Do you remember when you used some new technology. for the first time?
I was thinking of a dishwasher. It was in a friend's house and it was just like magic.
I didn't see television until I was 10 because we lived in NZ where it arrived later and it wasn't very interesting at first. I think watching Wimbledon live was a highlight for me and then in colour - oh the joy! Then it was computers. We bought a Sinclair Spectrum but it was monopolised by the DH and our sons.i don't remember my first email but I had to wait in a queue, and for ages, on the dial up pc.
I remember seeing a fax machine has on Tomorrow's World back in the late seventies and wondering how the information was transported along the telephone line and here we are today and they are obsolete already. Also remember our first Automatic washing machine my DH and I sat watching the drum to around for the first wash, can also remember my mother getting her first Twin tub after using an old boiler and mangle and scrubbing board.
62Granny my GP surgery was still using a fax machine fairly recently. They assured me that a referral to a specialist had been sent by fax. However, if they are obsolete that might explain why my referral to the clinic didn't go through. No fax machine at the other end.
I also worked where they had something similar it was called an NCR machine and no doubt had a model number early 70s I remember when I left them telling me they where going to get computer to replace them , but I left anyway as the job paid better and was nearer home.
I think the tech item which excited me the most was the arrival of the video camera. My brother loved gadgets and bought an early model video camera in 1981 when my 2 children were toddlers. I have a wonderful collection of “home movies” filmed in those early years. I vividly remember the day he bought it and filmed my dear Mum dancing round the kitchen with her grandchildren.
The contraption was huge. There was a large heavy unit similar to an old fashioned VCR which had to be carried on your shoulder in a carry case. The camera unit was heavy and and a cable led from it to the large recording unit in carry case. Happy days 😊
B9exchange Exactly what happened to me. Trips with the head teacher for both of us to learn how to use the computer. We seemed to spend a lot of time at school staring at it, especially when we were sent floppy disks to do upgrades. Eventually we would send for 11 year old Andrew in the top class as we knew there was a computer in his home. He became our 'expert'. By the time I retired today school was full of laptops, tablets etc and WiFi everywhere. Now the phone in my pocket is probably many times more powerful than that first school computer.
I also worked where they had something similar it was called an NCR machine and no doubt had a model number early 70s I remember when I left them telling me they where going to get computer to replace them , but I left anyway as the job paid better and was nearer home.
I worked in a bank where they had had written ledgers then we got an NCR 160 accounting machine . One person did the ledger and another did the statement and we had to tally up at the end of the day . At that time too cheque books did not have the account holder's name on the cheques. We had to recognise the signatures. The first time I used our new dishwasher I had a long wooden spoon in the cutlery section and it ended up chopped in two . Luckily DH was out that night. We also used our new washing machine with the stableisers still on it .
My job in 1969 was to enter new orders, on an IBM Golfball typewriter, onto strange see through sheets, then when they’d been down to the production office to be processed, they came back upstairs and were put through an enormous machine which produced the order onto a sort of linen, indestructible sheet which was then filed and kept indefinitely. It was all ahead of its time, for such an old factory, producing a traditional product.
Urmstongran Strange thought just popped in my head. Mum had a gas powered fridge. Just seems weird. Anyone else?
When I first met my late husband in 1972, his mother had a gas fridge. It was only small, under the counter size but it was really efficient and very quiet. I think it lasted until the 1980s when BiL replaced it with a tall fridge-freezer.
Our first fridge (1963) was gas powered and served us silently until we moved house in 1975. I had forgotten all about it until reading this thread.
Golfball typewriters were specially good for typing scientific papers and DH’s Master’s thesis which included Greek and Old English quotations and nearly led to divorce!
Our first fridge in the 1960’s was gas powered. It was an under the counter type with small ice box. I’m not sure why my parents opted for a gas model.
Yes i think it was down to fuel costs Grammaretto. Now that I’m looking back I can remember my Dad saying it was cheaper to run than an electric one. We moved from coal fires in the early 60’s and had a gas fire fitted in the living room.