Top 10 Pieces of Tech That Do Not Exist Anymore

Long before the days of Spotify, Netflix, and countless other digital platforms, physical media were all the rage. And for each format that the masses chose to buy, others fell to the wayside. One of the more recent battles in the format war was HD DVD vs Blu-ray. Both were set to be high-definition versions of DVD but only one of them came out on top. It’s a familiar story that also played out in the 1980s when VHS beat out Betamax as the choice for home video. Even LaserDisc was supposed to be the “next big thing” and fizzled quickly. With digital downloads having replaced physical media, these old relics are now nothing more than a part of history.

If we didn’t have computers, how would we tally up large sums of data? You’d probably have to do it by hand. Yet in the 1880s, Herman Hollerith found a way to use punch cards and a machine to tabulate large amounts of information. Much the same way a train conductor would punch a ticket, his machine would read the punched holes in cardstock and use it to keep tallies on various pieces of information. Originally used in the US census, Hollerith’s invention quickly became popular with those in the accounting field. The tabulating machine eventually fell out of favor with the invention of calculators and personal computers.

Morse code is a means by which two parties can communicate using different signal lengths and no audible voice. The “dots” and “dashes” are typically heard as sound, or seen as flashes of light. This system was thus instrumental in the operation of the telegraph machine. These devices were quite popular during armed conflicts as they required both the sender and the receiver to be versed in morse code, or any other encrypted signaling being used at the time. As technology evolved, the advent of telephones and eventually the Internet replaced the need for telegraphy and telegram machines.

Why does everything have to be “smart?” In 2013, Google began offering a prototype known as “Google Glass.” It was a wearable tech that fit much like a pair of eyeglasses but allowed you to see many of the Google apps through a little “glass” window. With a built-in camera, the device suffered controversy over privacy concerns around lack of consent when being recorded. The device did eventually allow other app developers to create programs to run on the platform, but Google killed the public version in 2015. It’s since released “enterprise” versions of the technology, but it seems the world still isn’t ready for smart glasses.

Now here’s a piece of technology that died as a result of collateral damage. When DVD and subsequently Blu-ray replaced the VHS cassette, it also took out the rewinder. Many folks from the videotape era will remember rental stores reminding them to “be kind and rewind.” You see, VHS tapes had to be rewound to the beginning to rewatch whatever was on it. So lo and behold, someone invented a machine that literally did nothing more than rewind these tapes. Places like Blockbuster Video commonly had several of these machines on hand since renters would frequently forget to wind their rentals back, often resulting in a fee.

Do you remember having to put the TV on channel three or four for your video game machine to work? No seriously, that really was a thing at one time. Early home video game machines used a special switch that attached to the back of the TV that allowed game systems like Atari to play on your television. Even early home computers like Commodore and the Amiga used these boxes. It wasn’t until years later televisions finally started to have extra audio and video inputs. Once the videogame manufacturers caught up, the game adapter became obsolete.

Ever wonder where the term “slideshow” came from? At one time, people would paint images onto glass and project light through them to show an image on a wall. In 1936, Kodak came out with film slides that you could develop your photos onto. These small, 2x2 inch slides later fit into a circular machine that would turn on demand, switching slides in the process. The use of photographic slides or even transparencies on overhead projectors was quite popular until digital photos and the likes of PowerPoint came along. Though perhaps retro, the projectors themselves are otherwise relegated to the dustbin of history.

This entry is unique in that it’s the only one on this list that isn’t electronic whatsoever. Carbon paper was a type of paper that had a layer of ink on one side and was often used to create multiple copies of other paperwork. The ink on the underside of the carbon would transfer to anything underneath it when pressure was applied from the other side. So if you wrote on the top of the paper, the carbon “printed” a copy underneath. It was often employed with early credit card machines, checks, and receipts. Carbonless copy paper and the use of word-processing applications and real printers eventually made this black, messy invention obsolete.

Shaped like the flower, daisy wheel printers used a combination of new and old technology. The “wheel” contained tiny slivers, each of which had a single character formed at the end, similar to the metal arms used on a typewriter. When something was printed from a computer, the device would spin the wheel to the proper character, and a single hammer would push it against an ink ribbon, causing the impression on the paper. It would switch from character to character very fast as it typed out whatever had been printed. They were far superior in quality to dot-matrix printers, but eventually faded away into oblivion with the introduction of inkjet and laser technology.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a couple honorable mentions.

Telex Machines
Text Messaging Prior to the Digital Era

Cinerama
An Early Attempt at IMAX-Like Quality in Movies

The mere mention of “dial-up Internet” in today’s world triggers memories of terrible connection speeds, and awful noises emitted by your computer. But even before the Internet was a thing, early computers could use modems to connect to each other. The earliest versions of this technology involved putting the actual phone receiver into a machine that would convert sound into digital pulses. It was kind of like giving a computer a set of ears to use the phone. As technology grew, the need to plug the handset in faded, and now the acoustic coupler is merely a reminder of how far technology has come.