# Your Fave Dead-end or Obsolete Technology? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 21, 2003, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-fave-dead-end-or-obsolete-technology/202924 "2003-09-21T05:12:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-fave-dead-end-or-obsolete-technology/202924/81 "2003-09-24T21:19:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rocketeer \* > I remember reading that the Ford Taurus used fluidics in its windshield washer system; the water went through a little gizmo that oscillated the stream back and forth across the windshield. No moving parts… The Rock-a-who? 🙂 great movie ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-fave-dead-end-or-obsolete-technology/202924/82 "2003-09-24T22:08:15Z")
Pneumatic tube delivery systems havn’t died or gone obsolete. About 7 years ago a building society in UK switched to using these systems to move cash and statements from the cashier desks to the secure back rooms. So they must have still been available as new systems then. I can’t believe no one mentioned Steam Trains yet. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-fave-dead-end-or-obsolete-technology/202924/83 "2003-09-24T22:48:28Z")
VACCUUM TUBES! The only place you can get them is imported from the former Soviet Union (and maybe China?) Flat-Head engines. Valves and valvetrain are in the block; the head is simply a steel plate covering the cylinders. Carburetors. Used only as replacement parts for pre-EFI vehicles, and for race engines which require carbs in the rulebook. Leaded gas, anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-fave-dead-end-or-obsolete-technology/202924/84 "2003-09-24T23:23:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bippy the Beardless \* > \*\*Pneumatic tube delivery systems havn’t died or gone obsolete. About 7 years ago a building society in UK switched to using these systems to move cash and statements from the cashier desks to the secure back rooms. So they must have still been available as new systems then. > I can’t believe no one mentioned Steam Trains yet. \*\* Steam trains haven’t [entirely died out](http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/steam/internat.htm). There’s even talk about reviving them in the US because of new developments, but I can’t find any links at the moment which discuss this. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-fave-dead-end-or-obsolete-technology/202924/85 "2003-09-25T00:12:20Z")
Yeah I know Steam Engines are still in use, but I don’t think anyone is manufacturing them any more. Though I’d be happy to find out that someone was. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-fave-dead-end-or-obsolete-technology/202924/86 "2003-09-25T00:40:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bippy the Beardless \* > \*\*Yeah I know Steam Engines are still in use, but I don’t think anyone is manufacturing them any more. Though I’d be happy to find out that someone was. \*\* Consider yourself [url=“[http://www.trainweb.org/tusp/new\_steam.html](http://www.trainweb.org/tusp/new_steam.html)”]happy[/url.🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-fave-dead-end-or-obsolete-technology/202924/87 "2003-09-25T00:41:52Z")
Damn. It takes me 20 minutes to post that because Hammy’s overtaxed, and I screw up the link. Here, get [happy](http://www.trainweb.org/tusp/new_steam.html). ---
**Author:** ![modro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@modro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/modro)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-fave-dead-end-or-obsolete-technology/202924/88 "2003-09-25T01:54:29Z")
Dirigibles definitely. Can you imagine how impressive that must have been to see nearly 800 feet of airship floating gracefully overhead? Rotary telephones are something I miss too. The tactile feedback is much more satisfying than the current crop of disposeable phones. And, in the case of my 1967 Chrysler… A cold light. Since the car has no temp guage, there are two lights in the dash, a hot light, and a cold light. Until the engine is warmed up, a green light glows on the dash letting you know that the engine is still cold. Once warmed up, it goes out. Another nice thing that you don’t see much, is on the front doors, the locks are designed to prevent you from locking your keys in the car. If you push down the lock, then close the door, the lock will pop back up. To lock the door, you need to use the key from outside. ---
**Author:** ![Uvula\_Donor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e19adc/32.png) [@Uvula\_Donor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uvula_Donor)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-fave-dead-end-or-obsolete-technology/202924/89 "2003-09-25T02:08:54Z")
I guess my favorite has to be Victrolas. Not just plain ol’ turntables, but the manually-wound cabinets, with the steel needles and speaker diaphragm right in the tonearm. I have a huge number of vintage 78-rpm discs from the twenties through the forties, and there is nothing quite like listening to them on an old Victrola - the sound is vaguely tinny, yet warm and smooth; it’s like the music was _meant_ to be heard coming from that little diaphragm. ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-fave-dead-end-or-obsolete-technology/202924/90 "2003-09-25T03:04:44Z")
Flashbulbs! There’s just something special about the quality of light from burning magnesium wire that you can’t get from modern electronic flash… ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-fave-dead-end-or-obsolete-technology/202924/91 "2003-09-25T03:10:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tuckerfan \* > \*\*There’s even talk about reviving [steam trains] in the US because of new developments, but I can’t find any links at the moment which discuss this. \*\* Like the http://www.trainweb.org/tusp/ult.html"]ACE 3000? I think the project died out as the oil crisis ended. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-fave-dead-end-or-obsolete-technology/202924/92 "2003-09-25T03:42:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by scr4 \* > \*\*Like the http://www.trainweb.org/tusp/ult.html"]ACE 3000? I think the project died out as the oil crisis ended. \*\* Well, [this project’s still going](http://www.a1steam.com/), admittedly, slowly, but there’s others, which I can’t find at the moment. IIRC, they’re mainly in South America and China. ---
