|
Here's an obsolete but not entirely failed piece of technology - the Sheaffer Snorkel fountain pen:    The Snorkel is probably the most sophisticated and complex fountain pen of all time. Most fountain pens fill by sucking up ink through the nib and feed (the ribbed rubber or plastic piece beneath the nib). This gets the nib covered in ink, which needs to be wiped off after filling. The Snorkel adressed this problem by including a little metal tube that extended from underneath the nib and could be used to suck ink out of an inkwell like a mosquito sucks blood. The filling system was well engineered and worked beautifully, but it was extremely difficult to service and probably cost quite a lot to manufacture. Also most people didn't mind wiping ink off their pens after refilling, so the problem that the snorkel system solved wasn't really a big deal. Fountain pens are an interesting case study in technological obsolescence because fountain pen technology has actually gotten notably worse since about the 1970s - most modern fountain pens use an inefficient, low-volume cartridge/converter fill system, and the nibs are much worse now than they were during the golden age. The Snorkel sold well, and it's not terribly hard to find restored examples of it today if you're interested.
|
#
¿
Jan 18, 2013 19:32
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 20:28 |
|
|
Killer robot posted:It's going into a relatively sealed compartment in the wall, razor blades don't rot or anything, and it would take many years of accumulation to fill the space. On the flip side, it means there's no need to put razors in the trash where they might cut people/bags/pets, and no need for a separate razor blade only trash dispenser that is either tiny or takes years to fill. A better question is, what kind of person has a genuine, rather than "this feels kinda counterintuitive", objection? It would probably take decades at least to fill a wall - safety razors blades are really tiny and thin. You can get 200 into a space about the size of a deck of cards.
|
|
#
¿
May 14, 2013 15:29
|
|