[boriscleto]

George Takei posted this to Facebook today...

[grhazelton]

If you really want to feel old, do you remember when Kodak packaged 35mm film in metal containers, with gasketed threaded lids color-coded to the film within? Somewhere I still have a few of these.... Well, time for my daily shot of Geritol.

[RioRico]

Muntz Stereo-Pack.

[grhazelton]

The Henry J automobile. I think that Sears sold this under the - what else? - Allstate name plate.

The 1951 Henry J was introduced at a Chicago showing in early 1950 but was not officially on sale till Sept 28, 1950

I remember seeing a few of these as a young kid. I'd guess the little tail fins were influenced by the '49 or '50 Cadillac.

[wombat2go]

Boris, that tupperware is real funny!

Few year ago my calculator broke. While another was on order,
I made the mistake of taking a slide rule to a customer's plant and unfortunately, needed to use it.
The young engineer there was quite seriously offended:
" Whazzat? This is serious business. What kind of D.H....? "

[eddie1960]

Boris, that tupperware is real funny!

Few year ago my calculator broke. While another was on order,
I made the mistake of taking a slide rule to a customer's plant and unfortunately, needed to use it.
The young engineer there was quite seriously offended:
" Whazzat? This is serious business. What kind of D.H....? "

Even if he had a clue what it was bet he couldn't use it
Calculators aren't any better just faster

[grhazelton]

Slide rules ... I have my father's K & E 10 inch log-log duplex. It served him well in his ChemEng career. A beautiful thing its scales are engraved ivory, I think; its old enough for ivory to have still been in use. He earned his PhD from U Mich in 1941. When I started to major in chemistry in 1961 we all carried sliderules.

One real advantage to a slide rule is that using it forces you to consider the likely magnitude of the answer, since you have to set the decimal yourself. Also it automatically "rounds" if you will so that the final answer doesn't have the spurious "precision" available with an electronic calculator.

[RioRico]

Even if he had a clue what it was bet he couldn't use it

Probably couldn't work an abacus either.

Calculators aren't any better just faster

Only with longer calculations. I can do simple multiplications-divisions-squares-roots faster on a slipstick. And a skilled abacus operator is much faster. Back In The Day, were John-Henry-vs-steam-drill-type competions between abacus and early computers with keyboard entry of. Abacus usually won.

NOTE: Does anyone else here remember a Brothers Four rendition of a Gibson & Camp song, JOHN HENRY THE THINKING MAN? (With a filter!) He was a champion thinker. He raced a computer in a televised match.

There was smoke from his ears
And his eyes poured tears
And he thunk till his brain dropped dead
Think, thank, THUNK
Thunk till his brain dropped dead

Original ending:

They took John Henry to the bughouse
But still his legend grows
Now no-one's ever heard
John Henry say a word
He just sits there, smiling,
Like he knows...

Alternate ending:

Now please don't get us wrong
There's a moral to this song:
Don't ever doubt the thinking power of Man
But on the other hand:
Don't ever sell your stock in I-B-M

[wombat2go]

Actually the old analog things were better when in the area of engineering art rather than of precision.
A whole range of "what ifs' can be viewed in one hit on a slide rule.
Next week I have some timing to do in a factory in Mexico, so I asked my wife to go to the old clock shop
next door to her office and see if they have an old sweep stopwatch.
Maybe those guys will throw me out when they see that!

That reminds me of another funny anecdote this time digital wins.
I was looking after the pistol target timing gear at a certain Commonwealth Games.
The judges all had their issued hand stopwatches, some had their sponsor issued wristwatches etc.

But it was on a crystal counter and accurate anyway; I had a $100,000 Hewlett Packard counter accurate to nanosecond under a bag at the back.

Before each event we had to run a timing calibration where all the 6 judges would parade out and measure the target times by eye.
Then the chief would average all readings and tell me how wrong the targets were!

The first day I argued with them but everybody was unhappy and the competitors complained etc....

So the next days when they told me how wrong it was, I went downrange, loosened fiddled and retightened a nut on the clutch and asked them to "Test Again Please??"
Everybody was much happier.
Hope no old time pistol judges on this forum!

[boriscleto]

My grandfather could do complex calculations without a slide rule, that's why they made him a navigator when they bounced him from flight school. Me, I'm in trouble if I have to go past 20, and I need to take my shoes off to do that.

[séamuis]

If you really want to feel old, do you remember when Kodak packaged 35mm film in metal containers, with gasketed threaded lids color-coded to the film within? Somewhere I still have a few of these.... Well, time for my daily shot of Geritol.

I have quite a lot of those. I use them regularly actually to carry around my Portra.

[ChrisPlatt]

Makes me wonder what digital photographers keep their "stash" in nowadays.
Can't fit much in an SD memory card case, and besides most are transparent...

Chris

[Lloydy]

Makes me wonder what digital photographers keep their "stash" in nowadays.
Can't fit much in an SD memory card case, and besides most are transparent...

Chris

Truth !

[magkelly]

I had actually never seen a metal film container till recently. That lot of Nikon gear I got from Goodwill actually had one in there. I thought it was the coolest thing. It's in my kit now holding my batteries for my Spotties et all, grin. I'm used to the plastic ones. I use them for all sorts of things besides for film. I store beads in them, use them to hold leftover paint, put salad dressing in them in my lunch kit when I am on the go...

[jogiba]