The queue-bothering proto-PowerPoint

If you queued up in a UK Post Office in the 1980s you might have seen one of these carts in action. If you were in business or education in 1970s America you might have viewed a presentation from one of these carts. It's a format that you were made to watch, whether you wanted to or not.
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[@ItsJustElenore]

"HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT BUYING STAMPS TODAY?" Aye no, I'm at the post office to get my hair cut.

[@bosstowndynamics5488]

I like how Matt's long search for a 60Hz inverter that works properly with old audiovisual gear has finally competed successfully

[@allenellisdewitt]

It's such an obvious solution in retrospect!

[@markjames8664]

With a bigger battery, Matt could continue producing weekly videos after the collapse of modern civilization.

[@jackbaxter-williams8059]

I feel like a sponsorship is in order. I hear they pay pretty well. Do a review matt ! BTW, i still love your outro song!

[@SyntheticFuture]

I also love how it's not an inverter at all XD Sometimes the right tool is the thing you weren't looking for 😄

[@bosstowndynamics5488]

@@allenellisdewitt It really isn't that easy though, his previous attempt discovered that Ryobi's "pure sine wave" inverter was anything but.

[@cusemoneyman]

Importing a US portable battery with 60Hz AC output was a stroke of genius.

[@lucasRem-ku6eb]

someone did forced that on him

[@pvman2]

So, he could import a Li-ion batt, but not an inert, obsolete, portable, rear projector? Bureaucrats!!!

[@2009dudeman]

@@pvman2 More likely the export paperwork wasn't filled out correctly. CBP is pretty anal about their paperwork and filing. They won't let an item through because they don't understand it and think it's prohibited, but if you call it an "engineering sample" it will get through no problem. This is how a lot of test and computer equipment gets through. If I want to ship half a dozen circuit boards to Australia for example, I could list what they are and what hazards they may have (simple don't put a CR2032 battery and you can list 'none'). But if the boards are just tough pressure sensors for recording overpressure events up close, and you call them "explosion sensors", there is a good chance the word explosion keeps your items off the plane. Thats just an example, there are far less ridiculous names that have kept things stuck in customs.

[@ailivac]

Sounds like the shipping would cost more than just importing an inverter without a heavy battery already attached.

[@li5up6]

​@@2009dudeman a😊

[@hoilst265]

The fact that they've used Iron Maiden's "Number Of The Beast" as the ideal gift - excellent. And supremely 80s Britain.

[@catfish552]

Hehe, yup. That would still be the ideal gift for me today!

[@davekp6773]

Yep, and now the Post Office have come full circle by recently releasing Iron Maiden commemorative stamps. I think they are only the fifth group to be commemorated.

[@jameslaidler2152]

Ya beat me to it. Seriously though, showing a young fellow holding a flippin' Iron Maiden album is hilarious.

[@astroboirap]

with Christopher Reeve buying it

[@odkres]

I was a bit surprised, I wouldn't have thought Maiden was accepted as a good and proper thing in that "official" sphere yet.

[@congaman100]

In the mid 80's I worked as a security guard at night in a retail store being built in a local mall. The music system in the store was so accurately repeditave I could eventually tell the current time by the song playing.

[@WrenFJ]

We'd LOVE the story on your friend's pirate action movie business

[@mariorossi9300]

I agree, must be an interesting story.

[@llucos100]

****** Manchester Police has joined the chat ******

[@lundsweden]

No doubt a friend of a friend of a friend! ;-)

[@deanagoes2791]

Hongkong connection 😂

[@medes5597]

Pretty sure it was a guy with a mail order business. Not a friend.

[@borisgalos6967]

The color fading is typical of Ektrachrome compatible film (which also includes things like Agfa and Fuji). Kodachrome typically is immune to fading. That process is unique to Kodak and required massively complex equipment to process. It's interesting to note that Kodachrome is actually a black and white film that has layers dyed during processing and it was invented by hobbyist chemists Mannes and Godowsky in Mannes' kitchen. Their day jobs were as professional musicians.

[@v-g-z3689]

Yes, Kodachrome is more or less immune to that, but Ektachrome suffered from it a lot, so did Fuji. However Agfa and 3m film held up a lot better, not quite as excellent as Kodachrome, but close!

[@StackOverflow80]

I think it is Eastmancolor production prints what fades so heavily. Ektachrome et al too, but not so extremely like the Eastmancolor mass production prints of that era.

[@lunquewill]

Do the faded films have enough color remaining to be able to digitally resurrect them?

