"Frigidaire" as a common noun

[vacbear58]

Got me going now ....

I am an accountant. When I started work in the late 1970s, and the use of computers was not nearly as common as now, "accounting machines" would often be used. Although there were several brands around they were almost always called NCR machines. They were noisy and the really old models had large carriages (not unlike a typewriter but twice as wide) which moved backwards and forwards. The office I first worked in used Burroughs machines, like the one pictured below, which used a "golfball" typing mechanism.

I snapped the pic in the small computer museum at Bletchley Park - someone happened to say within my earshot "I wonder how that worked", I dont think they expected the fullsome answer they got LOLOLOLOL

 

[ronhic]

oooooohhhh

....all I want to do is PUSH THE BUTTONS....

 

[vacbear58]

And more ....

The green device on the left hand side of the Burroughs is an old type of adding machine called a Comptometer, again a brand name which gained generic status, although again there were many brands notably Sumlock in the UK - my first office had a Burroughs, although in the four years I was there I never actually saw anyone use it, and it was a wierd hybrid combining the technique of entry with electronics - usually comptometers were mechanical. In the days before widespread computerisation it was quite usual to have a room full of women operating these machines (they were usually specially trained) to carry out large volumes of calculations - not unlike a typing pool. I was privaledged to know one such woman in my next job (their use had been phased out in the mid-70s, but she still kept hers on a special trolley by her desk and used it from time to time) who showed me how it worked. Basically, the hands were placed across the first 10 columns of keys (units, tens, hundreds, thousands etc) so that the operator could enter 10 charactors in a number simultaneously - it was amazing to watch. They could also do subtraction & division but I never actually got a chance to find out how. Another skill lost in the mists of time - many "comp" operators moved to be key punch operators as computers became more widespread
Al

 

[vacbear58]

Mimeograph or Spirit Duplicator

Still in the office, what others here know as a mimeograph, was always referred to as a Gestetner - again after a brand name. When I was at school, before photocopying was the norm, "handouts" would be prepared on such a machine and a friend who was a teacher was still using them at the end of the 1980s. He always reckoned that their use was something akin to sniffing glue, the fumes were so strong.
Al

 

[ronhic]

He always reckoned that their use was something akin to snif

I can agree with that....the fumes they gave off were pretty strong....

...but then so were 'Texta' permenant markers....but who thought to sniff them?

 

[brisnat81]

The Gestetners were still in use at my school in the late 90's, they were only economical and worth the hassle if you were doing upwards of 500 copies. When I first started school they were extremely fast compared to the Photocopiers of the time. By 2000 the old ones werent much faster than a good Digital copier.

I'm impressed that they still exist. The model I've linked does 130 A3 spot colour ppm.

http://www.gestetner.com/products/006_CopyPrinters/cp6334.xhtml

 

[washabear]

Wasn't aspirin a trade name at some point? I thought I read that somewhere.

 

[lordkenmore]

Aspirin was/is a trademark. It's not considered one in the US any longer, but is in other parts of the world, including Canada.

Link to Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirin#Trademark_in_most_countries

 

[ronhic]

Speaking of pain killers...

...Panadol is another brand name that has come into generic usage in this country...

...it is now used to describe any paracetemol only analgesic probably similar to Tylenol would be in the US...

 

[thomasortega]

The way things are going, very soon the toilet flush will have two water saving options: "Yellow liquids" and "Brown Frigidaires"

 

[ronhic]

Dual flush....

...is a way of life here....

...and that is basically what it means.....

 

[kqkenmore]

In Memphis we refered to liquid chlorine bleach as Clorox and in Jackson TN they refered to it as Purex.Cleanser was refered to as Comet.

 

[jasonl]

My grandparents used to call bleach "Purex", a camera was called a "Kodak". Made sense to him because he owned a Kodak still camera and movie camera/projector.

The same goes for calling instant photographs "Polaroids"

 

[passatdoc]

PineSol

We had a housekeeper who insisted my mother buy PineSol and ONLY PineSol. Mom knew when to follow orders, and this was one of those times. She began referring to any brand of floor cleaner as "Spic And Span"