Do You Remember  These  Vintage  Gadgets?

By Vandya Rai

July 22, 2022

Rotary Telephones

Dates back to 1844. Telephones are now replaced by mobiles that we can carry in our pockets. The rotary telephone had a circular dial that the user had to turn to call a number.

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Fax Machines

These machines can send and receive scanned documents from one phone number to the other. Now, fax is no longer in use, thanks to email and the internet.

Music Players

Portable music players were all the rage in the 90s. The most notable players were the Walkman, the Discman, and MP3 players. Each went obsolete when a more advanced player turned up in the market.

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Image Source: Unsplash

Floppy Disks

A data storage device from the 1970s. The first floppy disk was 8-inches and could store 80 kilobytes of data. As they got smaller, their storage capacity grew bigger. Soon, CD-ROMs took over in the 1990s.

Cassette Tapes

Made audio affordable to the masses since the 1960s. Cassettes were used to listen to music albums, or as blank tapes to record anything. They were used around the world even until the early 2000s.

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Image Source: Unsplash

Cathode Ray Tube Televisions

They were mainstream since the mid-1920s. These bulky sets saw the transition from black and white to colour. Until LCD television took over in 2007.

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DVDs

Revolutionised the digital video format. They had a high storage capacity and were used for files, videos, and music. While DVDs are still used sometimes, they are dying out thanks to HD streaming technology and faster internet.

Pagers

Built in the 1950s. They were personal radio receivers for short messages. They were used as alerts mainly by doctors and safety personnel who needed to be reachable at all times. Now, everyone is just text away!

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Typewriters

Ancestors to computers, they were a marvel of technology back in the day. They opened up new avenues for writing novels, letters, or documents. The typewriter has been around since 1575 and is rarely used today.

Vinyl Records

The oldest and most long-lasting medium for storing audio. They emerged in the late 1800s, and are produced even now, although on a much smaller scale. Music enthusiasts are still fond of collecting vintage records.

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