[@v-g-z3689]

@@lunquewill Pretty much anything can be done with digital tinkering nowerdays. If that's also authentic then is a different story, I consider any but the conservative methods as botch. (That opinion of course doesn't apply for heavily damaged but highly valuable material that needs to be resurrected at any cost.)

[@StackOverflow80]

@@lunquewill They say at least ca 4% of original dye density is necessary to fully restore the colour.

[@bengineer_the]

"Reinventing the reel" would have been the perfect advert for the micro cassette! XD

[@moserfugger6363]

Mr. Techmoan really is the Indiana Jones of technical oddities. It's always great fun to join him on his adventures. :) Greetings from Germany

[@filanfyretracker]

Germany gave us one of the devices that truly made this channel famous for its oddtech audio formats. the Tefifon.

[@moserfugger6363]

@@filanfyretracker Gern geschehen! :) Grüße aus Deutschland

[@MingJianYap]

needs to do a crossover with oddityarchive

[@me3333]

Back in the 80's my grandfather worked at a tractor dealership and brought one of these systems home. It was meant to demonstrate how to repair the new equipment coming out on tractors. It was pretty cool because you could have the part right there in front of you and it was like a step by step guide to work on it. As a kid I watched all of the tapes and it really helped me understand a lot of mechanical systems that could be applied to cars, trucks etc. and helped spur my interest in working on cars

[@Caratcho]

An analog KZbin tutorial 🤪

[@IvanKowalenko]

iFixit of the 80s.

[@Breakstuff455khz]

My father worked for Amtrak when I was a kid and taught training classes for the mechanical department, meaning we had a few boxes of very technical VHS tapes in the basement at all times. I spent hours and hours watching all the hits like "Locomotive air brake departure test" and "Introduction to Head-End-Power". Knew more about P42 locomotives than anybody else in elementary school.

[@denisohbrien]

aaand fastforward to now where your not allowed to work on the tractor you own and bought.

[@bertram-raven]

But now the same manufacturer which ensures you understand you do not own anything and will be happy.

[@2Nu]

Matt, you always manage to make the ordinary, mundane or otherwise arcane vintage tech utterly fascinating with your affable and engaging presentation approach. Kudos Mate! 👏👏

Hello: I am a very old man from Patagonia, Argentina. We did not have those equipments but you remembered me when I went to the local and huge postal office back in the 60´s and 70´s. I thank you for all in your channel. Cheers!!!

[@moseshorowitz4345]

Units very much like this one were common in the United States back in the Seventies. I would see them most often at those enormous Home Show, Camping Show, and other large-hall exhibitions. Salesmen of all types would set one up on a table to attract potential customers. Of course, it also drew in tech-minded tykes like myself, eager to figure out the inner workings of this odd beast.

[@darryl7256]

I also remember seeing these running little info sessions about exhibits in museums when my family was driving around the US & Canada in the late 70s.

[@toonman361]

Sounds exactly like me.

[@ennexthefox]

As a Midwesterner, I’m very interested to hear Mat try to pronounce “Oconomowoc, Wisconsin” where La Belle Industries was based!

[@IvanKowalenko]

Or Wayzata.

[@edherdman9973]

I used to be in the Midwest and had to look that one up! Wayzata too.

[@jamespfitz]

Muscoda

[@craigduncan4826]

AWK-On-omo-wock Is my guess - like oconomowalk Had to read it a few times but to me it seems like it prolly sounds just like you’d expect. Close?

[@jbaldwin1970]

In the mid 90s the large company I worked for (you’ll know them if I mention them) trialled a more up to date version of this. Computer monitors in every branch with content transmitted overnight via modem. I was responsible for putting together the slideshows. We piloted it with about six stores. I quite enjoyed messing with the system and trying to make it creative. But the library music they gave us was the usual guff and, despite my best attempts, it was difficult to make it anything less than irritating. The six trial branches immediately turned down the volume rather than go crazy and the resulting silent shows soon got covered up with stock. Fortunately I’d been reading about a new thing called the worldwide web and began experimenting with it. Bye bye remote AV system

[@johnclarkorme5211]

I was thinking, I can remember these in the 90s, and I'm sure they had the word Video something on the plastic cabinet and I think they were CRTs rather than a projector. They were very irritating, and didnt last long

[@Demiglitch]

Did that World Wide Web ever take off then?

