Period Piece

"glemon" (glemon) 01/01/2019 at 23:07 • Filed to: None

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There is a lot of talk about analog this and digital that with cars these days. Here is an old analog thing I picked up at an antique store that was going out of business a few months ago. It seems to fit the vibe of our mid fifties house very well.

The temperature and humidity stay pretty constant inside, but the barometer varies with the weather. A steel drum looking thing with a spring attached to the thing that turns the dial. The spring was detached when I got it, I reattached and recalibrated based on the humidity reading from the weather app on my smart phone, and it has been very accurate since.

I have always loved mechanical things that I can take apart and grok how they work just by observing how things go together.

I understand why the cell phone a nd internet and instant access to information have replaced these things, but it still makes me feel good to look at the form follows function with some added styling on the outside while knowing the simple, but elegant mechanism on the inside continuing to function without need of external input or energy other than the earthly conditions it was designed to register.

jimz > glemon 01/01/2019 at 23:57

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I remember when I was a kid, my grandparents still had their TV antenna rotator.

smobgirl > glemon 01/02/2019 at 00:11

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That’s really cool. 

facw > jimz 01/02/2019 at 00:16

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Ooh, I had one of those as a kid. I think it was even functional (we had cable, so it din’t get used much) .

PyramidHat > jimz 01/02/2019 at 00:28

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Had one of those,when we first moved to San Jose in 1988...

Future Heap Owner > jimz 01/02/2019 at 01:24

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I had no idea this existed. Thank you.

Future Heap Owner > glemon 01/02/2019 at 01:29

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I get kinda sad sometimes about how few analog things you can get anymore. Even stuff as simple as scales and bicycle pump pressure gauges are being digitized. Why turn things that have simple mechanical solutions  into un serviceable, unrepairable, and opaque digital objects?

glemon > Future Heap Owner 01/02/2019 at 01:56

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The unserviceable-unrepairable is the thing that gets me. We don’t value things or build things to value, merely to throw away when they don’t work anymore.

bubblestheturtle > glemon 01/02/2019 at 18:16

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My grandparents had one of these. Took me years to figure out what it was.