Thought for the day...

SamR

Joined Mar 19, 2019
5,491
Used my maternal grandfather as an example. Born early 1900s with no electricity or indoor plumbing and horse and buggy for transportation. And he was the son of a relatively wealthy family. Served as an Army officer in the 1st world war (after turning down an appointment to the US Naval Acadamy) and by the time he died at 96 years of age IBM and Bill Gates were trying to put a computer on every desk.
 

MaxHeadRoom

Joined Jul 18, 2013
30,684
At the time when I was a young apprentice I was reminded of it when going out to one of the old grand stately homes in England to install electricity in the place.
All lead piped gas lighting.
The communication system was quite interesting, miles of steel wire and bell cranks, in order for each distant room to operate their particular bell-pull in order to summon one of the below stairs crew.

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ZCochran98

Joined Jul 24, 2018
351
And in roughly the same amount of time we went from this:
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To this:
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And now even FinFETs are reaching their end as newer transistor architectures are being researched (and the size limitations for FinFETs is being approached). It's really quite remarkable, the technology boom of the past century or so. And I've only seen 23 years of it. I'm curious to see what advances is technology I'll see in my own lifespan, considering I grew up in the age of the FinFET and nanoscale transistor technology, internet, commonplace microcomputers and gaming systems, cell phones, "UHD" TVs, non-governmentally-funded/researched spacecraft (which is, admittedly, a recent development), etc.
 

SamR

Joined Mar 19, 2019
5,491
We still own one of the family homes built circa ~1860. It had indoor running water. Supplied by an elevated cedar tank with a double acting lever pump during my fathers childhood. One of the kids daily chores was to do so many strokes on the lever pump to resupply the tank. Before ~1920 there was free flowing water to the 2nd floor from artesian well pressure. No flush toilets (kitchen and one bath/sink) and the double outhouse was still standing up until a few years back. Growing up and until my grandfather passed there still was always a "thunder jug" chamber pot under every bed. Still remnants of the knob and tube wiring that was added in the 20-30s. Being semi-rural/small town there never were any gas lights and still have some of the old ornate brass oil lamps with glass etched globes. Most were later converted to electric and ruined. First electric water pump was installed ~1947.
 

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,782
Do you mean if I was in a room and pulled a bell crank, someone under the stairs would ring a particular Bell associated with that room?
No ... said associated bell would be directly actuated by said crank (or cable/thread), no intermediary person would be needed. You can only imagine the huge network of cables, pulleys and levers needed to build such a system.
 

MaxHeadRoom

Joined Jul 18, 2013
30,684
No the, there was a bell in the panel for each room in the servants quarters and they were labeled by room etc.
The piano wire was directed in floors and inside walls via the bell cranks.


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SamR

Joined Mar 19, 2019
5,491
In smaller homes it was usually a small bell sitting on a side table to be rung for the maid. It buggers the mind to think of those old huge manor homes and their bells systems.
 
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