You know you are getting old when:

[DNO]

Go back and get it. Everybody should have at least one phone that doesn't depend on the cell system for emergency communication. And tell the youngster those dials were one of the first successful "digital" systems - the number dialed was simply a pattern of switches clicking "on" and "off."

In that particular case, it was a matter of "do I need another one". I already have three 302 models, one of which I often have hooked up. I've come to enjoy the dialing process...more deliberate, more relaxing frankly, than pushing buttons. I also have a beautiful 1939 202 that sees regular use. (In retrospect, of course, I realized I should have picked that one up. All the dates matched to 1949, even the transmitter unit...a rarity indeed. I cheaped out instead...after so many years of collecting stuff, you'd think I'd know better...hence the 'd'oh'.)

 

[HudsonHawk]

Go back and get it. Everybody should have at least one phone that doesn't depend on the cell system for emergency communication. And tell the youngster those dials were one of the first successful "digital" systems - the number dialed was simply a pattern of switches clicking "on" and "off."

More importantly, I think, everyone should have a phone that doesn't depend on electrical power to operate. If the power goes out, that cordless phone (I know those are going the way of the rotary phone too) won't work. And cell phones are only cellular until the signal reaches the antenna. At that point, they're a standard land line. A cell phone is really just a 2-way radio that connects you to an old fashioned land line.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That lesson was learned here during an ice storm a couple of years back when the power went out for four days. Lots of people lost cell service. I guess word got out that I have a plain-old-telephone-service copper landline, because I had a lot of neighbors wanting to use my phone. I've mounted a wall phone on the porch for their convienience for when this happens again.

 

[Fading Fast]

That lesson was learned here during an ice storm a couple of years back when the power went out for four days. Lots of people lost cell service. I guess word got out that I have a plain-old-telephone-service copper landline, because I had a lot of neighbors wanting to use my phone. I've mounted a wall phone on the porch for their convienience for when this happens again.

Very nice of you to do that.

And let's give that little copper wire its due. After a century plus of amazing service making available world-wide, real-time conversation, it further showed it magic by accommodating fax technology - somewhere in the '80s. Who (who is old enough to remember) wasn't blown away the first time you saw a document come out of a fax machine and learned that that simple copper wire was the conduit for the information?

And as if that wasn't enough, while slow compared to today's cable and wi-fi speeds, that same 19th Century technology, that same humble copper wire we all had in our homes, brought most of us our first internet service via dial-up modem. Heck of an impressive piece of technology.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And don't forget forty years of telegraph service before anybody ever heard of a telephone. It would be interesting to know how old some of the actual wires are that are still in service.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

I'm not sure how many of the actual wires are in service, but the conduits sure are. Buildings in New York were connected by underground conduits (pipes, essentially) that brought them gas and, later, electricity. Over the decades many of these went moribund but they were still there and still owned by the utility companies or someone who bought them. In the 90s when fiber-op came into use, the fiber-op companies just got out the maps of those underground pathways, bought them from the owners and proceeded to run fiber optic lines through them. After a century or more, they still worked fine.

 

[vitanola]

The radio in my living room, a 1937 Philco with a dual 6F6 pentode push-pull output stage, cost me five dollars back in 1984. At one-half volume it makes the walls shake, which is why I listen to it at rarely more than one-quarter volume. Add an early-40s Philco tabletop turntable attachment and you've got a 78rpm sound system for the ages. Plus full AM radio coverage from 540 kc to 21 mc for pulling in those late night broadcasts from Radio Havana Cuba.

The Philco sets are nice, though I rather dislike working on them (rubber wire and dodgy coils) For those who are looking for a reliable "plug-and-play" set, a restored Victor RE-45 (a rather common set, over 100,000 were sold and very many survive) can be an even better sounding performer after the pickup is rebuilt, particularly if the tone arm is upgraded to the "Inertia Arm" of 1931.

