LED watches are now very rare and very collectable, and with the recent 70s "revival" might become fashionable again with the ultra trendy set!
Pete's Corner
Although this area is a small annexe to "Walrus Systems", it is non-hi fi in content - but it represents my personal interest (obsession?) for "Early Technology". This term, of course, could mean a multitude of things, but in my case it mainly stands for those electronic "high-tech" goodies which sprang from nowhere primarily in the 1970s and have grown into products which everyone is familiar with now, and are no longer special or unusual.
Page 1 (this page): LED Watches, Early Pocket Calculators, Sinclair ZX81, Philips Compact Cassette.
Page 2: CT2 Phones.
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The L.E.D. Watch first
appeared in very small numbers and at very high prices
around 1971/2. The first example was made by Pulsar in
the USA and it was the world's first taste of electronic
(quartz) timekeeping. The accuracy of these beauties was
unheard of at the time, and the glowing red LED display
(which was a pretty new invention itself) looked
incredibly "high tech" - if you could afford to
own one of these watches, you had really "made
it" (the equivalent price now would be many hundreds
of pounds). In time, the price came down and LED watches
were mass produced. By the end of the 70s, they had
disappeared, replaced by the ubiquitous LCD with it's
sensible battery life and easy viewing under bright
light. LED watches are now very rare and very collectable, and with the recent 70s "revival" might become fashionable again with the ultra trendy set! |
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Early Pocket Calculators might
at first seem a strange thing to get excited about! If
you are of the same generation as myself, and grew up in
the 70s, you probably remember your first calculator. It
was expensive (£100 + in modern terms), ate it's way
through batteries (just like the LED watches) but it was
a miniature miracle which gave you a huge advantage over
your less fortunate classmates/colleagues. The sheer
diversity of manufacturers and styling was fascinating,
unlike their modern counterparts which are mostly boring,
throwaway artefacts of modern life. The red LED display
features prominently again, and sets these machines apart
from their modern LCD equivalents. Calculator mad? LED freak? Or just a sad 1970s "Anorak" like me? Then you must visit my Calc Page! |
[Pictures reproduced from covers of E.T.I. magazine (1976), without permission. Sorry.]
Some more bits & pieces ...
 Sinclair is a name synonymous with "early technology", and one you will be seeing a lot more of here. The ZX81 was the first computer many people owned. It's not particularly rare - I'm sure many still rest forgotten in cupboards and attics, although it's lesser known predecessor, the ZX80, is very collectable. The ZX81 first appeared in 1981 and was still available in 83-84 (mine cost £39.95 in '83). The product (typically for Sinclair) was also available as a kit. SPEC: Zilog Z80A Processor (4MHz), Sinclair Basic in 8k ROM, 1k RAM (that was a pain, even then!), Power - 9v. Add-ons included a mini printer and various extended RAM packs. |
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  Ha! You weren't expecting that, were you? Not exactly "high tech", but an innovation with a huge impact. Prior to the Compact Cassette, recording was the hobby of the enthusiast, fiddling with reels of delicate tape, threading it carefully round the heads. Suddenly, anybody could easily make sound recordings. Philips first exhibited the Compact Cassette at the 1963 Berlin Radio Exhibition. Incidentally, Grundig and Telefunken also showed their new DC cassette system at the same show (I don't think it lasted long!). The first Philips cassette machine was the 3300, which was shortly followed by the popular EL3301. By 1968, the legendary EL3302 (pictured opposite) was produced. This was so successful that at one stage Philips devoted an entire factory to producing it. The model endured until the mid 70s, selling millions. Initially, the cassette was intended as a fairly low-fi mono medium, but in 1967 the specification was extended to include stereo, and the introduction of the "domestic" version of the Dolby Noise Reduction system in 1970 assured it's future as a hifi medium. That the Compact Cassette is still going strong today is a testimony to the brilliance of the design, and the performance eked out of this tiny tape running at a very low speed in modern machines would have astonished the original design team! |
Comments & contributions welcomed. Please e-mail to peter@walsys.demon.co.uk
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