How we've changed in 100 years

a reply to: 38181

Bosch coils on the Spirit and rocker spring resonance on the Britannic, engineering puzzles of the day.

They scuttled her in 1961 when they renamed the 250 foot telescope the Mark 1 for the Jodrell Banks children.

Передача информации внеземными цивилизациями

My grandfather was born in 1888 and witnessed electricity, cars, planes, TV, Movies, and man on the moon. A profound movie for him was Maroon since he was a man born basically in the horse and buggy day.

a reply to: gortex

Social deprivation and austerity all over the island.

In my mind, it started with Thatcher gutting the heavy industries, destroying the miners, and selling off all the housing stock back in the 80s, without building anymore to accommodate the masses.

Then subsequent administrations simply moved along to gut the NHS and repeat the same mistakes as before time and time again.

Rinse and repeat for 40+ odd years and this is what we have.

Pathetic really, politics is broken, immigration is at crisis levels, and the Police are an inept bunch of muppets, that are just as likely to help create crimes as they are to solve them.

But it's sorted, because the rich are still rich, and the bankers got bailed out.

We went backward as opposed to forward, and down that road lies stagnation.

What a wonderful world.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Without the invention of the magneto, paired with the understandings and workings of an internal combustion engine we’d still be using horse and buggy.

ICE basics are identical 100 years apart.

Even today I cannot figure out how the sudden collapse of flux causes a spark.

a reply to: 38181

True. Well, on second thought; we can't forget about the steam engine. While technically not an ICE (more of an 'ECE', lol), otherwise the mechanics are very similar (i.e. steam pushes piston vs. explosive gas pushes piston). But I agree with you on the magneto being a giant leap forward in favor of the ICE.

originally posted by: KrustyKrab
My grandmother came to Oklahoma during the land rush in 1889 on a covered wagon, she went from that to one of her dreams of wanting to see man walk on the moon, which she saw, she lived to be 103. Crazy the things she saw in her lifetime.

My grandmother also lived to be 103, and I remember once back in the late 80's talking to her when she was reflecting on all the things she'd seen in her life. Things like the telephone, the car, radio, aircraft flight, man landing on the Moon, JFK, nuclear weapons, and computers. I just remember sitting there thinking..."WOW! That's a LOT!"...and I wondered (still do) about what similar great things I've seen in my lifetime. All I could think of was man walking on the Moon, and that was about it.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

The internet is the main thing i remember where change is concerned in our lifetimes.

If you think about it, it's up there with the wheel given its potential.

And if i were to pick a massive engineering feat that impressed me, successfully building the Channel Tunnel ticks the box.

a reply to: andy06shake

Those are two good ones. Definitely. I should have thought of the Internet, and you're right about the Chunnel. The Chunnel is definitely a modern marvel, no doubt about that.

Of course, today we could say 9-11, but that hadn't happened at the time I had that conversation with my grandmother.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I miss my grandparents and also remember the illuminating conversations we had.

At least thats something i suppose.

A lot of people probably dont even get that.

a reply to: andy06shake

Yeah, my GM was quite the hoot! Never drove a car (never even tried). She lived on her own right up until about 6 months prior to her passing. Walked to the grocery store until she was 102.

Heh, her best friend was this gal named Estelle who lived right under her apartment. Estelle was a year younger than than my GM. Estelle had a car, and I don't know where or how she got this thing, but it was a 60's vintage Dodge Coronet and the damn thing had a Hemi in it. It was in showroom condition. This lady was nuts. I went for a drive to the store with her once (once!). We were driving down this busy boulevard and she's going about 60 mph in a 30 mph zone. Up in front of us I see the yellow light turn red. Estelle just floors it, and we blast through the light. I'm hangin' on for dear life, and I said..."Estelle, you know that was a red light back there, right?". She looks over at me and, with a perfectly straight face, she says..."Honey, I'm old! I didn't get this way sitting around waiting for stuff like that!"

I just busted out laughing.

I have so many stories I can tell like that about my GM and her life. It's just crazy.

