home Repair Things from the past. How retro technology re-entered modern life. Design technique: retro and futurism Retro technique of the USSR

Things from the past. How retro technology re-entered modern life. Design technique: retro and futurism Retro technique of the USSR

Fashion for old things captured Russia. People buy film cameras and cameras, buy vinyl players and typewriters. There are even those who fundamentally do not want to change push-button telephone on a state-of-the-art smartphone.

Fashion for retro

Victoria Tuzova For several years now, he has been running the Raritet-Vintage project, within the framework of which he is engaged in the search and repair of vintage items, the sale of retro equipment and decor items via the Internet. According to her, there are two reasons why people became interested in objects from the past. First, this is how they protest against modern world. Manufacturers often save on materials, sacrifice appearance product, its quality, for the sake of quantity. In addition, many of today's technologies devalue human experience and skill. For example, the owners of a digital camera require much less concentration and ability than those who use film technology. Secondly, many people like old design. Unlike the ever-changing trends and directions of modernity, in retro people deal with selected samples of technology that have already been tested by time. With those that have survived to this day due to their simple and reliable design.

“Retro fashion is a protest against an ever-changing world and a desire to return to the “analogue” era with a crackling tube sound from the radio, one valuable photo instead of a thousand useless ones, to things simple and reliable. The popularity of vintage items was also influenced by decorators, who have long noticed that the dosed use of retro items in the interior creates coziness and the feeling that people have lived in the house for a long time and know how to appreciate beauty, ”said Victoria Tuzova.

Vinyl players

Victoria claims that the biggest demand right now is for retro audio. Primarily on vinyl. In second place is tube and transistor technology - amplifiers, players, radios. It is vintage items that are in demand here, because many of them can be said for sure, “they don’t make them anymore.”

Music connoisseurs say that the sound from vinyl records can't even compare with what comes from computer speakers. The same opinion is shared by the 25-year-old Evgeny Gumenny. His passion for vinyl began by accident, after his mother gave him a broken gramophone. He fixed it and began to listen. Then there was the gramophone and, in the end, there was a vinyl player.

“The sound from it is the best after a real concert, but on the condition that it is played on top-class equipment. The audio system is bulky and majestic at the same time. It seems that the music can even be felt. When you listen to vinyl, you do not dare to be distracted by other things, because you sit strictly in front of the equipment and completely immerse yourself in the melody. And if you turn it on on a computer, then you do something else and miss half of it. It's also nice to take care of the plates. It turns into a whole ritual. They need to be washed, dusted periodically and the equipment warmed up for about 15 minutes before the session.

I've always liked retro technology. I don't like modernity. True, besides the vinyl player, from the old days I only have a radio. I dream of buying a Volga GAZ-21 or Moskvich-408,” says Evgeny.

Film cameras

Next in popularity, after vinyl, is film photography. There is a steady demand for it in stores. As Victoria Tuzova explains, professional equipment gives an experienced photographer additional features, while the basic one is popular thanks to “lomography” (a genre of photography that shows life as it is, often out of focus - ed. note). There is even a whole philosophy around her: "Do less, but better", "The value of the frame does not depend on the steepness of the equipment." This is what encourages young photographers to use the Soviet Lomo, Smena, Zenit, etc. for their work. Student Roman Endovitsky shoots on Zenit and claims that photographs taken with old equipment are of greater value than modern ones.

Photograph of Khabarovsk taken by Zenith. Photo: From the personal archive / Roman Endovitsky

“I generally like the film image. If I see a film shot on film, I immediately give it a plus. It seems to me that this is a means of expression that cannot be achieved from a “number”. She breathes, gives the picture a special meaning. And the most thrill when you show already finished work people, and they tell you: “How cool! Is it Photoshop or something else? They don't realize it's on film. And the whole point here is only in the location of the object, good light and proper exposure.

I have another idea that I would like to bring to life. Find an old video camera and film people. Let it be only 30 seconds and even without sound, but maybe it will be some kind of greeting from the past, through the prism of which a new facet of our present will open, ”says Roman.

