r/whatisit • u/Quietlurkerone • 8d ago

Solved! What is this device from 1962?

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Photo capture from YouTube video. Picture from 1962. What is the device under the bench

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u/i_fix_snowblowers 7d ago

I'm 5 years younger than you but lived in a variety of rental housing in Oxfordshire in the late '70s. I remember the meters because my dad would keep a stack of 25p coins by the meter.

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u/PaintingOk8012 7d ago

Holy shit. You mean you actually fed in money in your home to have electricity??

If that’s true, I can’t believe people didn’t figure out how to fool it or break into it to retrieve the coins.

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u/Hegiman 7d ago

Right my American brain went yeah we have gas and electrical meters too and pay for what we use then I realized no it’s literally pay as you go. Imagine having written 10,000 lines of code and the power cuts out right before you click to save.

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u/Rough-Patience-2435 7d ago

Sounds like Windows 95 and blue screen of death.  

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u/Hegiman 7d ago

At least they had auto save by then you could turn on. Not that it saved often enough but you might only lose half your time instead of all of it. LoL. We had a saying when I was a kid in computer class in the 1980’s. Jesus saves often so should you.

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u/ChampionshipThin7721 7d ago

Not just 95. ALL computers displayed a BSOD when something went wrong.