace boards and nails and over the years they have probably replaced every board at least once. ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-machines-that-are-still-in-practical-use/722508/53 "2015-06-15T06:02:58Z")
By no means the oldest: Until it closed at the end of 2013 a local department store was using a 70 year old system of pneumatic tubes to transport cash and receipts around the store. It was notable as they used to be common in large stores, but this was the last one being operated in the World. Though walking into the store was like time travelling to the 1940s or even further back (the store itself opened in 1875), it wasn’t a gimmick they just basically from some time in the 1940s never saw a need to update anything about the store and yet inexplicably managed to survive until 2013. It would not surprise me at all if some of their stock was from the 1940s as it certainly looked it - when they closed down they still had cash books and receipts going back to 1875. Until only a few years ago my Grandmother (who is 90) would use a mincer that belonged to her Grandmother and would’ve been well over 100 years old to mince potatoes, purely because it made fantastic minced potato. I’ve never seen minced potato anywhere else, but trust me it is far superior to mashed potato on shepherd’s pie. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-machines-that-are-still-in-practical-use/722508/54 "2015-06-15T06:18:08Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > This brings us to Theseus’ paradox. "_whether an object which has had all of its components replaced remains fundamentally the same object."_ [Ship of Theseus - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus) > > If you go to Salisbury Cathedral you can see what is “_Probably the oldest working [mechanical] clock in existence, made of hand-wrought iron in or before 1386_.” Some parts have been replaced or restored but it is still largely the original clock. > > This doesn’t really fit the OP’s criteria though because it exists as a curiosity rather than the apogee of clock design. > > In general terms the internal combustion engine has been around for a while - lots of improvements over the years but still essentially a set of pistons driving a crankshaft and powered by exploding fuel. This reminds me of the old story about Paul Bunyan’s axe. (Paul was known for the tall tales surrounding him). Paul Bunyan still has the same axe he started working with way back when. He’s replaced the head 5 times and the handle 3 times. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-machines-that-are-still-in-practical-use/722508/55 "2015-06-15T06:51:38Z")
From [here](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watt_steam_engine#Preserved_Watt_engines): > [@](#): > > The oldest surviving Watt [steam] engine is Old Bess of 1777, now in the Science Museum, London. The oldest working engine in the world is the Smethwick Engine, brought into service in May 1779 and now at Thinktank in Birmingham (formerly at the now defunct Museum of Science and Industry, Birmingham). \*\*The oldest still in its original engine house and still capable of doing the job for which it was installed is the 1812 Boulton and Watt engine at the Crofton Pumping Station. This was used to pump water for the Kennet and Avon Canal; on certain weekends throughout the year the modern pumps are switched off and the two steam engines at Crofton still perform this function. \*\* Bolding mine. If the OP is inclined to discount working museum exhibits, since they are not really performing their original function, I think the Crofton engine at least deserves consideration. It is still performing its original purpose, although ithe station has been upgraded with more modern technology. There are, of course, many working steam locomotives more than 100 years old. They typically operate on tourist railways, not normal passenger or freight routes. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-machines-that-are-still-in-practical-use/722508/56 "2015-06-15T11:07:15Z")
Especially if they are used as a backup so that the modern pumps can be maintained. If they just turn them on to let fans see them in use then they’d be more like museum pieces. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-machines-that-are-still-in-practical-use/722508/57 "2015-06-15T11:39:26Z")
_The American Heritage Magazine of Invention and Technology_ used to have a page titled “They’re Still There”, depicting machines still on the job after a long time. I don’t know how many of these are still at it (the magazine folded years ago), but they included: –One of Otis’ own elevators, still working in Washington DC\* –One of the original “Seltzer bottle” refills, in a plant in NJ. It serviced all the hotels in NYC. (It refilled the seltzer bottle _through the spout_. There was no other opening in the bottle.) Besides these, there are: THe Oxford Electric Bell – This has been running almost continuously since it was set up 175 years ago adjacent to the Clarendon Physics Laboratory at Oxford, making it arguably the longest continually operating machine in the world. It only stops when the humidity gets too high. It still has its original parts, so the “ship of Theseus” thing doesn;'t come up. It may, in fact, wear itself to death before it stops, and a pile of metal bits from the continually ringing bell has already built up at its base > **[Oxford Electric Bell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Electric_Bell)** > > The Oxford Electric Bell or Clarendon Dry Pile is an experimental electric bell, in particular