[@jbaldwin1970]

@@Demiglitch the jury is still out

[@patrickhobbs8201]

I had a history teacher in 2004 that was still using these to supplement lessons about the American Revolution. It was mostly illustrated and narrated folklore. I *distinctly* remember how pink the slides were.

[@CarlRhoades]

I remember these in school here in Colorado... It was used for supplemental content alongside the VHS tapes for Voyage of the Mimi. Never thought something would bring that back to my mind from 1985!

[@herbiehusker1889]

Voyage of the Mimi, lol. Did you also see Tomes & Talismans?

[@CarlRhoades]

@@herbiehusker1889 Nope. Read the plot on the Wikipedia page, I'd definitely remember that one, even all these years later! XD

[@herbiehusker1889]

@Ikadzuchi too bad. It was good, just like Voyage of the Mimi.

[@AlfredRusselWallace]

VOYAGE OF THE MIMI HOLY SHIT MY BRAIN

[@TheBrokenTech]

Wow.. You were in a fancy school system. We had regular film projectors and a compact cassette tape to accompany them and person (usually a student) would have to manually advance the projector every time the tape would BEEP... Then again, we also had Betamax players, so maybe my school system just made bad financial decisions. 😆

[@Syd_Layne]

1:31 "...at one of the elbows of the zig-zag..." Whenever I've been in a ziz-zag queue, I've wondered about the proper name for the 180° turns at the ends. "Elbows" - another mystery solved. Watching Matt's videos, every day is a schoolday...

[@alextirrellRI]

I’m surprised we didn’t have something like this in my elementary school in the early 90’s. Our library would show a lot of film strips which were a much more rudimentary version, usually accompanied by a cassette tape with an audible tone to advance the film strip.

[@jonc4403]

I suspect it came down to cost. Film strips were older, but the projectors were sometimes more recent. The older projectors used a record for the audio, the later ones used a compact cassette. The format having been around longer meant more content available, particularly since neither the audio nor the film technology were proprietary, which this was. Most of the projectors at my school were Dukane, so I suspect the Labelle projectors were more expensive, and this fancy format, being marketed to business, was more expensive still. And of course who cares if it's more work to set up, it's just a teacher doing it, not an important businessman. (sarcasm)

[@ChrisMezzolesta]

Well Mat, you've inadvertently solved a 50-year mystery for me! The quick succession of slides about Ernie and premium bonds helped me decipher just what Ian Anderson meant by the line "Saying 'how's your granny and good old Ernie, he coughed up a tenner on a premium bond win' " in "Thick as a Brick". Being in the States I had no idea what he was talking about so this quick bit of your video prompted me to Google Ernie and premium bond - and there was the answer! I had no idea the Ernie being referred to wasn't a local chap down the pub, but the acronym for the machine generating the numbers for the 'lottery'! I'll bet nobody else had a connection from this video to Jethro Tull on their Bingo card!!!! Thanks and great job as always!

[@Techmoan]

Glad I could help.

[@Richardincancale]

ERNIE == Electronic Random Number Indicating Equipment

[@EzeePosseTV]

.. And he drove the fastest Milk Cart in the west!

[@xaenon]

@@EzeePosseTV I thought it was Irving.... Edit: Never mind. Got two different songs mixed up in my head.

[@TWL380]

​@Techmoan I knew you were a fellow Metokur fan 😂

[@jeffh8803]

Hey Techmoan, you're a genuine historian and archivist dealing with this stuff. I can only imagine there are hundreds of historical business presentations that would be lost forever without people digitizing them

[@Asterra2]

I just gotta say I really love the unique look of super high-detail 4K video recordings of inherently low-quality film slides. It's a juxtaposition that I consider a rare treat. Like seeing an old favorite film that you used to watch on VHS or whatever, but somebody went and found a film print and decided to make a 4K bluray out of it.

[@TheHexCube]

I love your channel so much Techmoan. I grew up in the 70's/80's. and your channel warms my heart with nostalgia and technical retro knowlege. Thank you.

[@duskonanyavarld1786]

I also like his channel but I am younger and also a Swede, I like to learn about retro tech. Technoman have a wonderful voice.

[@sakurojason]

It’s interesting how his latest videos already feel nostalgic to me. I’ve been watching this channel for a few years now and on each video, the outro makes me tear up in nostalgia…

[@jamiestotz2516]

When I was in elementary school in the early '70s we had a similar educational AV system called the Ealing film loop. It was a cartridge with an endless loop of film which probably used normal sound-on-film for the audio. However, because it was a loop, it used a mechanism similar to the 8-track that pulled from the center and rewound on the outside. I was in the US, but I think Ealing was a British company.

