12 Classic Gadgets You Can Still Buy

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12 Classic Gadgets You Can Still Buy

by Jon Chase — Nov 11th 2008 at 7:18PM

In an era when fanboys start throwing tantrums if the iPod hasn't been updated in a couple months, and new cellphone models hit the store every week, we find comfort in tech that is made to last long enough to get a little dusty. Granted, that's increasingly harder to do, what with the explosion of new digital technologies in the past few decades and that pesky Moore's Law breathing down engineers' collective necks. But it's still possible. We've collected the dozen greatest gadgets of the ages that were built right the first time and therefore continue to stand the test of time. All of them are still available for purchase as new products today, most completely unchanged or only minimally so since when they were first introduced -- and the oldest one is over 100 years old. Hit the comments section up with any others you think we missed!

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Tags: classics, features, hgg, hggfeatures, top

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

David Miller said 4:24PM on 11-11-2008

Cane and Crutch Tips haven't change much in one hundred years.
until now!

Richard Brown said 5:24PM on 11-11-2008

Such compilations are incomplete without the 3 T's.

Tires - Television, and - Telephone.

I'm surprised that these were not included in the original list !

RB.

irene stone said 10:44PM on 11-13-2008

Sorry -- you missed the most important -- the Phillips screw! Without it, the Hubble telescope could not have been repaired in space, as National Geographic said. And don't forget that Gen. Jimmy Doolittle said that the U.S. would not have been able to win World War II without it -- it increased production so vastly of all military vehicles, planes, etc. My uncle, Joseph Tomalis, made the Phillips screw possible. Every engineer and manufacturer said the screw could NOT be produced -- that it was impossible. My uncle, who was Director of Research for the American Screw Co. in Rhode Island, proved them wrong. He is now being considered for entry into the Inventors Hall of Fame, posthumously.

Sincerely, Irene Stone

Morgan said 6:47PM on 11-11-2008

hey this is kinda stupid since technology is always growing...... just saying that all u people over 50 need to GET OVER the fact that our technology is changing and making the earth and safer and more simple place

Carrie said 5:37PM on 11-19-2008

Oh get over yourself. Seriously. Those older folks are the ones who made all this possible through their hard work and determination, and as a 20 year old who loves her tech, I'm grateful.

Tech doesn't necessarily make the world safer, either. Technological advances are what helped create the atom bomb, cause stupid teenagers to kill themselves or others while texting-and-driving, not to mention how many lives are ruined financially by people using tech to hack bank accounts.

You need to learn to think before you speak, quite frankly, and mature a bit before being ALLOWED to use such "advanced" technologies.

OLDER PERSON said 6:39PM on 11-20-2008

HEY MORGAN WHEN YOU ARE OLDER YOU WAIT AND SEE WHAT THEY COME UP WITH AND SEE HOW MUCH YOUR NEW TECH STUFF MEANS TO YOU THAT OLD STUFF WAS AND IS STILL A PART OF PEOPLE'S LIVES...ONE DAY YOU WILL GET OLD AND GOOD LUCK.............

Judy D' said 7:26PM on 11-11-2008

My KitchenAide stand mixer was bought in 1978 and still looks like the new ones on the market today.

enginepowered said 8:12PM on 11-11-2008

The Rolodex! Still the same...and the company has only ever sold the one product. Still a Classic!

derfman said 9:36PM on 11-16-2008

Get over yourself Morgan . We over 50 are the ones who made it happen . It's your turn now to produce somethiing useful.Have you contributed or are you just another consumer of our sweat and grey matter.

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