Old Tools Never Die

[Old Monkey]

They interviewed a fellow on NPR this morning who says that no technology that we have ever invented has gone away. He has an open challenge to name a type of tool that is no longer made. I wonder if anyone here can stump him.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/02/01/133188723/tools-never-die-waddaya-mean-never

 

[MasterBlaster]

Well alrighty then.

 

[Paul B]

mimeograph? lithograph? phonograph? polaroid cameras? photography flashcubes?
I will stop my rant there, I don't want to hog the spotlight.

 

[Al Smith]

Not entirely .Lithograph was once done by lead plates which transfered the image to a mirror image transfer offset roller which printed the product .That is now done using computor programs with a special photo sensitive type of roller .The process itself is still pretty much the same except with newer methods .

 

[MasterBlaster]

Are all of those tools?

 

[Al Smith]

The printing press might be considered .More of a process though I imagine .

 

[Paul B]

Well I thought about the basics, stone hammers, chisels, arrowheads and figured they are probably all still in use somewhere yet not likely mainstream. So I thought I would try to stir up the discussion with some arcane machines, possibly not tools, to see where it goes. How about the chalkbrush vacuum at school? I seem to remember getting that duty fairly often, I can close my eyes and smell that yellow dust filling the hallway around me.

 

[sawinredneck]

cross cut saws (misery whips), screw machines and adjustable head manual mills come to my mind.

 

[Mr. Sir]

I think the catch is that he asked for a "type" of tool that is no longer made. Everything mentioned so far is a "specific" tool; the type is still made, but the specifics have changed with changing technologies.

 

[Al Smith]

Not so with screw machines .Acme -Gridley chuckers are still used . For a machine first made in the 30's they are mechanical wonders .Properly set up they will out run a CNC on small parts .

 

[Paul B]

I think the spear is fairly irrelevant for the developed world. Does a guillotine count as a tool?

 

[squisher]

Spear? Millions, wait billions of people around the world are still eating with two little spears.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I've Got One!

 

[SkwerI]

There is a huge industry supplying fancy spears to crazy people who put on scuba gear and go hunting for fish.

 

[Paul B]

 

[Paul B]

My dad used one of these in his earlier years at sea.

 

[Mr. Sir]

Nope, it just looks like this now.

 

[Paul B]

My cell phone has one of them

 

[Old Monkey]

New slide rule for sale

New sextants for sale

 

[Mr. Sir]

I still have my old slide rule.

 

[Paul B]

Well, to find a tool that doesnt exist any longer it would have to be followed by a better tool that is similiar in effect while being easier, faster, more efficient to implement yet its design and implementation would have to be radically different. The other option is to go back to doing it the hard way with a predecessor tool or none at all. The argument is circulatory when newer designs of tools are considered the same thing, IE the hammer.

Perhaps there was a specific tool to catch Dodo birds or Great Auks?

 

[woodworkingboy]

I would say that an adze has all but disappeared. People use routers and grinders instead. I still have my toes!

 

[flushcut]

The spoon drill bit. That is no longer in production on any level that I know of.

 

[Mr. Sir]

The spoon drill bit. That is no longer in production on any level that I know of.

Spoon Drill Bit

Adze

 

[Al Smith]

Me too but they aren't real accurate,never were .Close enough though .