The really odd part is my GM on the other side was the complete opposite. She was the definition of crusty. And as an example, once as a little kid she found out I liked mincemeat pie, so she pulled me aside one day and asked me if I knew what mincemeat was. I told her I didn't, but I liked it. She told me it was made up from ground up monkeys...so I wouldn't want to eat any of it. I actually believed this until I was in college when someone else asked and I made an idiot out of myself. "I hope you realize that sh!t is made out of ground up monkeys, dude!" And they were all like..."WHAT?? NO IT ISN'T!!! LOLOLOL!!" DOH!!!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

My grandmother also lived to be 103, and I remember once back in the late 80's talking to her when she was reflecting on all the things she'd seen in her life. Things like the telephone, the car, radio, aircraft flight, man landing on the Moon, JFK, nuclear weapons, and computers. I just remember sitting there thinking..."WOW! That's a LOT!".

The oldest living man in my family's known recorded history back to the early 1700's, was my dad, who died aged 69, in 2004.
I've only known two grandmother's, who both died when I was a young child in the 1980's, so it was an absolute pleasure to become the "Regional Centenarian officer" for my area of the UK, in the early 2000's.

This role was basically the person who physically/personally verified that a citizen was still alive, on the day before their 100th birthday. It was 'marketed' as a welfare visit, so I would identify and contact any relevant agencies for finance/housing/personal care needs, but the real truth of the home visit, was to save The UK Queen from any embarrassment, from sending a 'happy 100th birthday' telegram to a person who was dead!

I met LOTS of centenarians over the decade I did this, and I NEVER stopped being humbled, amazed, and enthralled by their blunt tales of 'absolute poverty' compared to the 'relative poverty' it's confused with in the 21st century.

Best job I've ever done, just meeting people who have been alive for so long. Most were totally aware, and were only pissed off because their bodies failed them faster than their minds.
Many played the 'old person' gig in front of their carers, but were quick to slip into their natural character when having a cup of tea with me...some REALLY fun people who I would've loved to have known in their prime days!😊

One thing I couldn't do was tell 'bull#' to someone who's been alive 100 years, so on first meeting them, I'd usually say something like: "Hiya, it's your very important birthday tomorrow, so I'm here to check you're still alive, so the Queen doesn't get shamed by sending a telegram to someone who is dead!"
"I'm here for a full benefits, finance, social welfare check as well, and I've got 6 hours to spare with you, so you can kick me out now, or take advantage of a fit young man in the house if you want anything done...the MOST important thing I have to do is phone an office in London by 4pm, so the Queen ain't shamed tomorrow with her telegram!"

Always had a good laugh out of them with my honesty, and some took full advantage of the 'young man' lol, I cut grass, put up shelves, and did allsorts during some visits, including drinking complimentary Brandy pmsl!!😊😊😊

Sorry if rambling and mildly off topic lol, but these were my first thoughts reading this thread, so thanks to the OP for reigniting some beautiful memories!

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
I wondered (still do) about what similar great things I've seen in my lifetime. All I could think of was man walking on the Moon, and that was about it.

I think the problem is its invisible to us now, so we take it for granted. I remember back in the late 80s they were saying that computers were reaching the end state of Newton physics and that a wall will stop us because of that with the 486 chip and 500 meg hard drives...

I think that there are crazy smart people doing things today that dwarfs the seeable/touchable things in the last 140 years.

originally posted by: AdultMaleHumanUK
I met LOTS of centenarians over the decade I did this, and I NEVER stopped being humbled, amazed, and enthralled by their blunt tales of 'absolute poverty' compared to the 'relative poverty' it's confused with in the 21st century.

And so many say the young today are in the worst state of the world to live in our history. Even myself I look back to the 70s and 80s and really need to suggest nope, you all have it so much better than even me. Going back farther... holy hell...was it rough.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk

originally posted by: KrustyKrab
My grandmother came to Oklahoma during the land rush in 1889 on a covered wagon, she went from that to one of her dreams of wanting to see man walk on the moon, which she saw, she lived to be 103. Crazy the things she saw in her lifetime.

