What is the oldest electrical item you have that still works?

[amazingtrade]

I have a Grandstand Fairchild VEC which came out in the early 70's but I suspect mine is from around 1977. It still works perfectly but it really nothing more than a cartridge based pong system.

I also have a fully working Commodore C64 but mine was made in 1990 to replace my dads 1984 brown C64 which blew up.

The oldest item I have HIFI wise is a Rotel BX870 pre amp which I suspect is from the early 1990's. My sister has a 1979-1980 Pioneer amp which is still in use and still sounds pretty amazing. I was given it and asked my sister if she wanted to use it (she was using a crappy mini system) amazinly she said she would and has now had it for five years. I am not sure what model it is but its very very heavy and judging by its sound I suspect it would have costed a lot back then.

We are bunch of techgnogeeks in this house so we don't use absolute things like VCRs.

 

[mr cat]

yeah, was watching some bbc website article about a tv that's from the 30s(?) that still works...

myself...hmm...got a hairdryer from the 90s that I'm sure still works...tho, I've no use for it anymore...!

got a colleague who's got a very early microwave...now, that can't be healthy...!

 

[strider]

I still have a Phillips clock/radio I bought for £16 when I was 17, I'm nearly 44 so you do the math....
I use it every day and it has never let me down but always gets me up!

 

[mr cat]

yeah, I had a technics hifi from about 1989 that I bought at dixons / currys at a cost of about 600 quid...lovely it was too (didn't have a cdp tho) and that was still being used up until I gave it to my ex about 4-5 years ago...and I guess it's still being used now...

 

[la toilette]

Leak stereo 20, Garrard 401, Tannoy Golds!! All 60's, all working very nicely, and reasonably well colour co-ordinated to boot!

 

[penance]

A 1941 War department type F field telephone.
New battery and off it went.

 

[DavidF]

I have an old prinsound 5050 ghetto blaster I had when I was 15. It got into me onto music and I spent many an hour listening to john peel in the early 80s. The tape has long since given up the ghost. The radio still works though.


Also a post war radio....(I think)

M yGrandpa used to sell them back then.

Certain people want me to sling it but I feel a lot of affinity for the guy so I don't want to.

 

[I-S]

A Canon EF 50mm F1.8 lens. It was made in 1987.

 

[Telkman]

I still have a Phillips clock/radio I bought for £16 when I was 17, I'm nearly 44 so you do the math....
I use it every day and it has never let me down but always gets me up!

Mine is a radio alarm clock I got for Christmas in 1995. Other than that, probably nothing pre-2003!

 

[themadhippy]

My mum is still using a pifco hairdryer from the 60's,still works fine unlike the modern replacement she was given a few years go.Also a hoover junior from the same period is still going strong.

 

[Samantha]

Atari 2600 (original with fake wood front, circa 1981?) - in fairness, not been used in a long time - but still works!

 

[narabdela]

My mum is still using a pifco hairdryer from the 60's,still works fine unlike the modern replacement she was given a few years go.Also a hoover junior from the same period is still going strong.

Those Hoover Juniors are bombproof, much better built than the current rubbish. We still use the one we got for a wedding present in 1979.

 

[Andy 831]

Garrard 301 Turntable from about 1959 doubt its ever had a service other than the bearing strip and re oil I did the other month.

It runs like new.

 

[Andy 831]

.

Don`t bin it DavidF, I bet it has some nifty Mullards or Brimars in it too

 

[DavidF]

It won't be.

 

[Joe]

A 1941 War department type F field telephone.
New battery and off it went.

Who was calling?

 

[penance]

Who was calling?

Broadsword, asking for someone called danny boy.

 

[spica]

Broadsword, asking for someone called danny boy.

Danny Boy Calling Broadsword. Father Macree is waiting.

Quite right penance.

Where Eagles Dare

The radio set used to communicate with headquarters in England was in fact a British low power VHF transceiver with a range of a couple of miles at best. It simply didn't have the capability to reach England.

 

[felix]

Hmm.. Acoustical FM1 tuner, about 1959, still works a treat. But my desk fan is older - 1958 GEC, designed by Leslie Roberts, like this:

The blades are rubber, and don't hurt *that* much...

 

[SMEagol]

I had the same fan at work in the early 90's, in my misguided youth it konked out and made a noise like Flash Gordons ship when you turned it on and the blade stopped spinning, I think it was shorting as it had a dodgy rheostat on a slider under the chassis for speed if I remember. We had a builder in at the time, and he said it was such a beautiful object, could he have it (working or not) and I foolishly said yes. I should have kept it!
Reminded me of a Raymond Loewy design, like those fab 50's american deco style locomotives.

At the same time my brother had a large GEC valve radio, he took the lid off and was poking around with a screwdriver til it blew him across a room! He's not been near valves since.

I suppose my oldest thing now would be my turntable an STD305m which dates from the late 70's. Fabulous thing.