Words we no longer use

[Brandon Martus]

Originally Posted by KathieK

• carriage return (found on typewriters, it was the equivalent of today's Enter key)

I use 'carriage return' a lot while programming, actually. ASCII 13.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Brandon Martus

I use 'carriage return' a lot while programming, actually. ASCII 13.

I loved the zzzip zzzing sound of the carriage return in my hs typing class.

transistor radio - mine was pink.

cherry phosphates - a soft drink from the soda fountain at the local drug store. You would sit in a booth, shyly flirt, and trade out your bubblegum Beatles trading cards - cherry phosphates rocked. You can occasionally find an old timey drug store that will still make you one.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

How about
Tube Checker

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

How about
Tube Checker

Soon there won’t be any picture tubes either.

[Mike]

Theres an icebox where my heart used to be

[Cynette]

This thread made me think about words that are removed from dictionaries because of lack of common use. Stephen Chrisomalis has made a collection of "lost words" and listed them with definitions at http://phrontistery.info/clwdef.html It's fun to read his list - some of these words are great, like: yelve- a garden fork; welmish - pale or sickly color; tussicate - to cough.

[KathieK]

princess phones - a special style of phone which had a light-up dial, and came in cool colors
rotary dial phones - you turned the dial when using the phone, instead of hitting a button
party lines - several people shared the same telephone number

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by KathieK

princess phones - a special style of phone which had a light-up dial, and came in cool colors
rotary dial phones - you turned the dial when using the phone, instead of hitting a button
party lines - several people shared the same telephone number

Yes, and if I tussicated into the baby blue one while on the party line, everyone would yell at me and tell me to get off the line. *cough*

[Jeff Rodriguez]

Originally Posted by KathieK

princess phones - a special style of phone which had a light-up dial, and came in cool colors
rotary dial phones - you turned the dial when using the phone, instead of hitting a button
party lines - several people shared the same telephone number

Along that same line (bad pun) dose anyone use 'dial tone' anymore? I remember picking up the phone and listening for a dial tome before I dialed, but not anymore now that everyone uses cell phones.

[KelliV]

Laser disk players... not nearly as awesome as beta max, but pretty cool, until you hit the middle of your movie and had to flip the disk upside down.

[Andrea's Mom]

Rubbish: my grandmother's word for garbage
"Take this out to the rubbish bin."

Bin: a container for rubbish or coal (as in coal shute)

Are we seeing some connectiveness here?

Connectiveness: Newest word in educational jargon - does not belong in this thread.

[Cynette]

Carbon copy - the true meaning of the "cc" found at the bottom of documents, from the time when the secretary (another word we no longer use as the person who provides the greatest assistance in an office) would place a sheet of carbon paper between two or more documents as they were typed, producing a duplicate.

mimeograph and ditto machines - the way copies were made before the photo-copier. Ah the memories of the smell of the freshly dittoed purple papers (which apparently was a relatively nasty solvent with central nervous system effects!)

[Wayne Doenges]

Carbon Paper (Used in typewriters to make multiple duplicates while you typed)
IBM Selectric (typewriter)
Keypunch (You punched rectangle holes into cards that a computer would than read)
Mag Card (Used to make originals for forms)
Typewriter ribbon (Keys would strike ribbon and transfer letter onto the paper)
Slide Rule (Used to make complex computations before computers came around)

Laser disk players

I still have a working laser Disc Player. It also plays both sides of the disc.

[whytheheckme]

Rotary Telephone already listed
Tin Foil
Mercury Thermometers

[JBotAlan]

Bulletin Board System: I never actually logged onto one of these, but the way I understand it, they were servers that you could dial (yes, a modem over a telephone line was high-tech) into to...chat with other people? Like I said, I never used one, so I have no idea. I would guess it's somewhat a precursor to our MUDs.
Mainframe: Need I say any more? I cringe when I hear people use this word in a modern sentence. (What is a mainframe, anyway?)
Cassette tape: old to me, but new to my parents.
Acoustic pickup (?): Before modems connected to the phone line, you would dial the BBS's number, then put the phone in the pickup to link it to the computer.

Correct me on these if I got them wrong--I don't know some of them.