[@Alpha8713]

We had these, too. They were developed by Technicolor (a US company) and called the "Magi-Cartridge." There are 8mm and super-8mm versions of it, and the cartridges are (smartly) designed to not fit the wrong type of projector.

[@dherrendoerfer]

They had one of these in our school library in '84, and later I saw a similar format at a driving instructor, although it had been replaced by a VCR and was just left standing there.

[@samuelcolvin4994]

That's where I remember this from too! Although I saw one sometime in 1997 or 1998.

[@graverboi13]

As a music producer, I am constantly sampling the beautiful, vintage speech bits you play. As an audio engineer, I appreciate the wild variety of audio sources, mic angles, and occasional wobble, because there's no end of fun in resampling them later. Also, as an American, I had to go back and listen to you say "tutor" several times before realized that you weren't saying it wrong the first time, I was just hearing it correctly. Thanks for another gem!

[@alittlebitintellectual7361]

Ive heard sampling of vintage speech bits more and more in the music i hear. Is there a word for this practice?

[@KahlessTheUnforgettable]

@@alittlebitintellectual7361Laziness.

[@JimsEquipmentShed]

The archived material actually looked quite good. It’s nice that it used projector styled metal belts instead of the rubber ones. Those seem to last forever.

[@Henchman1977]

Congratulations on the UK Postal Service using an off-the-shelf solution and not creating their own bespoke technology at enormous expense!

[@deeiks12]

I love the aesthetics of the graphic design for the post office slides. looks awesome.

[@NatureOkie]

I like the idea of Aerogramme. I often sent a bi-fold post card here in USA, you write one half fold it over, and they reply back, with the other, Pre-stamped postcard Attached. (Businesses could print the pre-addressed return, so they didn't send the reply card to Aunty Matilda, instead.😂

[@MikeGervasi]

On films that have "Cyan Fade" you can put a blue gel filter in front of the lens of the projector and it will somewhat restore the colors.

[@grinningtiki220]

Sounds a lot safer than my idea of submerging the film in a diluted blue permeant marker and alcohol solution. Come to think of it I have no idea what alcohol would do to the film itself.

[@marcusdamberger]

I've often wondered how old films are restored when they look like that with the cyan and yellow fade and not much of those colors left. Somehow they must do a digital version of adding the blue gel; but turned way up with digital tools. Amazing, how much full range color they can get back from old faded color film.

[@davidbono9359]

Or send it over to Fran Blanche 😉- she's made color-corrected video transfers from several 70's era NASA films.

[@kbhasi]

From what I heard (I may be wrong), it was a result of films using "Eastmancolor" for their colour layers which (IIRC) was cheaper than the "Technicolor" system but the cyan and yellow pigments would fade out over time.

[@smartrain1]

@@marcusdamberger When films are restored they go from the original negatives rather than faded prints, only using those when the original neg materials are lost. Even so, using digital tools quite a lot of colour can be drawn out of faded film, depending on how faded it has become of course.

[@jrchannel7405]

I love that little "swoosh" sound between slides, it adds some character and also brings nac your attention because you know that every time you hear it there's something new at the screen to look at

[@DirtyHairy1]

"To buy what you want" - Iron Maiden's The Number of the Beast album? Hell yes!

[@endruv_2287]

When you said "Commpak" I heard "Compaq" first and thought we were about to enter an even more extensive rabbit hole of computer history

[@58Brando]

I remember being subjected to one of those in a post office.

[@EvenTheDogAgrees]

I'm so sorry for you. I hope you're doing alright now. 😉

[@58Brando]

@@EvenTheDogAgrees I recovered.

[@2760ade]

@@58Brando I didn't. I still have nightmares!!🤣

[@tapestapes0]

Matt is a national treasure at this point

[@richardthunderbay8364]

I really enjoyed this one. I'm amazed that you keep on finding these new/old AV formats to present.

[@FezTheSpaceBiker]

Sending off Postal orders to your supplier of bootleg Kung Fu movies is the most Techmoan thing I've ever heard.

[@Thermalions]

It wouldn't surprise me if the post office staff just subconsciously tuned it out after a while. I worked in a bank which had a very loud ATM in it's front wall with it's back exposed in the customer area inside. Customers would comment on how horrendous it must be hearing that beeping all day for every key press on the machine. But no, the staff didn't even notice it after a day or two working there. It's amazing what the brain can filter out.