**Author:** ![Rico](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rico/32/3582_2.png) [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-fave-dead-end-or-obsolete-technology/202924/93 "2003-09-25T05:32:27Z")
Morse Code. **cadolphin** and I were at the vet’s office with one of our cats the other day and a girl’s cell phone started beeping. It was sending “SMS” in Morse code, meaning, of course, that the phone had received an SMS message. However, I was the only one who recognized what the beeping meant. I told the ladies what it was. Both the girl and my wife looked at me with that special look that says: “What a geek…” Learned Morse as a part of my first ham radio license 21 years ago and still remember it. It’s a dying art. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-fave-dead-end-or-obsolete-technology/202924/94 "2003-09-25T06:23:37Z")
[All those old Widescreen filming technologies.](http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/widescreen/lobby.htm) Record players (I own one). Steam powered trains. Mechanical typewriters. Operating systems like MS-DOS. MS-DOS 6.2 was the finest operating system ever made, and no one can convince me otherwise. Kinoscopes. Flying cars. Nixie tubes. Flying boats. Piston-engined airliners. I’d have loved to fly accross the Atlantic aboard one a Boeing Stratocrusier. Audio cassette tapes. 5¼" floppy disks. ---
**Author:** ![j\_sum1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8baadc/32.png) [@j\_sum1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j_sum1)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-fave-dead-end-or-obsolete-technology/202924/95 "2003-09-25T10:42:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Johnny L.A. \* > \*\*The first thing I thought of when I saw the title of this thread was the [Pneumatic Telegraph](http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/tel/morse/tubepost.htm) or “tubular post”, which a “find” in this thread shows that other posters have already mentioned. \*\* Likewise the first thing I thought of when I read the title was Pneumatic delivery systems. They have just installed one in Auckland City Hospital for sending blood samples to the lab. Exceedingly cool. Other technologies I am fond of: genuine corks in wine bottles steel beer cans with the tear tops that used to come right off dial phones – they looked like a phone should. Come to think of it, red-painted wooden telephone boxes with concertina folding doors and eight inch panes of glass looked like phone boxes should too. wooden ice axes. (Just don’t ask me to trust my life to one though.) clockwork toys with a detachable key ---
**Author:** ![j\_sum1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8baadc/32.png) [@j\_sum1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j_sum1)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-fave-dead-end-or-obsolete-technology/202924/96 "2003-09-25T10:56:05Z")
Welcome to eth boards **Uvula Donor**. (Biscuit sprayed on screen when I read your username.) ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-fave-dead-end-or-obsolete-technology/202924/97 "2003-09-25T11:20:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rico \* > \*\*Morse Code. > > **cadolphin** and I were at the vet’s office with one of our cats the other day and a girl’s cell phone started beeping. It was sending “SMS” in Morse code, meaning, of course, that the phone had received an SMS message. However, I was the only one who recognized what the beeping meant. > > I told the ladies what it was. Both the girl and my wife looked at me with that special look that says: “What a geek…” > > Learned Morse as a part of my first ham radio license 21 years ago and still remember it. It’s a dying art. \*\* I just did the math and realized that we studied Morse at about the same time – I got my license in '82. I don’t know what I will ever do with this little-used ability. Once when I was aboard ship in the Navy I was able to read the flashing signals from a nearby ship and I told the guys next to me what they were saying, but that’s about all I have used it for 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-fave-dead-end-or-obsolete-technology/202924/98 "2003-09-25T12:29:30Z")
Remember those mechanical adding machines? I used to have a Borroughs one-from 1910, we used toset it up to 99999999.99, then enter a one, and watch all the little wheels drop to zero!(I catually remember pocket calculators that were slow…you would ask it to compute the antuilog of 125000, and you would sit and watch the display LEDs flas on and off for up to 45 seconds! Neat! ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-fave-dead-end-or-obsolete-technology/202924/99 "2003-09-25T13:12:37Z")
I miss my red-glowing-number digital watch from Texas Instruments. You had to press the button to make the time glow and it only displayed for about 5 seconds. That thing took 2 batteries and sucked them dry of power every month! The SUV of watches! ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-fave-dead-end-or-obsolete-technology/202924/100 "2003-09-25T14:39:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by modro \* > \*\*…And, in the case of my 1967 Chrysler… > > A cold light. Since the car has no temp guage, there are two lights in the dash, a hot light, and a cold light. Until the engine is warmed up, a green light glows on the dash letting you know that the engine is still cold. Once warmed up, it goes out. Another nice thing that you don’t see much, is on the front doors, the locks are designed to prevent you from locking your keys in the car. If you push down the lock, then close the door, the lock will pop back up. To lock the door, you need to use the key from outside. \*\* Ah. My 2003 Suzuki Aerio has both those things: a little blue light that goes out when the engine warms up, and door locks that pop up unless you hold the handle out while you’re closing the door. (Heck, I just use the remote)😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-fave-dead-end-or-obsolete-technology/202924.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-fave-dead-end-or-obsolete-technology/202924.md?page=6)