You might be stunned to learn that mainstream watchmaker Seiko still manufactures affordable mechanical wristwatches.
Here's an opportunity to build and own a televisor similar to the device created by Scottish inventor John Logie Baird in 1924. Middlesex University Teaching Resources have released a clever £28.56 kit that includes everything necessary to build your own vintage mechanical television.
The unit measures 260 x 195 x 70mm and includes a CD encoded with compatible TV footage. Simply plug your CD player or iPod into the televisor to view the video. The kit design is vaguely reminiscent of the most popular commercial televisor, manufactured by Plessey in the early 1930s. Around 1,000 of these tin-encased devices were sold at a price of £18, qualifying it as the first commercial television.
The British Broadcasting Corporation transmitted experimental televisor broadcasts between late 1929 and 1932. The tall 30 line image measured 2 1/4 inches high by a mere 3/4 inch wide. Televisor images were a ghostly shade of black and red, thanks to the neon lamp used for illumination.
An unimpressed 1928 viewer remarked, "The Baird machine may be said to give a recognisable human head. It is curiously unlike any particular face. I suspect that the eyebrows were heavily made up. Only very slow movements are possible, any thing of even normal speed producing a wild blurr. The impression is of a curiously ape like head, decapitated at the chin, swaying up and down in a streaky stream of yellowy light."
Check out the video to see the device built and operated before your very eyes.
The MUTR Televisor Kit Product Page
More Baird Televisor information
RT reader Chris Zorn recently brought the Nikon Coolpix 100 to our attention. He remarked, "It was built around a PCMCIA card, which (in the days before USB) was the best
way of getting pics on and off. Picture quality was not great, but fine for
the websites of the day..."
Recently Digital Leisure remastered the game in HD from the original film elements - the first time a Dragon's Lair port has looked better than the original. We'll have a review as soon as I can hoodwink someone into letting me take over their Blu-ray player.
It's not just the monsters that made the show stand out from other soaps of the day. Most daytime dramas have protracted plots that last years, but Dark Shadows told smaller concentrated stories in a similar format to today's telenovelas. They had whole continuities that transported the story through time, allowing cast members to portray their own ancestors. The unusual format kept the audience guessing since writers could kill off major characters since the actors could return as ghosts or other versions of themselves in other stories.
The show is a cult classic spawning a pair of 70's feature films, a mini-series revival in the 90's, along with modern releases of audio dramas and conventions. Since Burton and Depp are responsible for several cult classics of their own, let's hope that this new film project that continues the legend of Dark Shadows is in good hands.
The worst one is this aggressively polyester 70's number. Let's put aside that it's the size of a sleeve, has a plasticky sheen, and that it sports a "Rockford Files hired goon" pattern. Flip it over and you can spot the tie's secret. There's a nude lady with a drawn sword living in my tie, and I can't tell if she's happy about it or not.