[@3rdalbum]

Worked in retail with a digital display that loudly played advertisements for LG. Can confirm, you do mostly tune them out, although one of the ads always broke through that mental filter. Was glad when we finally stopped selling LG products, lol

[@chickenpollo1013]

8-track carts were used until the mid 2000s on Japanese buses and trains in a similar way. The "TAPE CONDUCTOR" the bus driver would press a cue button and the bus stop would be announced. Narration on one track and tones on the other, but at half speed. I have some that are dated 2005 and 2006. I repurposed some of them into custom quadraphonic tapes of new surround mixes. I always enjoy your videos, thanks.

[@GregBadabinski]

This is just like those damn gas pumps that blast commercials at you through their tinny, awful speakers.

[@Techmoan]

I’ve yet to encounter one of those in the U.K. I suspect it’s only a matter of time.

[@christianjmoss]

@@Techmoan Yeak they have started rolling these out at petrol stations in Australia, sadly it's just a matter of time :(

[@geirmyrvagnes8718]

Petrol/gasoline and diesel fuel is going out of style as well, but we will probably get something similarly awful at car chargers.

[@GoldenCroc]

@@Techmoan I have seen one of those, but I dont remember where... maybe it was in Denmark? Walls are closing in....

[@woodhonky3890]

I have heard there is a mute button on those. Next time I go I'm going to try to find it.

[@MagnaRyuuDesigns]

The reason why those projectors are so easy to find in the US is because La Belle Industries was founded in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin in 1937 and was one of the early manufactures for M-16 magazines for the military and law enforcement. La Belle became Quest in 1993, in 1997 Quest purchased General Stamping (founded in 1975 in New Berlin, Wisconsin) and changed to D&H Industries. D&H Industries went on to become the main supplier of M-16 magazines to the Israeli Defense Force.

[@samwalker4438]

Seeing this in the 70s/80s on a back projection screen must have looked pretty amazing, so much higher res/quality than a VHS!

[@Wolfie_Rankin]

When I was a kid, the teachers at our Primary School took us to the library and sat us down in front of one of these and played "Little Black Sambo" on it. We all applauded when it finished, kids tended to do that after movies back then.

[@camelcitycalamity]

This is a very timely video! I just found one of these systems in the woods inside an old van. Next to it was Taco Bell training media. I had never seen or heard of this even though I grew up in the 80s. Thanks for showing how it worked!

[@beez1717]

I absolutely love the sound the machine makes when awitching slides. It hits that geeky love for quiet electronics noises.

[@AtomicShrimp]

I remain amazed that you continue finding more formats to show to us. I was thinking that you were going to fix the speed issue by recording it and speeding it up in post, but I suppose running the machine at the wrong speed for an extended period might damage the media or the machine itself

[@drumcorpshistory]

Saying how this was the right tool for the job despite being outdated at that time sounds very much like how certain airlines around the world still fly pre- or post-WWII propeller driven aircraft or first generation jets, because they're extremely reliable, made to do heavy work, and can still get to places no modern aircraft is capable of. Excellent video as always Matt!

[@samsoulee]

Old school piracy stories are always awesome, a guy was telling how they released amiga/atari st games back in the 90s, it's so interesting. (I think it was on the retrocave youtube chanel) reusing old stamps, sending letters with a fake adress but the good return adress and so on ... lots of fun.

[@meetoo594]

That brings back memories of reusing stamps by sticking tape over them so the recipient could gently peel it off and remove the inked postal stamp thingy. Did this many times when posting pirated Amiga games to other users who did the same. Suprised the post office never got wind of the trick but I guess as it was all automated it wasnt worth the expense and hassle of checking for clear tape.

[@owensmith7530]

@@meetoo594 That sort of trick is why the new stamps all have a unique barcode, each code can only be used once.

[@KenoshaHistoryCenter]

The Kenosha History Center, a museum in Kenosha WI, received a donation of a large collection of these and two players. Ours are American Motors training material. Unfortunately, the 8 Track player component of the players need new belts and we don't have much free time to spend replacing them. They instantly reminded me of automated slideshows with sound in school in the 1980s.

[@warphammer]

Oh wow, that'd be great to see. Belts are the bane of this stuff.

