Tag Archives: vintage tech

Ingenious 1970’s Technology: The Flip Flash

FlipFlash 5

Once upon a time, cameras did not come with LED illumination or even xenon strobes, but rather with a socket that could fire a one-time-use flashbulb.

An advance from this was the “flip flash” cartridge which held 8 or 10 flash bulbs, ganged up so that you could take one photo after another, without pausing to swap bulbs. Each time that you took a picture (exposing actual film!), the next flashbulb in the cartridge would fire.

But you might ask a tricky question here: How does it know which bulb to fire next?

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Visited by Toymakers TV

Addie and Whisker of @tymkrs just posted video from their recent epic road trip including a visit to our shop. The video starts off in Colorado and wends through Arizona before getting to the bay area. After stops including the Internet Archive, the Electronics Flea Market and HSC, they arrive to tour our shop (starting at 11:53) before wrapping up at Tindie. We had a great time talking about the Eggbot, WaterColorBot, Digi-Comp II and miscellaneous vintage mechanical and electronic contraptions.

The Decoregger

Decoregger 1

Hey look! It’s the fossilized remains of a possible evolutionary ancestor of the EggBot!

Decoregger 2

Okay, it’s pre-USB but technically it’s not a fossil. Like many of us, the decoregger dates from the mid-1970’s. It’s a simple function gadget that mounts an egg so that you can spin it, with arm second arm that holds tiny felt-tip pens.  Curiously, there are also some contemporary machines bearing the same name that lack the separate arm.

 

Decoregger 3 Decoregger 4
Decoregger 5 Decoregger 6

In the upper-left photo, you can see that the pen holder has a separate “paddle” that you hold, to manually move the pen in the arc across the egg surface.  Lacking the proper felt-tip pens, we found that a uni-ball micro pen was about the right diameter to fit in the holder.

One surprising thing: To model this thing, we used regular “large AA” (not extra large, and not jumbo) size eggs from the grocery store. And it was only barely possible to squeeze the egg into the holders. From the picture on the box, it looks like there’s plenty of room for even the largest egg.  Possible explanation #1: Plastic shrinks over time. Possible explanation #2: The egg pictured on the box is from the advertising land of freaky micro-children.

But in any case, the decoregger is a cute little machine, and it looks like it might be fun to play with.  The actual play is a matter of turning knob 1 and knob 2, so it feels a lot like an Etch-a-Sketch in spherical coordinates. Now if only there were some way to strap a couple of motors to it and perform a CNC conversion….

Decoregger 8

Speaking of which, it really is a lot smaller than the EggBot.  Heck, you could probably fit the whole thing inside the EggBot.

Decoregger 7

Wait — am I doing this right?

Special thanks to Michelle Hlubinka for finding this artifact and sending it to us!

A Vintage Bliley Crystal

Bliley Crystal 1
Bliley Crystal 2 Bliley Crystal 4
Bliley Crystal 7 Bliley Crystal 6

They don’t make — or package — them like they used to. This is a vintage radio crystal from the Bliley Electric Company.  Bliley is still around, making modern oscillators and even space flight hardware, but this vintage unit is a beauty.

Introduced in the 1930’s, the Bliley LD2 was a popular frequency standard for amateur radio operators. A 1935 advertisement in QST magazine claimed efficiency and extremely low drift (<8 ppm/°C), guaranteed operation, an improved holder, and a cost of only $4.80, or $82.79 in 2014 dollars.  This particular unit is calibrated at 3.9895 MHz (“3989.5 KC”), for a radio wavelength of about 75.2 m.
Bliley Crystal 9

 

Unlike most modern crystals, this type comes apart easily. Inside, two rectangular steel plates sandwich a thin slice of quartz crystal, all held pressed together with a simple spring.

If you’re interested to learn more, there’s a wealth of additional information about vintage crystals and the Bliley company available online, here.

Erector Rocket Launcher Set

Erector-Rocket 2

We recently acquired this beautiful Erector Rocket Launcher Set from 1958. While not quite complete, it is still tantalizing with its girders, nuts, bolts and motor. The printing on the metal box is beautiful.

Erector-Rocket 4

The motor is labeled “Erector Electric Engine” and features a clever mechanical gear shifter.

While our set did not come with instructions, there are online resources for vintage building sets, and Girders & Gears has a thorough description and pictures of a more complete set. They also have instructions available for download, which include the following practical warning:

CAUTION: Be sure there is no one in front of the launcher when the rocket is fired.