Curious ContraptionsWhat curious contraptions!When crystal radios were first introduced in the 1920's, people were amazed to hear other people talking from a box in their living rooms when they said they were hundreds of miles away. These very curious contraptions were soon in homes all over the world. Now there is satellite radio you can access from anywhere, not just in your home area, with hours of the music of your choice. If you don't already have it it will be coming your way soon. Let's check out some of the latest curious contraptions that may capture the imagination of the world.One curious contraption was the television set. Imagine being able to get pictures out of thin air!! In the early 1950's they began to appear in living rooms around the country. You could watch wild west movies, news shows, contests and comedies! All sorts of new and entertaining things were coming into the home with this set. Now there are giant screens that can take up nearly a whole wall in the home or miniature screens you can easily carry in your hand. TV's are morphing from large boxy contraptions to flat screen Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD's) that takes up very little space, to digital light processing (DLP). Thousands of tiny mirrors spaced less than one micron apart make up the digital micro-mirror device that has a very high fill factor with far better color rendition and flatter screens. Will high definition technology and the DLP projection TV screen become the latest great new contraption? The technology is ever changing, ever evolving. Another curious contraption that captured the world's imagination was the automobile or horseless carriage. Traveling at 10 miles an hour, terrifying the horses that shared the road and breaking down frequently, they soon were the contraption everyone wanted. With the cost of fuel escalating many more curious contraptions are being invented like fuel reformulators to increase gas mileage, hybrid vehicles using electricity and gas to increase their mileage range, solar power, hydrogen power, fuel cells, every sort of applied technology that can make driving cars more affordable and more interesting. Many new curious contraptions are in the works. We are watching technological convergence in areas known previously only in science fiction and comic strips. Many years ago Dick Tracy was a comic book cop who solved crimes with the aid of an incredible wrist watch. The Dick Tracy watch for example, had walkie talkie, TV, radio, and all sorts of cool spy gadgets but you knew it was only in the comics, right? No, they became available for anyone who wanted them. Today your cell phone has most of those capabilities and more. You can surf the web, talk to a friend across the world, text message, take digital pictures and share them on the internet, download and play music. These high tech toys were never imagined when the telephone was first developed. Today we can have hands free voice activated walkie-talkies. And MP3 players, tiny curious contraptions you can carry in your pocket that provide you with unending musical entertainment or even an on-the-go education with voice notes available. You can now use Web VOIP Conference to have free communications to anyone in the world, from 2 people to thousands. Computers started as curious contraptions by people who adopted this strange hobby. Making their own computers and doing the programming themselves, very few could imagine the uses it would come to have. TigerDirect Today with these computers you can easily own a professionally designed website. Or set up your own worldwide Internet business with very little time, or investment, and free online training. |
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