[@Gappasaurus]

There used to be something like the Showman 16 rear-projection unit set up at our local hardware store (Rickel Home Center in NJ) when i was a kid in the ’70s that constantly looped a demonstration of some cleaning product. I’ve long since forgotten the name of the product, but the guy in the video repeats several times “Remember, it’s the _foam_ that does the work!”, and i HAVE remembered, to this very day 😆 Wish i could find that video somewhere, but haven’t been able to so far… though Mat unearthing things in the same family gives me hope 😋

[@warphammer]

I wonder if it was for Dow Bathroom Cleaner both because it made a big deal of the 'scrubbing bubbles' and also because you could see Dow Roofing made several of the cartridges in the first ebay auction.

[@Seiskid]

What a charming little story about a format I would otherwise not have noticed. Enjoyed this episode.

[@grahampaulkendrick7845]

Fascinating and very nostalgic. 🙂

[@mikeos1]

17p for first class post? Those were the days!

[@silarge]

Great video as always Matt. Seeing stamps for TV License and Road Tax brought back memories of my parents buying these each month before direct debits took over.

[@Tommy-he7dx]

I had the same Flashback when a saw those stamps :)

[@AtheistOrphan]

I’d forgotten about those!

[@nwr99nwr99]

Ten stamps for £1.30! We're not far off £1.30 per stamp these days

[@hjalfi]

@@nwr99nwr99 Factoring in inflation, that £0.13 should now be only be £0.52, so the real price of the stamp has doubled --- most likely due to the increasing cost of delivery by humans.

[@MultiVogon]

I remember when they bought in flat screen tv's to blast out advertising to people trapped in the endless post office queues. As I recall, a TV-B-GONE was a very useful thing to have in your pocket to preserve sanity ;-)

[@TruckCentral]

Just here for the Nsync reference…

[@dannymac653]

Man, that narrator's voice exudes 50s - 60s elegance.

[@ociemitchell]

I remember using something like this in the late 70s in school, but it used a separate compact audio cassette and a film reel. And the tone to switch slides was mixed with the normal audio. This actually looks a lot more advanced in some ways.

[@seanbergin2834]

I worked behind a post office counter 1988-91 and these were introduced at the same time as the snake queue whilst I worked there, so your memory is correct. Previously it was single queue at each "open" window.

[@darrenjackson9646]

Wow, Bell County High School, in Bell County, Kentucky, used these for sex Ed and home ec classes until mid 2014 when they finally got the big upgrade to that sort of curriculum in the form of, wait for it, a commercial laser disk player and a set of laser disks. What a time to be alive when I got to watch a “modern and very well funded school system” move from 1970s technology to 1980s technology, in the 21st century.

[@darrenjackson9646]

@Philby Iasgair no they don’t still make them lmao, there’s just a ton of shitty vendors holding small southern American schools in a chokehold only selling refurbished, out of date stuff.

[@meatpockets]

I seem to remember something like this in sex ed in the mid 90s. It was pretty outdated and kept on taking about venereal diseases instead of STDs. :D

[@eDoc2020]

LD is also 1970s technology. I can't imagine why a vendor would be selling such an old system less than 10 years ago. DVDs would do the same thing but would cost the vendor less to procure. My best guess is it's something where only one specific video is approved which was only released on one format yet they still care about its copyright.

[@weird-guy]

Damm! The oldest tech I used in school was those old projects that you put a transparent paper and shows on the don’t what is the name. Also still used 90/2000 laptops that sucked until we got upgrades in 2009 and the government started giving free laptops as part technology program.

[@FrankVannier]

Wow, that's just like the Simpsons episode from 1998 where the computer lab is upgraded to Commodore PET styled "Coleco" brand computers, haha. Ah, America and our educational priorities, ha. 😂

[@NaokisRC]

This is actually more facisnating than I thought it would be. Like, it's perfect for the job it was set out to do in the post office despite being super simple.

[@mattierenton701]

In sync... loved that... how many either missed (or saw that ) bravo Matt

[@keithmockett3810]

Fascinating! I am only too aware of the "colour-fade" problem on 16mm as my business includes selling 16mm movies! I really enjoy the way you appreciate technology in the context of the times! Best regards Keith

[@bagofnails6692]

Am I correct in thinking that they still used potato starch to help fix the colours during thar era ?

[@NatureOkie]

•Kodachrome (K-14?)never fades...alas, it was expensive, multistep process involving harsh chemicals. Only Kodak, and Life Magazine knew the process. •Kodak's E-6 Ektachrome was quick, (relatively) safe and could even be processed by amateurs, in their home darkroom. •I was a US Navy photographer, and we had to send our archival Kodachrome to KODAK, but, shot routine short shelf life projects on E-6 slides.