Typewriters

With a camera, everything is clear, but why do people need typewriters in the century computer technology remains a mystery to many. As the typewriter collector explained Alexander Trofimov, pensioners buy them because they cannot master laptops and prefer to type the text the old fashioned way. Students and people working in the creative field keep houses as an interior detail. The presence of a portable "Underwood" or "Continental" in the apartment emphasizes the individuality of their owner. There is also a small group of collectors who collect cars because they admire the engineering features of these devices, study brands, manufacturers, specifications, history, literature and documentation. Most fans keep typewriters, primarily as souvenirs - things with their own history, which they continue.

Olympia typewriter. Photo: From the personal archive / Alexander Trofimov

“Some Russian organizations still use typewriters, because it is convenient to fill out standard forms of different formats on them - it is easy to get into the right column, while printers can make a mistake. In addition, insurance agents resort to the help of mechanical units to additional protection document, as their imprint leaves a corresponding relief on the reverse side, which reduces the possibility of falsification. In our country, for example, cars are needed by the cadastral chambers and the FSO. After the Wikileaks leaks, the secret services of some countries also switched to them.

I myself prefer to use a computer. I am a writing person by profession and if I use a typewriter at work, they will not understand me. Although, of course, I like to print on it and I do it with great pleasure, because this is how I relax. You can type all sorts of nonsense and at the same time feel like a great creator, emotionally unload.

Many people say that this is how they get away from digital reality,” explains Alexander Trofimov.

Push-button mobile phones

Of course, Cell phones not as old as typewriters, but now the technology is developing so fast that ordinary push-button gadgets seem to be older than dinosaurs. However, despite this, young people often buy themselves a “brick” without Internet access, cameras and other joys of smartphones. And the demand for such things is growing. An example is the fact that HMD decided to re-release the Nokia-3310 phone. There is no 4G, but there is a hardy battery and the game "Snake". It is because of the games and ease of handling Artur Semyonov, a 27-year-old geologist, likes the Nokia N-Gage QD.

“Nokia N-Gage QD is a cross between a phone and a set-top box. Great for while away the time on the subway. In addition, I associate it with my school years, says Artur Semyonov. - There is a truth and the second phone is the iPhone. I use it for network access and work calls. I don’t have an Internet addiction, just for the same “Yandex.Maps”, “Sberbank Online” and mail, you need the Internet. For everything else, there is Nokia. I don't like at all touch screens, because each word on them has to be typed ten times. That's why for a long time dreamed of returning to the buttons, which, in the end, he did.

We love to tell you about modern home appliances - we are good at it. But we must not forget about how it all began. We remember: we went to the Polytechnic Museum and chose the most interesting exhibits from the collection of household appliances made in the USSR. A photo selection of these amazing things from the past, many of which were used by our grandfathers and parents (and the generation of 30-40-year-olds in childhood) before your eyes. We remember and are surprised at how quickly the world is changing.

How the collection was born

Appliances entered the Polytechnic Museum since its foundation in 1872. But until 2014, the items in the collection were part of various thematic collections. Three years ago, household items were combined into a separate museum fund "Household appliances". Now it includes about 2200 storage units and consists of several groups of devices:

for repair and restoration work: washing machines, vacuum cleaners, irons;
to create a microclimate: fans, ionizers, heating furnaces;
heating devices: stoves, kerosene stoves, blowtorches, stoves;
sanitary and hygienic purposes: razors, hair dryers, toothbrushes;
for processing, preparing and storing food: coffee grinders, meat grinders, kettles, refrigerators, kitchen machines.

Alla Nudel, head of the "Materials and Technologies" group of the Polytechnic Museum:

Now we are at the stage of examination of the entire museum collection of household appliances, we are expertly evaluating the exhibits, we are thinking about the prospects for further acquisition of this collection popular with visitors. I think that retro technology (including devices for the home) is of great interest due to the “joy of recognition” - a person sees a device that is familiar and understandable to him - such as he or his grandmother had at home many years ago, feels nostalgic and at the same time surprised at how things have changed now.

