April Issue
There is a fun new Swedish book out that takes a nostalgic look at our recent past.
Endangered Species (Utrotningshotat, Bokförlaget Max Ström) lists 50 items like typewriters, "thick" televisions and ashtrays that are disappearing. Johan Tell also includes fax machines, sugar bowls, hotel keys, overhead projectors, tape recorders and telephone booths in his book. With a perhaps more Swedish perspective he also includes wall-to-wall carpeting, top sheets, cinemas, venetian blinds, land-based phones, garbage chutes, telephone books and air travel tickets on the endangered list. The book is bound with a cover in velour, another thing that is on the way out.
It is fun to see things you loved in their modernity but that have not been on the radar screen recently. The book also gives a perspective on the things we now surround ourselves with and regard as absolutely essential. Many of these contraptions "that you could not live without" will eventually disappear.
I can still remember the old-fashioned records and what a difference "singles" and other 45 rpm records made, before the high fidelity LP records (33 rpm) made them obsolete. Then came the joy of recording your favorites from the radio with a cassette deck until the advent of the CD. At last we were going to get music of, until then, unheard of quality that would remain the world standard in eternity!
What did we know - then came MP3 and then the iPod. What next?
It's the same thing with videos, cameras and computers. The moment you purchase them they are already becoming dated if not obsolete. Several Swedish museums are now collecting some of these “modern” things to be able to give our history back to us one day.
From a Swedish Press horizon I remember what a difference just the fax machine made. You no longer had to rely on the snail mail when you were in the middle of a deadline. Now we only get nuisance faxes and wonder if we should get rid of the fax machine and just use email.
When we took over the Swedish Press it had what was thought of as a state-of-the-art IBM typesetter which really was a glorified typewriter with a one line memory so that it could create straight margins. We also used a wonderful old machine that, with an input of photographic solutions and the turning of discs with different fonts, created the headlines in different sizes. The texts, the headlines and the photographs and illustrations were then waxed by a machine and attached to a layout sheet that was brought to the printer. Today everything is done on computers and emailed to the printer that could be located anywhere on the continent.
The first scanner we bought cost $3 500. Today you can get a much more advanced one for less than $100.
In the 1970's after I had written a book on the world's most expensive antiques (Gårdagens Rariteter, Rabén & Sjögren) I turned it around and wrote a book on Future Antiques (Morgondagens Antikviteter, Rabén & Sjögren) that looked at things that would eventually become antiques. Many Swedish papers reviewed my book, but the funniest comment came from the satirical paper Grönköpings Veckoblad. In a fake news story their eternal criminal Hildor Peterzohn was taken to court for advertising "future antiques" and then only delivering empty milk cartoons and worthless packaging material to the high-paying respondents. In his defence, Mr. Peterzohn referred to my book and the judge decided to stay the charges for fifty years so that one could indeed see if Peterzohn's claims were correct.
Today you do have to pay a fortune for an original tetra pak milk cartoon!
Have a really nice April
and Happy Easter! Anders
Endangered Species (Utrotningshotat, Bokförlaget Max Ström) lists 50 items like typewriters, "thick" televisions and ashtrays that are disappearing. Johan Tell also includes fax machines, sugar bowls, hotel keys, overhead projectors, tape recorders and telephone booths in his book. With a perhaps more Swedish perspective he also includes wall-to-wall carpeting, top sheets, cinemas, venetian blinds, land-based phones, garbage chutes, telephone books and air travel tickets on the endangered list. The book is bound with a cover in velour, another thing that is on the way out.
It is fun to see things you loved in their modernity but that have not been on the radar screen recently. The book also gives a perspective on the things we now surround ourselves with and regard as absolutely essential. Many of these contraptions "that you could not live without" will eventually disappear.
I can still remember the old-fashioned records and what a difference "singles" and other 45 rpm records made, before the high fidelity LP records (33 rpm) made them obsolete. Then came the joy of recording your favorites from the radio with a cassette deck until the advent of the CD. At last we were going to get music of, until then, unheard of quality that would remain the world standard in eternity!
What did we know - then came MP3 and then the iPod. What next?
It's the same thing with videos, cameras and computers. The moment you purchase them they are already becoming dated if not obsolete. Several Swedish museums are now collecting some of these “modern” things to be able to give our history back to us one day.
From a Swedish Press horizon I remember what a difference just the fax machine made. You no longer had to rely on the snail mail when you were in the middle of a deadline. Now we only get nuisance faxes and wonder if we should get rid of the fax machine and just use email.
When we took over the Swedish Press it had what was thought of as a state-of-the-art IBM typesetter which really was a glorified typewriter with a one line memory so that it could create straight margins. We also used a wonderful old machine that, with an input of photographic solutions and the turning of discs with different fonts, created the headlines in different sizes. The texts, the headlines and the photographs and illustrations were then waxed by a machine and attached to a layout sheet that was brought to the printer. Today everything is done on computers and emailed to the printer that could be located anywhere on the continent.
The first scanner we bought cost $3 500. Today you can get a much more advanced one for less than $100.
In the 1970's after I had written a book on the world's most expensive antiques (Gårdagens Rariteter, Rabén & Sjögren) I turned it around and wrote a book on Future Antiques (Morgondagens Antikviteter, Rabén & Sjögren) that looked at things that would eventually become antiques. Many Swedish papers reviewed my book, but the funniest comment came from the satirical paper Grönköpings Veckoblad. In a fake news story their eternal criminal Hildor Peterzohn was taken to court for advertising "future antiques" and then only delivering empty milk cartoons and worthless packaging material to the high-paying respondents. In his defence, Mr. Peterzohn referred to my book and the judge decided to stay the charges for fifty years so that one could indeed see if Peterzohn's claims were correct.
Today you do have to pay a fortune for an original tetra pak milk cartoon!
Have a really nice April
and Happy Easter! Anders
posted by Nordicway at 9:49 AM
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