Low Tech

Origami Fortune Teller

Posted by ksquaredno15 on April 1, 2013
Posted in: Entertainment, Low Tech, Mind and Body, Stuff, Toys. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Back when I was in my youth, someone (probably my mom) had shown me and my siblings this Origami Fortune Teller toy that had us kids thoroughly entertained. I call it an Origami Fortune Teller for lack of a better name, because I honestly don’t remember what it was called, so during my research, that was one of the many names I found. Wikipedia calls it a Paper Fortune Teller, Cootie Catcher, Chatterbox, Salt Cellar & Whirlybird.

So what is this Origami Fortune Teller you ask? In basic terms, it’s a square piece of paper that’s folded into the shape shown below.

Origami Fortune Teller

In researching this, I found site after site showing how to fold, how to use and how to design the Origami Fortune Teller. It’s funny to see that this simple, kid craft has survived from my childhood as well as the 85 years since it’s inception back in 1928 and is still going strong.

The following video shows one of the ways to use the Origami Fortune Teller:

How to fold your own Origami Fortune Teller:
http://www.tappi.org/paperu/art_class/fortuneTeller.htm

Here’s what Wikipedia says about the Origami Fortune Teller:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_fortune_teller

Creepy Crawlers & Incredible Edibles

Posted by ksquaredno15 on September 7, 2012
Posted in: Entertainment, Foods, Health, Low Tech, Television, Toys. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Remember this commercial? I remember it well.

I was the proud owner of a first generation version of both the Creepy Crawler (Thingmaker) and Incredible Edible toys back in the ’60s. The Thingmaker was a very entertaining toy back in those days. It allowed me to make all kinds of different types of bugs and a multitude of other shapes, in an unlimited number of colors based on what color Plastigoop I used and/or mixed together.

I especially remember the strong smell of Plastigoop as it heated up and started to bubble in the metal molds. The fumes were probably toxic, but who cared about safety back then. I probably lost a mass of brain cells making Creepy Crawlers all day long. I’m sure my friends and family are saying to themselves–now that explains a lot. :)

Us kids were given all kinds of potentially dangerous toys back then, remember the chemistry set? Can you say chemical burn or BOOOM!!!

The Incredible Edible set was similar to the Creepy Crawler toy, in that it used molds to form different shapes and a heating element to cook it, but it used an edible liquid called Gobble De-Goop, that when heated, turned into what I can best describe as the consistency of a Gummy Bear. The taste was indescribable, not too bad, but not great either. If they had sold these at the candy store, they would definitely not have been my first choice.

I was amazed to see that they still make the Creepy Crawler toy. The toy has changed hands a few times since Mattel manufactured it in 1964, and it has become safer to use (that’s no fun). I also found out that they created a Saturday morning cartoon called, what else, Creepy Crawlers, that lasted two seasons.

To read more about Creepy Crawlers, visit wikipedia.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creepy_Crawlers

You Asked For It

Posted by ksquaredno15 on July 30, 2012
Posted in: Automotive, Clothes & Shoes, Entertainment, Foods, Household, Info, Lifestyle, Low Tech, Photography, Places of Interest, Sports, Stuff, Technology, Television, Toys, Transportation. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

You Asked For It was an American television show that aired from 1950-1959. Viewers were asked to mail in requests for things they wanted to see on the show. The program showed how things worked, a behind the scenes look at movie effects, curiosities, etc.

The one episode that I remember seeing, was how they made it look like an actor was riding on a moving horse (close-up shot). The horse or fake horse was actually stationary (but would rock back and forth) and the background scenery would move behind the horse creating the illusion that the horse was moving forward. I believe it was in this same episode that they show how they used red colored wax bullets, so when they shot someone in say, a western movie, it would appear as though the person was shot and bleeding.

You know how they say that “Everything old, is new again”. Well, there are a number of current day television shows that take you behind the scenes of how things are done, such as “How It’s Made”. This is a show on the Science Channel and they have a series of episodes that show how just about anything is made. This is somewhat similar, but not quite, because they only show how things are made (hence the title How It’s Made) and they don’t show how special effects are done or any of the other curiosities someone might request. Even good ol’ Mister Rogers on “Mister Roger’s Neighborhood” took you on field trips to show how things were made.

But the one show that comes the closest to the “You Asked For It” show, is a kids show called “Curiosity Quest”. Just like “You Asked For It”, they ask for viewers to send in requests for what they wanted to see. They’ve been to places like, the Vermont Teddy Bear factor showing how the bears are made, how bread, bikes, snowboards are made, to how they train fire fighters. A great show, even for adults that are curious about these things.