Consumer Reports, in one of its early issues in 1939, named the then decade old RE-45 a "Best Buy" among used radio receivers. They recognized that it was a good receiver for local and mid-distance reception, and claimed that it had a tone quality which "approached that of all but the most expensive current models." In this they were absolutely right. The RE-45 is not avidly collected today, alas. Nice examples may be found without too much trouble.






Of course, many may find the styling of the RE-45 to be too much of its own late 1920's time. The Philco sets were always solidly in the mainstream of styling in their day, and can be very attractive.

Among collectors of 1930's radios the Zenith consoles are generally judged to be the most attractively styled, though they are usually mediocre performers, and the late 1930's Zenith sets are notorious for burning up power transformers. RCA sets generally are among the best performing sets in any given class, but they are often less than physically attractive, having seemingly been designed by a committee of myopics. Philco sets generally are more reliable than the equivalent Zenith models, and perform nearly as well as their RCA equivalents, and so are usually fine compromises between form and function. I won't get in to the particulars of my favorite mid-1930s sets, those made by General Household Utilities and sold under the name of Grunow...

 

[Stearmen]

And don't forget forty years of telegraph service before anybody ever heard of a telephone. It would be interesting to know how old some of the actual wires are that are still in service.

In India, they have a telephone line that is over 100 years old and still going. Can't find any thing on the oldest line in the USA. I suspect, it is not as old as we think! The reason is, cities got the first lines and most cities are going through major upgrades as Inkstainedwretch mentioned. A lot of rural areas did not receive wires until after WWII, so theirs are only 70 or so years old. Still, I hope someone comes up with the answer!

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Philco sets are nice, though I rather dislike working on them (rubber wire and dodgy coils) For those who are looking for a reliable "plug-and-play" set, a restored Victor RE-45 (a rather common set, over 100,000 were sold and very many survive) can be an even better sounding performer after the pickup is rebuilt, particularly if the tone arm is upgraded to the "Inertia Arm" of 1931.

Consumer Reports, in one of its early issues in 1939, named the then decade old RE-45 a "Best Buy" among used radio receivers. They recognized that it was a good receiver for local and mid-distance reception, and claimed that it had a tone quality which "approached that of all but the most expensive current models." In this they were absolutely right. The RE-45 is not avidly collected today, alas. Nice examples may be found without too much trouble.



View attachment 65249
View attachment 65250

Of course, many may find the styling of the RE-45 to be too much of its own late 1920's time. The Philco sets were always solidly in the mainstream of styling in their day, and can be very attractive.

Among collectors of 1930's radios the Zenith consoles are generally judged to be the most attractively styled, though they are usually mediocre performers, and the late 1930's Zenith sets are notorious for burning up power transformers. RCA sets generally are among the best performing sets in any given class, but they are often less than physically attractive, having seemingly been designed by a committee of myopics. Philco sets generally are more reliable than the equivalent Zenith models, and perform nearly as well as their RCA equivalents, and so are usually fine compromises between form and function. I won't get in to the particulars of my favorite mid-1930s sets, those made by General Household Utilities and sold under the name of Grunow...

I have a Victor RE-57, which was the 1930-31 version of that set -- and it's probably the most powerful radio I've ever owned in terms of sheer volume. Push pull 45s in the output stage -- just the sort of thing that makes the modern tube-geek audiophine drool. I have it upstairs in the spare bedroom, because it's just physically too big and imposing to fit in my little living room, and it will pull in Cincinnati -- on nothing more than a "Du Wa Aerial Eliminator" -- with no trouble at all.

When I was actively looking for a radio in the early 80s, I ran into these Victor sets all the time -- four or five of them turned up in the space of a few months in my home town (of less than 2000 people), so I imagine the local Victor dealer was a real go-getter. I paid $15 for mine, which was a lot of money for me in 1985, but it's the only set I've ever owned that needed no repairs before I could use it.

My Philco was the last year before they started the rubber-covered wire, for which I'm thankful. But it has that floating RF deck thing that they used for a couple of years in the late thirties, which has to be completely dismantled before you can replace all the condensers.