TOP-25 retro home appliances from the collection of the Polytechnic University

We have not allocated places on this list. In our opinion, each of the devices is worthy of mention, because it illustrates the development of technology in our country in a particular historical period. This is a small part of the collection of the Polytechnic Museum, which seemed to us the most interesting. We will warn you right away: many exhibits are more than a dozen years old, so they do not always have an ideal presentation.

The first household electric vacuum cleaner in the USSR, 1937 (this year it is 80 years old). Made in Yaroslavl, at the Krasny Mayak electrotechnical plant, got into the collection of the Polytechnic Museum in 1983, purchased from a private person.

Manual electric vacuum cleaner with external dust bag, 1938. Made in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), at the Electrosila electromechanical plant. Acquired by the Polytechnic Museum in 1986 from a private individual. As you can see, small hand-held vacuum cleaners, which have become widespread recently, are an old invention. True, many modern models are wireless.

Electric vacuum cleaner "Dnepr", 1953. Manufactured in Dnepropetrovsk (then - the Ukrainian SSR, now the independent Republic of Ukraine), at plant No. 489 (now - the Dnepropetrovsk Aggregate Plant). Received by the museum as a gift from a private individual in 1981.

Electric vacuum cleaner "Ural PR-1", 1953. Made in the city of Miass, Chelyabinsk region, at the Miasselectroapparat plant (the company is still operating). Received by the museum as a gift from a private individual in 2017.

Electric vacuum cleaner "UP-1", 1955. Made in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), at the Electrosila electromechanical plant (now part of Power Machines OJSC).

Vacuum cleaner-electric brush "Veterok-2", 1962. For cleaning clothes, upholstered furniture. Made in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), at the plant of electrical household appliances of the Main Directorate of Local Industry of the Executive Committee of the Leningrad City Council. Purchased for the museum's collection in 1963, in store No. 20 of Moselectrobyttorga (on Sharikopodshipnikovskaya Street), for 15 rubles.

Vacuum cleaner Saturnas ("Saturn"), 1967. The undisputed star of Soviet industrial design. The appearance, reminiscent of the planet Saturn with its famous rings, is clearly inspired by the era of space exploration that had recently begun at that time. The vacuum cleaner was made in the capital of Soviet Lithuania (now the independent Republic of Lithuania) - Vilnius, at the factory of electric welding equipment. Entered the museum in the summer of 1967, from the central base of Elektrobyttorg. Photo of the vacuum cleaner provided by the Polytechnic Museum.

Refrigerator "ZIL-Moscow", 1955. Made at the car factory. Likhachev (ZIL). Received by the Polytechnic Museum from the manufacturer in August 1955. The invoice for the refrigerator is 194 rubles. 50 kop. Refrigerator "ZIL-Moscow" (until the middle of 1955 - "ZIS-Moscow") - the first refrigerator in the USSR of a compression type that appeared on the domestic consumer market. Refrigerators of this brand first entered the distribution network in February 1951. In 1956, 66,230 of them were already produced. Despite their rather unassuming appearance, the refrigerators were of very high quality. You can still find working copies.

Gas refrigerator "Sever-2", 1958. Manufactured at the Moscow plant "Gazoapparat" (located on Malaya Tulskaya Street). Acquired by the museum in March 1958, in the Khoztorg store, for 75 rubles. Ammonia was used as a refrigerant in this refrigerator: it circulated due to the heat generated by a gas burner. Such refrigerators were not widespread in the USSR: due to the inconvenience associated with connecting to the gas network. And gas itself in the middle of the last century was far from being in every apartment.

Refrigerator "Biryusa", 1967 (this year the exhibit is 50 years old). Received by the museum from the Krasnoyarsk Machine-Building Plant, in July 1967. The invoice for the refrigerator is 240 rubles. Modern models of refrigerators "Biryusa" are produced in Krasnoyarsk today, they can be found in stores.

Car thermoelectric refrigerator "Isotope", capacity 4 l. The museum received it free of charge in 1970 from the developer, the Odessa Technological Institute of Food and Refrigeration Industry.

