If you Remember These You Are From the 1970’s and 80’s

The 1970's and 1980's bring back fond memories of a time when communication was changing rapidly.  There were no cell phones in the 1970's.  Bag phones were used in the late 80's.  Some of these items are even older.  See if you can guess which are. Check out some of these contraptions and see if you recognize them.  It will surprise you when some were actually invented.

The Telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876.  At least he was awarded the first U.S. patent for it.  The first coast to coast call was made by Bell to his assistant Thomas Watson from New York City to San Francisco in 1915.

This antique is from the 1970's.  John Mullen brought his Magnetophone tape player to the United States after inventing it for the AEG Electric Company in Germany.

Fritz Pfleumer invented Magnetic tape to store sounds on tape in 1928.

Cassette tapes were actually introduced by Philips in 1962 for audio storage.  They were introduced in Europe August 30, 1963 at the Berlin Radio Show.  The United States Norelco brand was introduced in November 1964 with the trademark name compact cassette.

The 8 Track Tape was created in 1964 by a consortium led by Bill Lear of the Lear Jet Corporation, Ford Motor Company, Ampex, General Motors, Motorola, RCA Victor Records.  It was used from the mid 1960's until the early 1980's.  RCA introduced stereo 8 tracks in April 1970.

Mini Discs used the magneto-optical system to record data.  The laser heats one side of the disc to it's Curie Point.

Microdisks or Floppy Disks came in 8", 5 1/4" and 3 1/2" sizes.  IBM San Jose began work on these in 1967.  The 8" format introduced in 1972.  5 1/4" in 1976 and 3 1/2" in 1982.

The Rolodex was invented in 1956 by Danish Engineer Hildaur Neilsen working for a New York Company.  It was first marketed in 1958 and is also called a Wheeldex.

Fax Machine-  actually Alexander Bain invented the Electric Printing Telegraph in 1843.  In 1924 a one page per six minutes was introduced.  Colorfax wireless transmission was made available in 1924.  By 1974 speeds improved to a page every 3 minutes.  In 2010 internet faxes were introduced on Apple devices.  2011 Android followed.