In my office I have a bottom-of-the-line RCA console from 1938 that was literally abandoned on my doorstep. It's not as powerful as the Philco, but it sounds nice. Its only weakness is that it's designed for those RCA metal tubes, and it eats them up like candy. I've replaced every tube in the set twice since I've owned it, using NOS-in-the-box RCA originals, and have come to see first hand why the metal-tube fad didn't last. Plus I have a burn scar on my hand from grabbing a metal 6F6 before it was sufficiently cooled down.

 

[vitanola]

The RE-57 was a 1930 re-design of the truly excellent 1929 Micro-Synchronous RE-45, with, of course the addition of the Victor home recording equipment. The RE-57 is a great set, and, as you note, a good distance-getter, but its audio channel is not nearly as good as that of the RE-45. Both sets use a pair of '45's in the output stage, but the RE-45 has much brighter treble, better transient response, and an all-over more realistic sound than its successor. On the RE-45 the record reproduction was appreciably better than the sound quality of radio broadcasts. That seemed to change after RCA took over the firm. The RE-57 shares its powerful though flabby audio channel with the Radiola 80 series of Super-Hetrodyne sets. The excellent though expensive Victor amplifier and loudspeaker are dispensed with.

 

[Trenchfriend]

You know, you are...

When you very prefer good or better "perfect" fitting boxerbriefs and bought four new, moments ago, instead of having many "friends".

 

[Stearmen]

That lesson was learned here during an ice storm a couple of years back when the power went out for four days. Lots of people lost cell service. I guess word got out that I have a plain-old-telephone-service copper landline, because I had a lot of neighbors wanting to use my phone. I've mounted a wall phone on the porch for their convienience for when this happens again.

Until they replace our old copper line in the alley, my phone and computer were constantly down, most annoying!

 

[Trenchfriend]

You know, you are getting old:

When you took a late, refreshing shower and after that, you wear a basic white Piqué-poloshirt, with an warming, bordeaux-coloured and sooo COZY fine-knit cardigan over it! And you look like a writer...

 

[2jakes]

You know, you are getting old:

When you took a late, refreshing shower and after that, you wear a basic white Piqué-poloshirt, with an warming, bordeaux-coloured and sooo COZY fine-knit cardigan over it! And you look like a writer...

When I get into a tub of hot water and feels so nice that I fall asleep.
The only reason I wake up is that the water got cold.
And I feel like a kid.
I want to cry.

 

[Trenchfriend]

When you are watching your own, nice DSLR-Photos from April 2008 and you smile a little, feel kind of relaxed and it basically feels like coming home or so.

 

[HudsonHawk]

When you are watching your own, nice DSLR-Photos from April 2008 and you smile a little, feel kind of relaxed and it basically feels like coming home or so.

Nothing brings back that old-time feeling like 9 year old digital photographs.

 

[2jakes]

Nothing brings back that old-time feeling like 9 year old digital photographs.

When I step inside my 1939 Ford
panel cab and head out to the small towns that still maintain streets and old structures of the thirties.
Manual gear shifting looking out
from the "art-deco" windows of
the panel truck.
Wearing A-1 leather jacket with buttons only, newsboy cap,
denim shirt, soft khaki pants
and scruffy saddle shoes with
my very own Mryna Loy
sitting next to me.
I feel like Gary Cooper in a Frank Capra movie in glorious black & white.

 

[vitanola]

For sheer old-time comfort, nothing beats a winter evening sitting in an overstuffed chair, next to a fireplace newly fitted with a hissing Humphrey radiant gas fire whilst soaking ones feet in an old Blue Canton foot tub.

 

[vitanola]

When I get into a tub of hot water and feels so nice that I fall asleep.
The only reason I wake up is that the water got cold.
And I feel like a kid.
I want to cry.

 

[Trenchfriend]

For sheer old-time comfort, nothing beats a winter evening sitting in an overstuffed chair, next to a fireplace newly fitted with a hissing Humphrey radiant gas fire whilst soaking ones feet in an old Blue Canton foot tub.

The old-fashion way, with curd-soap, rasped into the water, for soft feets or on having Clavus.