Washing machine EAYA-3, 1954. One of the first washing machines in the USSR. Made in the Latvian SSR (now the independent Republic of Latvia), in Riga, at the Electric Machine Building Plant (REZ). Received by the museum as a gift from a private individual in 1986. Photos courtesy of the Polytechnic Museum.

Washing machine "Kharkov-HEMZ", type USM-1 (Universal washing machine), 1950. Made in Kharkov (Ukrainian SSR, now the independent Republic of Ukraine), at the Electromechanical Plant (KhEMZ, still operating today). Received by the museum from the plant free of charge, in 1955.

Vibrating Washing Appliance (VSP), 1957. Made in Kirovsk ( Leningrad region) at the Machine-Building Plant p / box 731. The device was connected to the network through a special step-down transformer (24 V). Unlike the "Retona" widely known at the time, VSP erased not with high-frequency, but with low-frequency sound vibrations. In a plastic case, an electromagnetic transducer that converted electricity into the energy of sound vibrations. To the washing solution with linen, oscillations (frequency - 100 per second) were carried out by a system of membranes. Due to vibrations, the solution penetrated the fabric of the linen and washed it (however, there is an opinion that the device is rather useless). The weight of the device is 2.5 kg. Acquired by the museum from a private individual in 1980.

Washing machine "Volga-8", 1966. Made in Cheboksary, at the RTI plant (now the Chapaev Cheboksary Production Association). Transferred by the plant to the museum free of charge in 1967.

Semi-automatic washing machine ZVI-1, 1983. Made in Moscow, at the Electromechanical Plant named after Vladimir Ilyich (ZVI, it still works today). The owner purchased this washing machine in 1983 for 130 rubles. It was a scarce commodity, so I had to be on the waiting list for several months. But after the purchase, the car was never used. Its lucky owner went on a long business trip abroad: a new, fully equipped washing machine has stood idle in the apartment for more than 30 years. In 2016, it was donated to the museum.

Car coffee maker, 1972. Made in one of the factories mailboxes"(p / o). Retail price 8 rubles. Acquired by the museum in August 1972, in shop No. 20 of Moselectrobyttorga (on Sharikopodshipnikovskaya street in Moscow). The coffee maker with a set of cups and a measuring spoon for coffee is powered by the car's on-board electrical network (from the "cigarette lighter").

Multifunctional electric mixer "Meteor" with a set of attachments for various culinary needs (container and knife for chopping, knife for cutting, chopping and crushing, disc for mixing liquids and whipping disc), 1966. The speed of work is one. The maximum working time is 3 minutes, then you need a break of 15 minutes. Power - 100 watts. Retail price in 1966 - 20 rubles. Made in Voronezh, at the factory p / box 17.

Electric toothbrush "Perle" (Pērle), 1971. Price - 7 rubles. It was made in Soviet Latvia (now the independent Republic of Latvia) at the Straume plant, like a dishwasher - the Riga plant was generally the leading enterprise in the USSR for the production of household appliances, much, of course, was copied from European models. It was founded in 1965, on the basis of a factory for the production of children's toys and the Kvele factory, which specialized in small household metal products.

In the upper part of the body of the electric brush there is a motor with an eccentric mounted on the shaft, which creates vibration during operation. The set includes four interchangeable brush heads in white, red, blue and yellow colors with threads at the bottom end and light bristles at the top.

Air ionizer AIR-2, 1958. Acquired in October 1959, for 30 rubles. in the Moscow City Pharmacy Department. The device is a high-voltage rectifier with needle corona electrodes, the voltage on which does not exceed 2.5-3 kV. A so-called quiet discharge is formed on the tips of the electrodes, due to which a directed flow of air ions occurs. The device generates up to 5,000,000 air ions per 1 cm³ of air at a distance of 15 cm from the front panel of the housing.

Electric fireplace "Ugolek", 1968. Donated to the museum free of charge by the manufacturer, the Zaporizhia Electrical Apparatus Plant (Ukrainian SSR, now the independent Republic of Ukraine), in June 1968.