a type of bell that uses the electrostatic clock principle that was set up in 1840 and which has run nearly continuously ever since. It was one of the first pieces purchased for a collection of apparatus by clergyman and physicist Robert Walker. It is located in a corridor adjacent to the foyer of the Clarendon Laboratory at the University of Oxford, England, and is still ringing, albeit inaudibly The... The Centennial Light bulb and others – there are a few light bulbs that have been running almost continually for about a century, the oldest being the one in Livermore, CA that has been going (with only a couple of interruptions) for almost 115 years. The empirical rule for a light bulb is that its longevity goes with the 12th power of the current or voltage. While this is usually used to show how you can run a bulb very brightly but only for a short time, the flip side is that a bulb run at low current/voltage can last a very long time. At low temperatures, thermionic emission is extremely reduced. I’m pretty sure all these bulbs have been running low all the time. > **[Longest-lasting light bulbs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest-lasting_light_bulbs)** > > This is a list of the longest-lasting incandescent light bulbs. > The world's longest-lasting light bulb is the Centennial Light located at 4550 East Avenue, Livermore, California. It is maintained by the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department. The fire department claims that the bulb is at least 121 years old (installed 1901) and has only been turned off a handful of times. The bulb has been noted by The Guinness Book of World Records, Ripley's Believe It or Not!, and General Electric as being th... \*Otis didn’t invent the elevator itself – there were pulley-driven rising rooms hundreds of years earlier. You can see some in Pieter Breughel the elder’s larger version of _The Tower of Babel_. What Otis invented was the _safety elevator_ – one with a locking mechanism to prevent its plunging down the shaft if the cables broke. The one in DC has the earliest type of lock he invented. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-machines-that-are-still-in-practical-use/722508/58 "2015-06-15T13:29:33Z")
I’ve heard of 19th century looms still in use for specialized works. [Here are pictures of a lift bridge](http://structurae.net/structures/rue-de-crimee-lift-bridge/photos)built in 1884 on a canal near my place, and still in use. Certainly neither rank even closely amongst the “oldest”, but still interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-machines-that-are-still-in-practical-use/722508/59 "2015-06-15T13:49:32Z")
Here’s an interesting example: wooden clocks, still working and still in use, made by the guy who (later) solved the longitude problem. Dates back to 1717-1720s. > [@](#): > > Harrison built his first longcase clock in 1713, at the age of 20. The mechanism was made entirely of wood, which was a natural choice of material for a joiner. Three of Harrison’s early wooden clocks have survived: the first (1713) is at the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers’ collection until recently in the Guildhall, and in 2015 to move to the Science Museum. The second (1715) is already in the Science Museum in London; and the third (1717) is at Nostell Priory in Yorkshire, the face bearing the inscription “John Harrison Barrow”. The Nostell example, in the billiards room of this stately home, has a Victorian outer case, which has been thoughtfully provided with small glass windows on each side of the movement so that the wooden workings may be inspected. > > In the early 1720s, Harrison was commissioned to make a new turret clock at Brocklesby Park, North Lincolnshire. The clock still works, and like his previous clocks has a wooden movement of oak and lignum vitae. Unlike his early clocks, it incorporates some original features to improve timekeeping, for example the grasshopper escapement. The latter one (that incorporates his newfangled inventions) allegedly still keeps good time; while it has obvious historical value, it is, allegedly, still simply used as a clock. > **[John Harrison](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harrison)** > > John Harrison (3 April \[O.S. 24 March\] 1693 – 24 March 1776) was an English carpenter and clockmaker who invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought-after device for solving the problem of how to calculate longitude while at sea. > Harrison's solution revolutionized navigation and greatly increased the safety of long-distance sea travel. The problem he solved had been considered so important following the Scilly naval disaster of 1707 that the British Parliament was offering financial rewards... ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-machines-that-are-still-in-practical-use/722508/60 "2015-06-15T13:51:56Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The Centennial Light bulb and others – there are a few light bulbs that have been running almost continually for about a century, the oldest being the one in Livermore, CA that has been going (with only a couple of interruptions) for almost 115 years. Well, it’s a light bulb in that it’s a glass bulb and emits some light, but it has such a heavy filament and it runs so dully that it’s more of a Centennial Hand Warmer. Not at all surprising it’s lasted so long. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-machines-that-are-still-in-practical-use/722508.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-machines-that-are-still-in-practical-use/722508.md?page=4)