Gadgets

[maltrab]

I have observed some of the gadgets used in the show, Pearls tracker for Howard was a multimeter with a aerial mounted at the top, the one with Wesley and his remote controlled vehicle,with Barry in the driving seat, the controller looked like a modified piano key cassette player.
Anyone spotted any more

 

[dick]

Entwhistle's "ALIEN" control looked like a gamer from that era.

 

[captain clutterbuck]

The magnetic field finding device [Was it the Magnetron can't remember] in The Suit that turned Left. To me it looks like the wooden body and funnel shaped speaking piece of an old phone [ like the one below without the ear piece and dial] with two old car aerials and curly power leads attached but I stand to be corrected.

 

[RickAns]

Seymour's voice activated door securing device in Codfanglers.

Entwhistle's battery meter fortune telling device which he used to help Auntie secure a sale from Howard.

 

[onyx(John)]

The magnetic field finding device [Was it the Magnetron can't remember] in The Suit that turned Left. To me it looks like the wooden body and funnel shaped speaking piece of an old phone [ like the one below without the ear piece and dial] with two old car aerials and curly power leads attached but I stand to be corrected.

View attachment 2124

I've got this (Bell Set no. 20) in my sitting room. I was using it just as an extension bell but I had to disconnect it. It was so loud if you dozed off and it rang it would nearly give you a heart attack. Made by the British Post Office I aquired it when I worked for a telecoms company. Items like this are very collectable these days.

 

[onyx(John)]

I seem to remember when Alvin was prosecting for gold in the local river, he was using a sand riddle instead of a gold pan

 

[Pearl]

Uncle of the Bride, Seymour's wedding present looked like a souped up Redifusion box from a windowsill.

 

[maltrab]

View attachment 2125 I've got this (Bell Set no. 20) in my sitting room. I was using it just as an extension bell but I had to disconnect it. It was so loud if you dozed off and it rang it would nearly give you a heart attack. Made by the British Post Office I aquired it when I worked for a telecoms company. Items like this are very collectable these days.

I used to work in Telecoms John,not BT but private companies,when I first went to Sunnybank Guest house in Holmfirth, the new owners were about to rip down old wooden bell boxes and indicators and throw them away, I explained they were worth money, I should of offered to remove them, and take them away myself.

 

[maltrab]

Another comms company I worked for had a shop front to sell domestic telephones, I went to do a large house conversions to what was then the new plug and sockets, the owner did not want the old bakelite coloured (Red & Green) 300 series handsets, so I took them back,cleaned them up and put them in the window display just for show,not for sale,came back from a job one Saturday afternoon and they were gone, the Saturday sales lad had sold them for £20 each, it was the nearest I came to murder.

 

[maltrab]

This is my current pride and joy,fully working,this model did not have a bell though

 

[onyx(John)]

This is my current pride and joy,fully working,this model did not have a bell though

I've seen skipfulls of these get dumped in the 80's, if we only had them now

 

[captain clutterbuck]

This is my current pride and joy,fully working,this model did not have a bell though

Talking of old phones can you still pick up trimphones and candlestick phones even replicas?

 

[maltrab]

I've seen skipfulls of these get dumped in the 80's, if we only had them now

Yep even the 700 series inc the wall phone are worth money now

 

[maltrab]

Talking of old phones can you still pick up trimphones and candlestick phones even replicas?

I still have an original dial trimphone somewhere, to be honest I don't like the reproduction ones

 

[Adanor]

Oh you mean the wall phone (beige w/ push buttons, handset, cord, etc.) that we replaced about 5 years ago and returned to AT&T (phone co) was worth something?

 

[maltrab]

Oh you mean the wall phone (beige w/ push buttons, handset, cord, etc.) that we replaced about 5 years ago and returned to AT&T (phone co) was worth something?

Always worth checking on ebay or similar to see what value stuff has before throwing it away

 

[Adanor]

Well, I still have a TYPEWRITER that could be valuable one day.

 

[captain clutterbuck]

Read a book called Ella Minow Pea by Mark Dunn where, as the book proceeds, individual letters are banned by the Government on the island of Nollop one by one when the letters drop off a sacred statue containing the pangram The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. [a Statue in tribute to Nevin Nollop who devised the pangram ] .

Personally I think he may have wrote it on a typewriter which developed faults on the keys that he couldn't afford, as a struggling writer, to replace. It is both strange and clever . I cannot recall what the last letters left are but as they disappear then the gaps in the text make it a strange book to read as you try and guess the words.

 

[Adanor]

As I read this, I can smell the typewriter ribbon that you can help but inhale as you lean in to untangle the individual keys that have jammed on the Royal.

On another subject, is there a word or phrase for hardware problems that inspired or caused a change in the written work?

 

[ferret]

Here's a wall phone we've had for many years. Still works but there's something wierd about dialling a long number with your finger in t'hole.