Electric lighter EZ-1, 1969. Made in the city of Krivoy Rog (Ukrainian SSR, now the independent Republic of Ukraine), at a local electric plant. Retail price - 2 rubles 40 kopecks. Acquired by the museum in 1970, in shop No. 20 of Moselectrobyttorga (on Sharikopodshipnikovskaya street in Moscow).

Electric hair dryer, 1950s. Manufactured in Moscow, at the Electromechanical Plant (EMZ), Purchased from a private individual in 1984. The device is small in size, and, in our opinion, of an interesting design: in this sense, after some refinement, the hair dryer could well outperform even the ultra-modern Dyson Supersonic for 35,000 modern Russian rubles.

Universal kitchen machine UKM, 1958. In other words, a food processor. Made in Moscow, at the Presnensky Machine-Building Plant. Acquired by the museum from a private individual in 2014. Includes a drive (base unit with a motor) and attachments: a meat grinder, a blender, a coffee grinder, a juicer, a potato peeler, a vegetable cutter, a mixer with attachments of various configurations, including for kneading dough, and a glass work bowl. I must say that the equipment is quite consistent with modern analogues, in which, however, you rarely find a potato peeler (on the clickable photo on the left). Interestingly, this food processor is a wedding gift from relatives to the former owner.

The most interesting exhibits from the collection of household appliances made in the USSR. A photo selection of these amazing things from the past, many of which were used by our grandfathers and parents (and the generation of 30-40-year-olds in childhood) before your eyes ...

As you can see, small hand-held vacuum cleaners, which have become widespread recently, are an old invention. True, many modern models are wireless.

Electric vacuum cleaner "UP-1", 1955. Made in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), at the Electrosila electromechanical plant (now part of Power Machines OJSC).

Purchased for the museum's collection in 1963, in store No. 20 of Moselectrobyttorga (on Sharikopodshipnikovskaya Street), for 15 rubles.

The vacuum cleaner was made in the capital of Soviet Lithuania (now the independent Republic of Lithuania) - Vilnius, at the factory of electric welding equipment. Entered the museum in the summer of 1967, from the central base of Elektrobyttorg. Photo of the vacuum cleaner provided by the Polytechnic Museum.

Refrigerator "ZIL-Moscow" (until the middle of 1955 - "ZIS-Moscow") - the first refrigerator in the USSR of a compression type that appeared on the domestic consumer market. Refrigerators of this brand first entered the distribution network in February 1951. In 1956, 66,230 of them were already produced. Despite their rather unassuming appearance, the refrigerators were of very high quality. You can still find working copies.

Gas refrigerator "Sever-2", 1958. Manufactured at the Moscow plant "Gazoapparat" (located on Malaya Tulskaya Street). Acquired by the museum in March 1958, in the Khoztorg store, for 75 rubles.

Ammonia was used as a refrigerant in this refrigerator: it circulated due to the heat generated by a gas burner. Such refrigerators were not widespread in the USSR: due to the inconvenience associated with connecting to the gas network. And gas itself in the middle of the last century was far from being in every apartment.

Refrigerator "Biryusa", 1967 (this year the exhibit is 50 years old). Received by the museum from the Krasnoyarsk Machine-Building Plant, in July 1967.

The invoice for the refrigerator is 240 rubles. Modern models of refrigerators "Biryusa" are produced in Krasnoyarsk today, they can be found in stores.

Car thermoelectric refrigerator "Isotope", capacity 4 l. The museum received it free of charge in 1970 from the developer, the Odessa Technological Institute of Food and Refrigeration Industry.

Vibrating Washing Appliance (VSP), 1957. Manufactured in Kirovsk (Leningrad region) at the Machine-Building Plant p / box 731. The device was connected to the network through a special step-down transformer (24 V).

Unlike the "Retona" widely known at the time, VSP erased not with high-frequency, but with low-frequency sound vibrations. In a plastic case, an electromagnetic transducer that converted electricity into the energy of sound vibrations.

