Retrotechtacular: RCA Loses Fight To IBM
If you follow electronics history, few names were as ubiquitous as RCA, the Radio Corporation of America. Yet in modern times, the company is virtually forgotten for making large computers. [Comput…
Retrotechtacular: The $550K Video Conferencing System Used To Make Bee Movie
The modern office environment has shifted in recent years. Employees are routinely asked to collaborate with co-workers half way around the globe and be camera ready, or whatever passes for webcam …
Retrotechtacular: Powerline Sagging And Stringing In The 1950s
While high-voltage transmission lines are probably the most visible components of the electrical grid, they’re certainly among the least appreciated. They go largely unnoticed by the general …
A Brief History Of AlphaSmart
There are a handful of gadgets that do one thing so well that they become cult classics long after the company that made them has moved on or closed up shop. [This Does Not Compute] takes us throug…
Retrotechtacular: Ford Model T Wheels, Start To Finish
There’s no doubt that you’ll instantly recognize clips from the video below, as they’ve been used over and over for more than 100 years to illustrate the development of the assemb…
Retrotechtacular: The Tools And Dies Which Made Mass Production Possible
Here at Hackaday we’re suckers for vintage promotional movies, and we’ve brought you quite a few over the years. Their boundless optimism and confidence in whatever product they are adv…
Retrotechtacular: The Master Hands Of The Early Automotive Industry
When motion pictures came along as a major medium in the 1920s or so, it didn’t take long for corporations to recognize their power and start producing promotional pieces. A lot of them are o…
Retrotechtacular: Rebuilding A Fire-Ravaged Telephone Exchange
Those who haven’t experienced the destruction of a house fire should consider themselves lucky. The speed with which fire can erase a lifetime of work — or a life, for that matter ̵…
Retrotechtacular: 1960s Doc Calls Computers The Universal Machine
It’s weird to think that an abacus would have still been used sixty years ago, or so posits the documentary series The Computer and the Mind of Man. This six part series originally aired on S…
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