If you can bring one item we use nowadays back to the 1950s....

Danny Tse

Just imagine, if you can travel back in time and bring one item that we have today just to show off our "advancement", what would it be? Besides the cassette Walkman with a tape of Van Halen inside

This is just for fun, so no picking apart the technicalities.

I'd think a laptop computer would be quite mind-blowing

AsSiMiLaTeD

I'd bring a sports almanac of course.......




Wow, I bet nobody saw THAT response coming,

Kex

I'd like to bring back the Star Ship Enterprise.

danger boy

have to be an IPad or Wii

Ricardo

Anything wireless

Kex

Ricardo wrote: »

Anything wireless

I thought about an iPhone, but then I realized: I'd have nobody else to call, so how could I show off its capabilities?!

bobman1235

Kex wrote: »

I thought about an iPhone, but then I realized: I'd have nobody else to call, so how could I show off its capabilities?!

Even beyond that, you'd have no Wifi or internet in general. It woudl be neat to show off games but I just don't think it'd have the effect

vmaxer

Maybe remote controls....what would we do without them:o

Or.......Microwave ovens, there are too many to pick out just one

ben62670

Any liter+ sport bike

Jstas

Computer controlled, electronic fuel injection.

fatchowmein

The Empire Strikes Back on my iPod. Tell them it's a documentary of the year 2012.

danger boy

gas prices :eek: that would totally blow them away

Danny Tse

bobman1235 wrote: »

Even beyond that, you'd have no Wifi or internet in general. It woudl be neat to show off games but I just don't think it'd have the effect

Let's just say you have that ONE SPECIAL device that has WiFi/internet connection through time....

On3s&Z3r0s

Dyson vacuum... I'd sell 'em door-to-door. Mmm... repressed 50's housewives.

Kex

How about bringing back a Mercury Grand Marquis, and telling them "See, this is where you're going with this, and it isn't going to have a happy ending, so find a new plan quick, before it's too late!"?!

http://www.mercuryvehicles.com/grandmarquis/

On3s&Z3r0s

Ironically, if you could take a flying car back to the 50's everyone would be like, "Meh. We totally saw that coming."

Kex

On3s&Z3r0s wrote: »

Ironically, if you could take a flying car back to the 50's everyone would be like, "Meh. We totally saw that coming."

Have you been frequenting Dallas toll booths recently, or something?!

On3s&Z3r0s

Kex wrote: »

Have you been frequenting Dallas toll booths recently, or something?!

LuLz!!! I hadn't even seen that until I just googled for it. That's awesome!

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tWk4MCQaHrc&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tWk4MCQaHrc&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&quot; type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

But no, I was just sayin in the 50's they thought we'd all be getting around on jetpacks and flying cars by now. An iPod would be more likely to impress than a Segway, but then a Segway is pretty much the most stupid thing ever.

jflail2

The largest plasma TV I could find. Talk about mind-bogglingly clear black and white programming

danger boy

i'd take a stun gun

they would be stunned just by looking at it

Kex

How about bringing back a Polkie? But which one would be the most "stunning"?

nooshinjohn

Kex wrote: »

I thought about an iPhone, but then I realized: I'd have nobody else to call, so how could I show off its capabilities?!

Isn't there an APP for that?:D:p

Willow

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

I'd bring a sports almanac of course.......




Wow, I bet nobody saw THAT response coming,

Along those lines....but all the winning lotto numbers!

nooshinjohn

Jstas wrote: »

Computer controlled, electronic fuel injection.

They had that already. On a handful(literally) of Chrysler-made cars in the late 1950's. Today, only ONE fully functional and original car exists.

Chrysler records show only 35 cars, including Chrysler, De Sotos, Dodges and Plvmouths, were built with the complex multi-port system which had two dual-point distributors (one for the ignition, one for the injectors), an electric fuel pump in the gas tank and two "black boxes," a resistance box and modulator mounted to the radiator support that were the brains of the system. The system was built by Bendix Aviation in Elmira, New York, and first used on aircraft during the Korean War. Because aircraft require fuel systems that only need to work at either idle or wide-open throttle, the Bendix engineers had to devise a way to make the system adapt to a car. In theory it worked, but the system proved very troublesome, due mainly to the crude waxpaper-covered capacitors inside the black box, which failed often. Perhaps this is why GM's simpler, Rochester-built mechanical-type fuel-injection system proved far more usable.

The Bendix electronic fuel-injection system had many components modern fuel-injection systems employ including a fuel-pressure regulator, fuel rails, individual injectors, throttle positioning valve, an electronic cold start and warmup sensor, primary and secondary throttle bodies, manifold vacuum sensor, idle sensor, air temperature sensor, acceleration sensor and two fuel lines.

The difference between a carburetor and fuel injection is how fuel is supplied to an engine. With a conventional system, a fuel pump mounted on the engine gets fuel from the tank and forces it into the carburetor. There, the fuel is mixed with air, and that mixture passes through the intake manifold to the engine's combustion chambers. A fuel-injected engine, however, supplies fuel to the engine by an electric powered pump in the gas tank. Injectors on the intake manifold and electronic controls then determine the exact amount of fuel injected into the cylinder's intake ports.


Here's how the Bendix system was supposed to work:
Electronically controlled and electrically actuated, the "Electrojector" had a transistor-equipped brain or modulator, about 5 inches in size. The brain took a timed electrical signal from the ignition distributor. It sensed, through tiny electronic transmitting devices located at key points on the engine, the engine's temperature, throttle position, manifold pressure and even the altitude (or density) of the air being sucked into the cylinders. The modulator integrated all of the information received and instantly translated this data into a control signal that actuated the injectors," according to an article in Bendixline, a company newsletter, dated Sept. 28, 1956.


Richard Kollins wrote: “My late father Michael J. Kollins was a service engineer at Chrysler’s Jefferson Avenue plant. He supervised the 1958 300 fuel injection conversion to carbs. All but one were converted, the remaining one was allegedly totaled. That car is claimed to be in existence now.”
Among the advantages to fuel injection over carburetors were faster warm ups and performance gains while the engine is cold because the proper fuel-air mixture ratios and distribution can be more easily maintained.

Kex

How about a picture of Borat in his monokini?

shack

Obama

Danny Tse

shack wrote: »

Obama

Yes, I suppose that would be mind blowing for most people back then

Kex

^^^^ Naughty naughty!

shack

Kex wrote:

^^^^ Naughty naughty!

How so? It is a legitimate response. Just how many Americans from the 50s would have predicted a black President of the United States in 2010.

bobman1235

Mayor GOLDIE Wilson.. I like the SOUND of that.

George Grand

vmaxer wrote: »

Maybe remote controls....what would we do without them:o

Or.......Microwave ovens, there are too many to pick out just one

What would we do without them? We might have a chance at NOT being the most obese country on the planet.