To the washing solution with linen, oscillations (frequency - 100 per second) were carried out by a system of membranes. Due to vibrations, the solution penetrated the fabric of the linen and washed it (however, there is an opinion that the device is rather useless). The weight of the device is 2.5 kg. Acquired by the museum from a private individual in 1980.

Washing machine "Volga-8", 1966. Made in Cheboksary, at the RTI plant (now the Chapaev Cheboksary Production Association). Transferred by the plant to the museum free of charge in 1967.

Semi-automatic washing machine ZVI-1, 1983. Made in Moscow, at the Electromechanical Plant named after Vladimir Ilyich (ZVI, it still works today).

The owner purchased this washing machine in 1983 for 130 rubles. It was a scarce commodity, so I had to be on the waiting list for several months. But after the purchase, the car was never used. Its lucky owner went on a long business trip abroad: a new, fully equipped washing machine has stood idle in the apartment for more than 30 years. In 2016, it was donated to the museum.

Dishwasher Straume ("Straume"), 1967. One of the first models that began to be produced in the USSR in the late 1960s, at a factory in Riga. Its prototype was one of the Electrolux models.

Car coffee maker, 1972. Made at one of the factories - "mailboxes" (p / box). Retail price 8 rubles. Acquired by the museum in August 1972, in shop No. 20 of Moselectrobyttorga (on Sharikopodshipnikovskaya street in Moscow). The coffee maker with a set of cups and a measuring spoon for coffee is powered by the car's on-board electrical network (from the "cigarette lighter").

Multifunctional electric mixer "Meteor" with a set of attachments for various culinary needs (container and knife for chopping, knife for cutting, chopping and crushing, disk for mixing liquids and whipping disk), 1966.

The speed of work is one. The maximum working time is 3 minutes, then you need a break of 15 minutes. Power - 100 watts. Retail price in 1966 - 20 rubles. Made in Voronezh, at the factory p / box 17.

A so-called quiet discharge is formed on the tips of the electrodes, due to which a directed flow of air ions occurs. The device generates up to 5,000,000 air ions per 1 cm³ of air at a distance of 15 cm from the front panel of the housing.

Universal kitchen machine UKM, 1958. In other words, a food processor. Made in Moscow, at the Presnensky Machine-Building Plant. Acquired by the museum from a private individual in 2014.

Includes a drive (base unit with a motor) and attachments: a meat grinder, a blender, a coffee grinder, a juicer, a potato peeler, a vegetable cutter, a mixer with attachments of various configurations, including for kneading dough, and a glass work bowl.

I must say that the equipment is quite consistent with modern analogues, in which, however, you rarely find a potato peeler (pictured below). Interestingly, this food processor is a wedding gift from relatives to the former owner.

How the collection was born

Household appliances have been supplied to the Polytechnic Museum since its foundation in 1872. But until 2014, the items in the collection were part of various thematic collections. Three years ago, household items were combined into a separate museum fund "Household appliances". Now it includes about 2200 storage units and consists of several groups of devices:

for repair and restoration work: washing machines, vacuum cleaners, irons;
to create a microclimate: fans, ionizers, heating furnaces;
heating devices: stoves, kerosene stoves, blowtorches, stoves;
sanitary and hygienic purposes: razors, hair dryers, toothbrushes;
for processing, preparing and storing food: coffee grinders, meat grinders, kettles, refrigerators, kitchen machines.

Alla Nudel, head of the "Materials and Technologies" group of the Polytechnic Museum:

Now we are at the stage of examination of the entire museum collection of household appliances, we are expertly evaluating the exhibits, we are thinking about the prospects for further acquisition of this collection popular with visitors. I think that retro technology (including devices for the home) is of great interest due to the “joy of recognition” - a person sees a device that is familiar and understandable to him - such as he or his grandmother had at home many years ago, feels nostalgic and at the same time surprised at how things have changed now.