Curiosity Quest:
http://www.curiosityquest.org/

A few youTube videos of different You Asked For It episodes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWRp55vdxzQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztd5B_rAKAM&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8LVfdKmln8&feature=related

Wikipedia.com–You Asked For It
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Asked_for_It

Kodak Carousel Slide Show

Posted by ksquaredno15 on May 9, 2012
Posted in: Entertainment, Low Tech, Movies, Music, Photography, Technology. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

So, if you read the teaser post for this posting, did you picture a city park with multiple carousels spinning round and round filled with kids smiling from ear to ear as they rode up and down on wooden horses? I have to admit, that would be a pretty amazing sight to see.

Kodak-Carousel-slide-projector

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the carousels that I’m referring to are the Kodak Carousel projectors (which was already given away in the title). During my years in high school in the early to mid ’70s, there was a traveling multimedia show that came to our school to show us a slide show. Now this wasn’t just any slide show with one projector and a tray of slides, and a person speaking in a monotone voice…”now class, this is the Amazon rain forest”…this show utilized multiple projectors timed to an audio track using a computer. It was absolutely amazing to see this presentation, because I had not seen anything like it before that time. If I remember correctly, the theme of this slide show was Japan, so there was images of landscapes, people and animals and more.

The screen that the show was projected on, was nearly the width of the classroom that we were in (we were in temporary bungalows at the time) and they must have had at least 40 Kodak Carousel projectors all mounted in a metal framed rig that locked each projector in place.

1987 Multimedia Slide Show

If there was a single image that filled the entire height and width of the screen, then there may have been multiple projectors projecting a portion of that image. All projectors together made up the entire image. They also were able to fade one or more projectors out and fade other projectors in to give what they call in video editing, a dissolve transition.

If the complexity of aligning and synchronizing the timing of each projector wasn’t enough, they added music to the mix which just layered on more complexity, because it had to be synced with the images being shown on the screen.

The Kodak Carousel slide show was the predecessor to today’s modern day digital multimedia slide shows. When you were talking about a slide show back in the 70′s, you were literally talking about a “slide” show, where you used slide film mounted in slide mounts and used a projector to show them on a projection screen. With today’s modern computers and software, just about anybody; professional and amateur alike, can put together a multimedia presentation with a fraction of the effort and equipment of these previous productions. Ya gotta love technology.

mounted slide

I’m really surprised that I couldn’t find much information about this on the web, because before digital video editing came to be, this method of presentation was pretty common place. The only thing I found was the black & white photo above which shows a typical projector setup.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia

Mistake Out

Posted by ksquaredno15 on March 26, 2012
Posted in: Household, Low Tech, Stuff. Leave a Comment

I heard this story on a local radio show and found it interesting, so decided to share it with you.

What’s that you say, you don’t recognize the name in the title? Well, you very well may not, especially if you weren’t around in the late 1960′s. You may however recognize the name Liquid Paper, which is the topic of this post and how the product and company came to be.

Bette-Nesmith-Graham-HeadshotAs is the case with the majority of inventions, you have a need and you create a product to fill that need. That’s exactly what Bette Nesmith Graham did back in the early 50′s. She worked as a typist and like most people, made mistakes while typing and it wasn’t like our modern day computers/word processors where you just backspace or highlight, delete and continue typing. She was on a mission to come up with a way to correct her mistakes.

Starting in her kitchen using her blender, she made up a paint like product she called “Mistake Out”. She packaged her new product in a green bottle with a Mistake Out label affixed to it and started providing her product to her co-workers.

Unfortunately, one day she made a mistake that she failed to correct (she typed in her own company name instead of the banks) and was fired from her typist job. It was from this point forward, that she decided to devote her time on her correction fluid company.

Ms. Nesmith offered her product to Big Blue (IBM), but they declined. Bette had sold Mistake Out from her house for 17 years; the name was changed to Liquid Paper shortly after. By 1968, her product was making a profit, and in 1979 the Liquid Paper Corporation was sold to the Gillette Corporation for $47.5 million with royalties.

In 2000, Liquid Paper was acquired by Newell Rubbermaid. In some regions of the world, Liquid Paper is now endorsed by Papermate, a widely known writing instruments brand (also owned by Newell Rubbermaid).

michael_nesmith_monkees

Do you recognize Bette’s maiden name; Nesmith? If you were a fan of the 60′s rock band the Monkees, you may know this name from vocalist and guitarist, Michael Nesmith. Michael was the son of Bette Nesmith-Graham and the primary heir to her Liquid Paper fortune after Nesmith’s death in 1980.The Monkees Greatest Hits Album

Like many people, I used Liquid Paper for my own typing mistakes and/or handwritten mistakes or revisions.

