Author Topic: New inventions in our lifetime........  (Read 37834 times)

Offline Shuggy

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Re: New inventions in our lifetime........
« Reply #60 on: October 12, 2006, 04:17:09 pm »
Sepaking of cameras, another invention of our lifetime were the polaroid instant cameras. I remember when they became trendy and everyone had one. 


And that's an SX-70 or something very similar, a second-generation polaroid, where you didn't have to count seconds and then peel the negative off the positive, let alone go over it with a squeegee, just wait and watch the image appear.

Kodak made one very similar, except that the image went in the back of the film, which meant it required two mirrors in the camera to get it the right way round. So the camera was a tall thing with the lens at the top and the film below in front. Didn't last long, as Polaroid won the patent case.

Does anyone remember Polaroid movies? The film was in a cassette and they could only be projected in a special self-contained back projection unit. (Quite ingenious, the colours were on fine stripes side by side down the film - which is why it could never be enlarged to big screen size). I can't remember if development happened in the camera or the projector. They came in and went out again almost immediately some time around 1980, swamped by video cameras.

Offline Shuggy

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Re: New inventions in our lifetime........
« Reply #61 on: October 12, 2006, 04:23:08 pm »
Polaroid was invented by a man named Edward Land and the early models were called "the Polaroid Land camera." For years, I thought that mean you could only use them on land, ie, you couldn't take Polaroid on a boat to take a picture. I had a "Swinger" (remember those? the $19.99 Polaroid?) and one day I decided to be very daring and yes, take it on our boat to take a picture. Imagine my amazement when it worked!

Leslie


Edwin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Land

I thought "Land" meant it was for taking landscapes, not portraits - very long focus, perhaps.

Offline Katie77

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Re: New inventions in our lifetime........
« Reply #62 on: October 12, 2006, 04:30:06 pm »
"
Hey, how about toasters with slots wide enough for bagels?

Speaking about toasters......why have settings from 1-6...when setting 2 or 3 makes the toast just right........who in the helll uses setting 5 and 6....(obviously someone who likes to eat charcoal)
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Offline rick

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Re: New inventions in our lifetime........
« Reply #63 on: October 12, 2006, 04:41:50 pm »
I do.  I love dark or even black toast. with alot of unmelted butter on it. It's great. so they did put the 5-6 on it for some of us anyways.

Offline Shuggy

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Re: New inventions in our lifetime........
« Reply #64 on: October 12, 2006, 04:46:10 pm »
Don't be too hard on the 8-track recordings. They were intended for cars, and the idea was to be eyes-off, just pop them in and away they'd go (again and again).

So were 7" 16 2/3 rpm recordings, but everyone wanted to play them inside as well, so for years automatic record changers had a 16 2/3 speed and nothing to play at it. Though there were a few 12" spoken word discs that played for about 3 hours.

Condoms shouldn't be listed here. They go back centuries: Casanova used sheepgut ones, which are still made. (no good against HIV, though, they have tiny holes a virus can get through).

The invention that came in in my time I'm most grateful for is the high speed dental drill. I'm showing my age when I tell you that when I was a child the school dental nurse drilled our teeth with a drill that she turned with a treadle, like an old sewing machine, with the most amazing arrangement of cords and pulleys to give her manouverability. It went "URRurrURRurrURR..." now that was terrifying.

But a whole huge field of inventions in the last few decades are in materials science.

When someone advised Benjamin in The Graduate (1968) to go into "plastics", that was a joke because plastics were so passé, but plastics have made enormous strides since then.

Think of the huge things that are now made of plastic, such as wheely rubbish bins and car dashboards, thanks to improved strength and durability. Plastic spectacle lenses, strong and clear. All the ways mechanical features like snap fasteners and hinges are now built into the body of the material. Ziplok bags. Have you tried to break a CD? Quite impressive. All sorts of composite materials, like pre-stressed reinforced concrete, fibreglass and carbon-fibre. Two-pot glues. Think of how some plastics are now heat-resistant, sun-resistant, etc. The roof of my house is plastic!

Offline MaineWriter

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Re: New inventions in our lifetime........
« Reply #65 on: October 12, 2006, 04:49:28 pm »
God, I love the Internet: An ad for the Polaroid Swinger.

You gotta love these lyrics: "Meet the Swinger, Polaroid Swinger. It's more than a camera, it's almost alive, it's only 19 dollars and 95."

Catchy commercials were a trademark of the Polaroid corporation in the Sixties and Seventies, known for cutting edge advertising and clever re-inventions of their core product, a camera that delivered a picture within a minute.

The idea of the instant picture was hardly new in 1968, but the hip, swinging attitude was. The white casing and black plastic strap handle gave the Polaroid Swinger real pop-art appeal. And isn't that Ali McGraw romping on the beach?


You can see the ad at

http://www.tvparty.com/comjing.html

And yes, that is Ali MacGraw....

L
« Last Edit: October 12, 2006, 04:51:26 pm by MaineWriter »
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Offline Katie77

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Re: New inventions in our lifetime........
« Reply #66 on: October 12, 2006, 05:14:48 pm »
Washing machines

My first washing machine was the one where you had the wringer on the top, and the big barrell with the agitator in.....after the clothes were washed, you used to have to push them thru the wringer into a tub of fresh clean water to rinse, then push them back thru the wringer to squeeze out as much water as you could......was a half a day job to do two loads of washing......

At least it was an improvement on my mums....she used to have to turn the wringer with a lever while trying to push the clothes thru......
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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: New inventions in our lifetime........
« Reply #67 on: October 12, 2006, 07:04:34 pm »
While we're on the subject of laundry, how about home clothes dryers?

I don't know how far back machine clothes dryers actually go, but how about having one in your own home?

I can remember what a big deal it was when my mother got a clothes dryer. No more carrying a basket of damp laundry up the basement stairs and out the kitchen door to be hung on a line to dry in the backyard--unless she wanted to. (Some stuff just smells better line-dried in the fresh air.  ;D )

But, living as I do in a high-rise condominium, a home clothes dryer makes it possible for me to do my own laundry. No needing to plan a trip to a laundromat--even if there is a handsome but confused cowboy living above it.  ;D
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Katie77

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Re: New inventions in our lifetime........
« Reply #68 on: October 14, 2006, 09:39:24 pm »
Memory was something you lost with age
An application was for employment
A program was a TV show
A cursor used profanity

?A keyboard was a piano
A web was a spider's home
A virus was the flu
A CD was a bank account

A hard drive was a long trip on the road
A mouse pad was where a mouse lived



And if you had a 3 inch floppy . .

?

??. . . you just hoped nobody ever found out?

?
Being happy doesn't mean everything is perfect.

It means you've decided to see beyond the imperfection

Offline David In Indy

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Re: New inventions in our lifetime........
« Reply #69 on: October 15, 2006, 02:25:22 am »
God Sue! You are a riot!  :)

That was really good.

Add to the list...

Windows were things people hung curtains in.

RAM was an animal with horns.

and...

A Monitor was an uppity kid who bossed us around in the hallway at school.
Dogs have owners. Cats have staff.