My grandmother also lived to be 103, and I remember once back in the late 80's talking to her when she was reflecting on all the things she'd seen in her life. Things like the telephone, the car, radio, aircraft flight, man landing on the Moon, JFK, nuclear weapons, and computers. I just remember sitting there thinking..."WOW! That's a LOT!"...and I wondered (still do) about what similar great things I've seen in my lifetime. All I could think of was man walking on the Moon, and that was about it.

That’s awesome you got to hear all that from her. The changes our grandparents saw is pretty nuts when you really start thinking about it. There hi tech gadgets back then amounted to a typewriter and a cash register both invented in the late 1800’s.

a reply to: AdultMaleHumanUK

Wow! That's such a cool story!!

You are an awesome person for that!

My hat is off to ya!

a reply to: Xtrozero

Yeah, you're right. Just the other day I was studying the differences between 3nm semiconductors and 2mm semiconductors. In order to grasp the manufacturing differences, I had to first research 7nm SC's. There's a pretty dramatic change required below 7nm, and even back at the turn of the Millennium they thought anything below 100nm was impossible. In 2017 they crossed the 7nm threshold which was thought to be the smallest capable under the laws of physics.

In 2022 the 3nm threshold was crossed, and it looks like this year, 2025, they may even cross the 2nm threshold. I think I wrote a post about this a while back. Just in the past decade the advancements in Ultra Violet Lithography (UVL) have been born, gone through their entire evolution, and are now considered largely obsolete. Technology which was once thought to not be even possible under the laws of physics just 25 years ago has now been developed, exploited and retired. Next generation lithography techniques such as Extreme Ultra Violet Lighography (EUVL, or EUV for short) are now becoming the standard. And while the technology is understood, the power requirements for such technology is on the order of entire power plants being required to generate just a few hundreds of chips per year.

Next time you walk into Micro Center to buy a CPU and fall over at the $9,000 price tag (for a Intel Core i9-14900KS), just remember these are like 9nm microchips...almost 5x less dense than what I am referring to above. It's like nearly two orders of magnitude different. I could only guess, but I'd guess the price on a 2nm chip would be in the millions of dollars.

So yeah, there are some things we get immune to.

originally posted by: NorthOS
a reply to: visitedbythem

That’s amazing! Does it run well?

I have a brass lantern off a vehicle that was in the family. Yours looks modern with what looks like electric headlamps.

Wish we had one of these in the family!

It came with electric (6 volt) headlights. The four running side lamps are actually brass kerosene lamps that were painted black. I sometimes put LED lights in those for fun.
Its a 1920 Ford and has 3 foot pedals, two levers on the steering column, one large clutch/e brake lever, and two dash controls for adjusting the carburetor on the fly. I have to really concentrate to control all those at the same time. The motor appears to have a fresh rebuild, and it runs great!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

What is the end limit? Today in 2024 MIVIDA hit 208 billion transistors, in 1947 the first chip had 1, and the good old 486 was the first to hit 1 million. Moor's law says it will double every 2 years. My stupid 4070 video card to play games has close to 40 billion transistors, but we went to the moon with slide rulers...lol

originally posted by: visitedbythem

It came with electric (6 volt) headlights. The four running side lamps are actually brass kerosene lamps that were painted black. I sometimes put LED lights in those for fun.
Its a 1920 Ford and has 3 foot pedals, two levers on the steering column, one large clutch/e brake lever, and two dash controls for adjusting the carburetor on the fly. I have to really concentrate to control all those at the same time. The motor appears to have a fresh rebuild, and it runs great!

I laugh at solar power on roofs that go to Tesla batteries because my grandparents had a watermill they hooked up to a motor and it charged a bank of batteries that ran their lights etc in their house. I think they ordered it from Sears. We came so far forward we went backwards.

a reply to: visitedbythem

THat's truly cool.

Good purchase!