Retro Tech Tuesday: Telefunken Tubes!

A brief history to make sure we're all on the same page. Today's electronics rely heavily on microchips. Before that, it was mainly solid state transistors that kept TVs and radios humming. Going back further you had the wonderful world of vacuum tubes.

Somewhat similar in appearance to a lightbulb, tubes would need to be replaced  when they would blow out. Which meant buying new tubes. Which meant tube manufacturers had to reach potential customers, and what better way than an odd (and possibly racist) animated ad, showing just how much better musical notes are treated when you choose Telefunken tubes.

The company, which still exists in some form today, was a German electronics powerhouse, founded in 1903. This ad dates from the 1950's. In this age of non-user serviceable parts, we will probably never see a similar ad for an iPhone battery replacement, or hard drive upgrade. The good old days...

Retro Tech Tuesday: HP Circa 1986

I don't know what this ad is trying to say: HP engineers are loners? That they take long car rides to find creative inspiration? That working at HP gets you a free hat? Or perhaps the idea the star of this ad had is for a fleet of those (then) newfangled cellular telephones so that they wouldn't have to rely on finding a gas station in the middle of nowhere to phone in their next big idea.

All kidding aside, this ad does a decent job for the time, of trying to connote the innovation behind the HP brand, rather than a specific product:

Retro Tech Tuesday: Telephones Will Win the War!

This week the Western Electric Company takes us back to the middle of World War II. Forget what you've read about air superiority or outstanding strategy winning the war. No, we have the humble telephone (or at least the humble telephone company) to thank for the West's victory.

Come with us now, on a trip through the 1870's through the 1940's and see just how important communication was not only to the war effort but also to the expansion of the nation:

Retro Tech Tuesday: 1930 predictions for 2000 fashion tech

Imagine living in a world in which the year 2000 is 70 years away. Think of all the wonderous things that future would hold. And huzzah, how would the worlds of technology and fashion combine? This newsreel answers that question. 

Retro Tech Tuesday: Fight fires with faxes!

The fax machine. Much maligned, and yet a crucial tool for business through the 90's that still won't quite go away. But did you know fax machines also fight fires? It's true, at least if this late 80's commercial is to be believed. While an interesting premise to sell fax machines, I think they are being a bit generous with how long it took (and continues to take) to get a two-page fax. I'm pretty sure the building would be burned to the ground before out tech-forward firefighters made it there. Especially if there was a cover page.