Tuesday, February 21, 2017

analog memories...

I have always been enamored with funky clocks.  Just so happens I was in the market for one for a future friday night film and found this one.  A flip clock reminds me of the old scheduling displays in Grand Central Station that would flip through all the numbers and letters...listening to them clacking away each time they updated all the information. Every character you saw was part of a module that had 40 plastic flaps with the letters A through Z, numbers 0 through 9, and a few useful symbols.  Those modules were controlled by software-run step motors that spun the flaps around like a Rolodex until they landed on the character needed to help spell out the information.  The mechanics are the reason the board made its' beloved clacking sound.  70,78,35,0,B
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10 comments:

THORNWALKER said...

Because time does not exist, only clocks exist.

February 21, 2017 at 7:34 PM
Unknown said...

Cool clock. Good thing you don't have a cat. :-)

February 21, 2017 at 7:50 PM
Dale said...

LOL fixing your glasses with baling wire and buying a $35 ticktock clock in a place where time is all but meaningless.

February 21, 2017 at 8:23 PM
leilani said...

Love those. They're still around in many European stations.

There's a website that replicates pretty well the split-flap board sound for all the US Amtrak stations. You punch in the 3-letter station code to get that city's schedule with flappety sound effects for readers who might not have ever gotten to hear the Solari boards when they were still at Penn & Grand Central stations (which wasn't that long ago, really, even though they're so low tech). Here's the link:

http://dixielandsoftware.net/Amtrak/solari/

I just tried ALP (Alpine) but there wasn't anything. I don't think the Sunset Limited comes through there again til day after tomorrow.

LA's is a pretty busy hub for several Amtrak lines so it should work for TFL readers:

http://dixielandsoftware.net/Amtrak/solari/stations.php?data=LAX&tz=PT

EDIT: I just tried to punch in Penn Station (NYP) and got an error page. Then I tried LA again & I can't get it to come up either. I dunno I think I may have broken the site, so...sorry? Yikes. I'm such a klutz.

February 21, 2017 at 8:29 PM
Margery Billd said...

That reminds me how Native Americans mock white people always looking at the time (which I do) because why?, I forgot.

February 21, 2017 at 8:58 PM
Margery Billd said...

Nature dictated time for the Native Americans. They did not like clocks because clocks moved and made noises like something living. Natives were punctual according to their needs.

February 21, 2017 at 9:10 PM
remmij said...

tick, tick, tock —
…meanwhile, at Penn Station…
WAS (Washington D.C.)

February 21, 2017 at 10:03 PM
RoadieRyan said...

Sat in the Munich train station at first to get an idea of what the schedule was and then just to drink in the sight and sound of that big board and all those flipping tiles

February 21, 2017 at 10:42 PM
Margery Billd said...

My Chinese Crested little dog is recovering very well from the very brink of death from a bad spay at the San Antonio Humane shelter a few years ago. Her body had become highly infected and a left in ovary had become half the length of her body and twice the width. Poor girl. This was an excellent Veterinarian in Boerne, TX, who operated (Rosendeck). The first thing my dog did when she woke up was to try to bite the vet. :-/

February 22, 2017 at 10:48 AM
Unknown said...

Nice cooling solution. Vertical flow through the heatsink, plenty of new air to replace the heated air, and capacitors (whose lifetime is affected a lot by temperature near there rated max.) not baling in a hot plastic box. And lot's of bright blinky light to show that it's all working fine (while you try to sleep).

February 22, 2017 at 1:14 PM

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