When decorating an apartment, especially a kitchen, we usually only think about color: if the refrigerator is white, then the stove should also be white. And we limit ourselves to the monochrome range, which the manufacturer mainly offers - white, black, gray. Style is already harder to work with: a standard oven is unlikely to fit into country-style furniture or classic furnishings. To remove such restrictions, many manufacturers produce lines of designer equipment. It is presented in different colors and patterns, has non-standard shapes and can be stylized for a specific era or interior direction. The cost of such equipment, of course, is many times more expensive than that of the usual analogues. But if you're willing to invest in design, this is where you'll most likely end up.

Studying this topic, we noticed that manufacturers usually go to two extremes - futurism and retro.

Retro technique

A good example of stylized retro technology would be the well-known Smeg brand refrigerator. It looks like it was made in the 50s, but inside - the most modern stuffing. The company offered a wide range of colors and made the product so high quality that it even gained fans of its creation all over the world.

Smeg doesn't just make refrigerators. For example, their toasters are extremely cute.

Smeg isn't the only one with a retro focus. Kitchenaid also has great styling. They became famous for their mixers and a large assortment of colors.

Other companies, such as Gorenje, produce separate retro lines. Refrigerators and stoves from Gorenje:

DeLonghi also released a retro line, which turned out to be cute kettles, toasters and coffee machines.

The Igloo mini-fridge is also a proud representative of retro technology.

There are also references to the design of a more distant past, when technology did not exist at all. The Restart company produces appliances stylized as products of Florentine masters of the 17th-19th centuries. She not only looks, but also stands like a king. But it fits perfectly into solid oak kitchens and Mediterranean interiors. It will also look interesting in a steampunk kitchen.

Futurism

The popular Stadler brand air humidifier, which even has a name - Fred, looks futuristic. It looks like a flying saucer that has landed at your house.

With small appliances it’s generally simpler: not like that high price and a more limited lifetime allow manufacturers to experiment. For example, many of today's vacuum cleaners look stylish and a bit cosmic. If you just need a vacuum cleaner, but it’s difficult to choose a model, we talked about them in detail in.

Of course, technical innovations must look futuristic. Like this coffee machine that scans your palm to remember what kind of coffee you like and how much sugar and cream to add.

The coffee machine is simpler, but also with touch controls, it glows like a panel on a spaceship.

Many of these "bells and whistles" still exist in the form of development, but will soon begin to go on sale. This is taken care of by Electrolux, which regularly holds competitions for technical innovations. There are developed interesting designs like these refrigerators:

Gloss and chrome surfaces - that kind of futurism, which has already become natural for us. We simply consider such equipment modern and stylish.

Few people know that in Novosibirsk there is a Museum of Communications, which contains an amazing collection of retro exhibits directly or indirectly related to electronics. Some exhibits revive the memories of the deco-youth period, and some make you think about what technology was at the beginning of the last century.
Perhaps yesterday's schoolchildren do not even think about the fact that in our time it was considered cool to be the owner of a cassette player. And in order to save the battery, the cassette was rewound with a pencil.

Collection of radio receivers. In those days of the absence of the Internet, news was learned from them.

"Wall Radio" was broadcasting in every kitchen in every Soviet family.

Computer «ZX SPECTRUM». On it, schoolchildren of the 90s learned the basics of the BASIC programming language. The keyboard was connected to the TV, and in order to load the game, it was necessary to type the command "Load" "Enter" and load the game from the cassette recorder.

Another modification of the same computer.

Domestic version of the player.

Player from the radio era of the 90s.

Cassette recorder. When I looked at him I remembered my childhood. Such a device was in our family.

Camera "Change-6". With his help, Soviet schoolchildren learned to photograph.

Anti-vandal pay phone.

Internet era. Fax modem “MOTOROLA 28.8”. “Now, in order to transfer a file with a document or a program to your friend or to your office, you do not need to write it to a floppy disk and travel with it across the city. It is enough to use a modem and transfer the file through a telephone channel. Since virtually the entire globe is surrounded by telephone lines, the modem allows you to transfer a file to anywhere in the world in a few minutes. (“Modems and fax modems. Programming for MS-DOS and Windows. Alexander Frolov, Grigory Frolov Volume 16, M .: Dialog-MEPhI, 1993.)

Just about the complex. Programs. Iron. Internet. Windows