Ironrite Ironer

Posted by ksquaredno15 on August 12, 2011
Posted in: Household, Lifestyle, Low Tech, Stuff. Tagged: , , , . 1 comment

The word Ironrite in this case, is a noun. The Ironrite was a behemoth ironing machine, that dwarfs any conventional iron.

ironrite_handle

ironrite_ironer

Back in the ’60s, my mom had one of these contraptions and it was stored away in her bedroom. To a curious kid it was a gold mine. “What was this big white, metal box with a metal chair sitting in front of it”. Well I found out one day when my mom sat down to use it on a load of clothes. She opened up the metal cover which was essentially a big metal box that was hinged at the back. She flipped down a black plastic shelf that sat in front of a big white roller. She flipped on a couple switches and you could hear a humming noise coming from the beast.

One of the main working parts of the Ironrite was a big cloth covered roller which spins round and round and moves up and down. When the roller was in the full down position, it spun against a metal platen that spanned the length of the roller and provided the heat source for pressing your clothes.

To operate the Ironrite, you needed to be a bit coordinated, because there were two levers attached to the bottom of the Ironrite that you actuated with your knees. You hit one lever to raise and lower the roller and the other lever to start the roller spinning. And if you held one of the levers, it made the roller go up and down.

Once you put your clothes in between the roller and the heating platen, and you lower the roller, and start the roller spinning, it will pull in whatever fabric you feed it. It will also pull in small fingers too, that’s probably why they have a manual release lever to lift the roller in emergencies.

Many, many years later as an adult, my wife and I took a vacation to Washington D.C. and we visited the Smithsonian Institution. As we were walking around we came across a good old Ironrite Automatic Ironer, it brought an immediate smile to my face and memories of burned and pinched fingers. :)

The link below is a YouTube video that I found, that shows how to use the Ironrite Ironer, check it out if you’re interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3Mzkphi7lA&feature=related

Old Style “Magic” Trash Trucks

Posted by ksquaredno15 on July 22, 2011
Posted in: Automotive, Lifestyle, Low Tech, Technology. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a Comment

Most little boys are fascinated by trucks and tractors of all configurations, myself included. I was fascinated by, of all things, the city trash truck that made it’s way to our house once every week. I remember hearing that familiar sound and I would look out the window or go outside to watch as the garbage men picked up each of our garbage cans (by hand) and dumped them into the back of the trash truck. They would bang them against the bottom edge of the opening to make sure everything was out of the can. We had these galvanized metal garbage cans and after a few bangs against the truck, the sides would be all dented in.

old style trash truck
All right, enough of the dented trash cans, on to the “Magic” Trash Truck. I use the term “Magic” kinda loosely, maybe it wasn’t magical, but I thought it was interesting or neat at the very least. But would you have read this post if I titled my teaser post “Interesting Trash Truck” or “Neat Trash Truck”?

Anyway, once the back of the truck was filled to the point where they couldn’t fit any more garbage, they flipped a lever or switch and this claw thing (for lack of a better word) would come down from up above and it would cover the garbage then it would slide back up to it’s start position and voila, all of the garbage was gone! Where did all that trash go? See, Magic!

I call these old style trash trucks, but I’m sure they still use them somewhere. The ones you see the most these days have an arm that picks up the trash can and dumps it into a bin, Big Woop! :)

USB Typewriter

Posted by ksquaredno15 on May 23, 2011
Posted in: Low Tech, Technology. Tagged: , , , , . 2 comments

Here’s a filler post to pacify you while I put the finishing touches on my next post.

USB typewriter for iPadDefinitely a blast from the past. Remember the old style mechanical typewriters?

This inventive person figured out a way to turn an old typewriter into an input device (keyboard) for your computer or iPad. If you’re handy with a soldering iron, you might want to check it out!

http://www.usbtypewriter.com/

Curb Feelers

Posted by ksquaredno15 on April 29, 2011
Posted in: Automotive, Low Tech. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Curb feelers were popular car accessories during the ’40s, ’50s & ’60s. They looked like your car was growing cat whiskers. The purpose of the curb feeler was to alert you when your precious white wall tires were getting too close to the rough surface of the cement curb–sudden death for your tires or cool hub caps.

curb-feelers-on-carCurb feelers are metal springs or wires that scrape against the curb when parallel parking your vehicle. As a youngster I remember the distinctive sound of metal against concrete or what I compare to scraping your finger nails on a chalkboard. curb-feelers-off-car

Whenever my dad had to parallel park the car, I remember as the car got closer and closer to the curb you would hear this scraping or screeching sound that resonated throughout the car. This was due to the fact that the curb feelers were attached to the metal car body. Before knowing what these things were, I often thought to myself, what is that noise!

Thanks to all of the retro car enthusiast around, curb feelers are still around to give their ride that classic ’50s look.

Check out wikipedia.com for more details:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curb_feeler