[@ThommyofThenn]

@@bagofnails6692 that would be really cool.

[@cujoedaman]

Would not surprise me they were using these up into the 90's. I was in highschool in the 90's and we were STILL watching movie projector reels for educational videos from the 60's (mainly in elementary/middle school). We did have multiple TV/VCR carts too and eventually networked TV's for school related viewing. In fact, my sophomore year was the first year the computer lab spent money to get AutoDesk CAD 12. It was so new that we spent an entire school hour installing it on the computers! So we really had a very diverse set of technologies in school.

[@TSGEnt]

2:46 Wow, even helped with arithmatic. How nice of them. Btw, Sir, you are brilliant. Over the years, being from the US, I've just delt with 50cycle stuff and digitized it, then sped it up. The thought never crossed my mind to simply pick up a battery backup source from the UK running at 50Hz in use that as my Hz converter. Thank you! 10:58 That recording sounded a lot like David Niven! Thoroughly enjoyed this . Thank you.

[@jonc4403]

It's going to be cheaper to pick up a 12V power supply and UK inverter if you don't actually need the battery.

[@TSGEnt]

@@jonc4403 Indeed. Very good point.

[@bobloblaw204]

I liked when the clutch slips, it distorts the sound and is trippy.

[@cyberyoyo7674]

The flash frame N Sync still image is much more wholesome than the similar subliminal frames in "Fight Club" that doubtless inspired it...

[@robinpayne125]

You've unlocked a memory, there was one in a UK post office I used to visit around 1990-1991. Not sure how much longer it was in use, as we moved away in '91 and that was the last time I saw one.

[@Rockythefishman]

Some really interesting stuff. I am sure I remember these from the post office in the late 80s. They were always too loud and the staff could not turn them down

[@alistentcanada]

LMFAO at the quick flash of N'Sync, a little sneaky clip.. Too funny.. What's amazing, I actually found one of these at the Thrift Shop yesterday.. I was trying to figure it out then magically this video happens. I found a rear projection unit.

[@RobTheSquire]

I remember stamps being nearly that cheap, i'm not sure if I remember if we had one of those machines in my local post office.

[@roastysprouts8705]

The music at 21:10 is very Boards of Canada sounding, realy cool

[@my3dviews]

Okay, this is now the strangest format that I've ever seen. Merging slides with 8-track cartridges is very peculiar. The question I have is: Where do you store all of the devices that you have? Or do you just sell them after making a video about them?

[@EvenTheDogAgrees]

I think he mentioned in some of his previous videos that he rents storage space, think Shurgard and the like.

[@rolfs2165]

He mentioned that he has a storage box rented for that stuff. And I think some of it gets sold on again after the video has been made.

[@Gappasaurus]

He also does re-sell items that he has no further need of once the video is done.

[@katelights]

@@Gappasaurus or give away. perfect example would be the telephone exchange message player that ended up with Sam from Look Mum No Computer. he got it working on the telephone exchange in his museum.

[@Ciborium]

The British economy is based on Matt's renting storage facilities for all his obsolete technology.

[@onedeadsaint]

this feels like a classic techmoan video and it just came out. i don't really know what i mean by that; it's more of a feeling.😀

[@billrtomison4440]

I think our veterinarian had one of the suitcase viewers in his office. Don’t think I ever used it though! Fascinating stuff, Mat! ❤️

[@88porpoise]

Very convenient when exploring old, little known formats when the content includes marketing material for it.

[@valentinsn-ostalgiemodellbahn]

Very interesting, dear Techmoan! But there is still a question looming: Have you received this old can of Coke with the projector, too? 😅 All the best Valentin

[@dougierbarder]

We used to call it a televiewer and they were also used by travel agents. We still have the viewer and cartridges,but the screen is broken and the bulb blown(I vaguely remember breaking the screen I thought in the late 70's)

[@threadschanged4252]

I'm just imagining spending some time in the queue then leaving the post office and reciting the adverts to yourself on the way out like a comedy skit

[@gavinmist6723]

Fascinating video, Matt. I ran a small audio-visual company in the '80s and for presentations like these we used a Bell & Howell unit called, if I recall correctly, a 'Presenter'. This had a slide projector and built-in back-projection screen and used the Kodak 'Carousel' trays to hold 35mm slides. The audio was from a normal cassette which had the audio on one track and the cue pulses on another (I think it only played in one direction). The presentations could run automatically and at the end of the show the cassette rewound and the slide tray returned to the start ready for the show to run again. Have you come across one of these units?

