Turn-by-turntables: How drivers got from point A to point B in the early 1900s
1–10 of 22 posts
Re: Turn-by-turntables: How drivers got from point A to point B in the early 1900s
#2That's pretty ingenious.
Re: Turn-by-turntables: How drivers got from point A to point B in the early 1900s
#3This reminded me of something similar: https://gajitz.com/scrolling-down-the-highway-vintage-1927-a...
It's a watch-like, wrist device called the "Plus Four Wristlet Route Indicator", and it dates back to 1927.
Re: Turn-by-turntables: How drivers got from point A to point B in the early 1900s
#4Kari from Mythbusters built a replica of this, and another version that uses scrolls, on the netflix show White Rabbit Project (S01E09). It actually worked better than I thought it would.
Re: Turn-by-turntables: How drivers got from point A to point B in the early 1900s
#5After graduating from Ohio State, I moved out to Newport Beach, California for my first post-college job. The company arranged for help finding an apartment in the area, which includes 1.5 days of apartment-hunting, and generally getting used to the area.
My father & a friend helped me out by driving the bulk of my stuff out to California. The guide was happy to use her AAA of California membership to get a custom trip guide made. It wasn't as novel as the turntable, but it was very nice!
And of course, the first thing I did when I moved in was to go to a bookstore and buy the Thomas Guide covering Orange County.
https://laist.com/2018/06/22/thomas_guide_maps_the_rise_and_...
Re: Turn-by-turntables: How drivers got from point A to point B in the early 1900s
#6The map being physically connected to the odometer, albeit by a long cable, seems like a good idea but this feels like an early example of how hardware engineering and software engineering (in this case, UX) are quite separate skill sets!
It’s a cute idea but an unnecessary (and literal) coupling of the measurement function with the route information.
There’s a reason that numerical odometers with dual absolute / trip delta readings caught on — far more flexible.
Re: Turn-by-turntables: How drivers got from point A to point B in the early 1900s
#7I’ve always thought it would be cool to have a printed out minimum spanning tree starting from my house (or work) with miles marked out on it. You wouldn’t need OSM or google maps then!
Re: Turn-by-turntables: How drivers got from point A to point B in the early 1900s
#8This page somehow crashes my Firefox.
Re: Turn-by-turntables: How drivers got from point A to point B in the early 1900s
#9Not completely related ro tnis article, however there are some good arguments thst road infrastructure played key role in human development. Imagine trying to get from somewhere in Poland to England through forests, swamps and fields... Trade and knowledge sharing went through the roof once people started building roads and connecting towns and cities.
Re: Turn-by-turntables: How drivers got from point A to point B in the early 1900s
#10This page somehow crashes my Firefox.
Works fine on my Lynx