I’ve been to some antique tool shows. Pretty sure the fans would easily be able to spot differences. But good suggestion.
Yeah - I had thought about pencils. But hadn’t gone through the effort to compare logos, ferrules, etc.
They update the umbrella girl every so often. The correct version was, of course, the one they had when I was a child.
The General Electric logo (known around Schenectady as the meatball) has barely changed since it was adapted in 1899. There was a redesign in the 80s, but only a graphic artist would notice it.
I certainly don’t suggest there are ZERO visual differences between hand planes from 120 years back and hand planes that were built last year, based on the original models. But the gist was that the 120-year-old designs are still used, as they have never been bettered, and really work quite splendidly. There are very few such complex products, AFAIK.
Riveted jeans? Abbey ale? Something alcoholic like Chartreuse or Benedictine?
Not as old as everything named in this thread but older than some: Bon Ami, 1886.
The Trajan font has remained essentially unchanged since it was carved into the Trajan Column in 43 AD.
The Victor mousetrap has been in production essentially unchanged since 1898
Campbell’s soup cans remained the same for 50 years.
Campbell’s soup get first redesign in 50 years. Here’s what the new cans look like. - East Idaho News
Twinings tea has had the same logo for well over 200 years and been in business for over 300. I’d be surprised if their product now (or at least one or two of them) was not pretty much unchanged from the early 1700’s
They allege that the perfume itself is the same since 1792, but it appears that the packaging has had the distintive turquoise coloring only since 1928 according to the brand history graphics:
The metal bottle caps on glass bottles came to be in the late 1800s. Some are twist off now, but many are still the same design and are removed with the same type of opener. Are sardine tins still the same? Not sure about the food inside, but the tin itself?
Sardine cans used to come with a “key” to twist off the lid. Now the lid just pulls off.
Brit here.
Immediately Lyle golden syrup came to mind due to its 19th century styling. And indeed, their webpage says the product and styling has remained virtually the same since 1883.
There are probably lots of British products actually. Certainly there are things like Kendall mint cake, but it’s a niche product at this point. Whereas the syrup is still a popular product.
Saw a bottle of Hacker–Pschorr (founded 1417, so I quess pretty recent in brewery terms) that had no metal cap at all, just a Lightning-type lever stopper. That style of closure dates from 1875, though. As for the product (Kellerbier in this case), no idea when they came out with it.
They’re a cool company. My gf worked on their advertising for many years. I had a very old Zippo that was a collectible, but in rough shape. They were happy to work on it and I was amazed at the outcome. When it came time to pay, they told me there was no charge.
The Bergara family has been making makhilas since sometime in the late 1700s or early 1800s. A makhila is a walking stick with an optional pointy end.
Here’s a quick 3 minute video about them:
The talk about various biros and pencils makes me wonder about more rudimentary writing/art supplies like ink and pigments. E.g., I believe I bought some “Hu Kaiwen” brand ink once; a quick search says the company opened in 1765, but I understand that it is not related to the current one using that name? But if “Li ink” or “Hui ink” is a brand name and not merely generic then it goes back to at least the Tang dynasty.
Fels is not an ingredient, it’s the family name of the people who started the company.
“The original Fels-Naptha was developed by Fels & Company of Philadelphia around 1893. Its predecessor Fels & Company, was established by Lazarus Fels and son Abraham in 1866 in Baltimore, Maryland…”
-from the Wikipedia article on Fels-Naptha
The original Volkswagen Beetle kept nearly the same design for its entire decades-long production run, with the only change being an increase in the size of the rear window. Pretty sure that that’s the record for cars.
Aircraft, though, go even longer.
How about handguns? I’m no expert, but I understand some of the more popular ones have been unchanged for a century or more.