[@Mixer-he2wb]

I seen to remember a similar device to present Disney stories, including a kid-i-fied mobile presentation projector. Early 80s late 70s, bit it may have been older than that.

[@Shermanbay]

Really smart way to solve the 50/60 hz problem, Matt! I would have liked to see more about the film advance mechanism. How did it align each slide and prevent or fix misalignment? Was it a sprocket or pinch roller design?

[@Alan-ln3ls]

I remember that wretched machine in the local Post Office; it must have been after 1988 when I moved to this area. I hated it, the other customers hated it, and the staff hated it (they had to listen to the damn thing all day). It was quite a large screen on a high stand so the whole queue could be treated to it. Some sub post offices had a smaller version: one postmaster (who owned the shop) said he was told he had to have it or his Post Office business would be taken away. The temptation to 'accidentally' hook the power plug out with my foot was great.

[@geneard639]

My mom's cardiologist (in Chicagoland) had one of those that played 'cartoons'. Clutch Cargo without the live action mouth talking, something I think was French Canadian, and things like Pink Panther and The Ant and the Ardvark cartoons, but still slides.

[@tpcdude]

We made a presentation on a "sound sync slide projector" .. we showed it to our UK distributer and without flinching they said the would not use it because in they liked the "personal touch".

[@JamesTM]

I'd be very curious to know how the control tone triggers the mechanism to advance the slide.

[@meetoo594]

Just a wild guess but maybe the analog soundwave of the tone track is fed into a transistor which opens or pulses an electrical path to the frame advance electronics when the peak voltage goes over a threshold. Voltage would be close to 0 on the blank parts and much higher on the tone. Seems like an easy way to do this but im not an electronics expert so im probably wrong...

[@davida1hiwaaynet]

Love the nostalgia. Thank you for showing these old formats. This is fascinating.

[@graealex]

I suddenly feel the urge to go buy a stamp book.

[@gilbertharding5041]

Really? I now have a burning need to get an Nsync album.

[@AtheistOrphan]

Good luck trying to get one for £1.70!

[@graealex]

@@gilbertharding5041 DO YOU HAVE FRIENDS ABROAD? YOUR FINGERS ARE TOO PRECIOUS TO LOSE THEM!

[@gilbertharding5041]

@@AtheistOrphan if you mean the stamps, your right. But it would be overpriced for an Nsync album.

[@e28forever30]

Funny seeing these old snippets of fork lift training, while I’m on my break at work, where I drive a forklift amongst other machinery, and I’m the forklift trainer on shift.

[@davearthur514]

Mid 80's 1 pack of 10 fist class stamps costs £1:70, 2023 1 first class stamp costs £1:10. Bloody ridiculous. Yet another cracking video Matt.

[@OntarioTrafficMan]

£2 in 1980 is equivalent to £10 today

[@NumptyMcNumptyface]

That Girobank ad takes me back, because believe it or not, back then the Dutch post office also had its own banking division, including the blue lion. They advertised with the phrase "Giro blauw past bij jou", a phonetic rhyming scheme which would translate to "Giro blue suits you". Of course, with privatisation this all came to an end, with the Postbank being swallowed by ING, and the postal service (part of PTT = Post, Telegraph, Telephone) being split into PostNL (postal services) and KPN (telephone) respectively.

[@mikelazarev5833]

That "death and taxes" sample is absolute gold! Definitely saving that one for some music production...

[@ImHereFindMe]

I think I used one of these in primary school in the US circa 91.I don't remember the way the device looks but the advancing of the film following the beep's brings back memories.

[@DekkarMTBtl]

The slide changer mechanism has a very pleasing sound.

[@thenowhere]

"The ABC's Of Pipe Handling" has to be one of the wildest pieces of obscure media ever unearthed!!

[@wheezus2000]

Matt has flashbacks to his childhood days of old school piracy

[@____stu____]

I too have stood in that same post office in central Manchester back in the late 80’s and saw the same display!

[@roppa789]

Brilliant half hour. Thanks Matt

[@samiam5557]

That a weird A/V format i never knew existed. Bizarre and fascinating. PS: A friend of mine knew one of Mr. Lear's daughters she was named Crystal Chanda Lear. (really)

[@CDRaff]

These were at the local library into the late 80s/early 90s. When you checked one out you also got a small portable rear projection player(shaped like a loaf of bread with a screen on one end). The first few reports I wrote in elementary school were researched mainly with these. I can still remember most of the one about meteors and asteroids.