Friday, August 14, 2009

What the heck?


Posted by Tom Casady at 5:13 AM

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like the Binford Odor Detector to me. I didn't realize Motorola had bought the rights, though. The vertical sensor mast detects hydrocarbons in the atmosphere in order to provide a scientific answer to the question, "What's that smell?"

August 14, 2009 at 6:02 AM
ARRRRG!!!! said...

Ah, ye old bag phone. A blast from the past. My how the cell phone has changed.

August 14, 2009 at 6:44 AM
Anonymous said...

No, no, no. There was a guy demonstrating this at the State Fair in Grand Island at a booth right between the Ginsu knives and the Popeil Pocket Fisherman. It's actually a shoe sanitizer.

August 14, 2009 at 7:23 AM
Anonymous said...

It looks like my first cell phone, which was nearly as large as a loaf of bread.

August 14, 2009 at 7:42 AM
Anonymous said...

Oh, my next phone was much smaller, roughly the same size a a box of Velveeta. When I got it, I marveled at how much smaller phones had become in only a few years, due to better battery tech.

August 14, 2009 at 8:27 AM
Steve said...

My father-in-law had one like that in his Nissan pickup. It ran off the 12 volt system of his truck. He couldn't talk and drive at night or his headlights would go out! Of course, it was about half the weight-load capacity of a Nissan, too.

August 14, 2009 at 8:34 AM
Dave said...

It's a coffee cup!

August 14, 2009 at 8:43 AM
Anonymous said...

Ok, give us the real scoop Chief. What year did you acquire your first cell phone??
I'll bet you were carrying this thing around with you while you were still patrolling a beat.

August 14, 2009 at 9:13 AM
Tom Casady said...

9:13-

Okay, here's the true story. Retired Lincoln police officer Gene Giles was on the phone with me last week. Towards the end of our conversation, he asked if we had any use for old cellphones. I was about to say no, when he described this bag phone. "Absolutely!," I said, "Bring that baby to me!" The experience of the Folmer and Schwing had suddenly popped into my head.

We have nice historical displays here at Headquarters. I was thinking that this is an item that we should definitely preserve, since it's the same equipment we would have been using for the Duty Commander back in about 1988 or so.

After Gene dropped this relic off, I took it over to the classroom to show the recruits in our current academy class. They were duly impressed.

How I wish I has hung onto my first Tandy computer, my original Olympus Pearlcorder, my Pulsar digital watch, Dad's genuine SX-70, and some of the other gear that I have tossed over the years. At the time, you were thinking "junk." Now, you realize just how cool it would be on the bookshelf.

August 14, 2009 at 9:29 AM
Trevor said...

It's a wireless brick!

August 14, 2009 at 11:23 AM
Anonymous said...

I might actually use a cell phone if the old bag phone was still available. I hate the tiny Zoolander phones now. I don't use or own a cell phone. When most people learn of this, they are so shocked they can barely speak. I am happy that I will NEVER cause an auto accident because I am yapping or tapping on a cell phone. And please, no flames about "safety."

August 14, 2009 at 11:32 AM
Anonymous said...

Is that coffee mug the latest design, or was it a contemporary of the bag phone?

August 14, 2009 at 12:39 PM
Tom Casady said...

11:32-

What? No cell phone? How do you tweet?


12:39-

I put my coffee mug in the frame just so there would be some scale. Lots of readers have never actually seen a bag phone, so they wouldn't have any sense of it's size without something to compare it to.

August 14, 2009 at 1:03 PM
Steve said...

How do we know that coffee mug isn't one of those gallon-sized refillables you can get at the quickie mart?

August 14, 2009 at 1:42 PM
Anonymous said...

I think you need a new coffee mug...it looks a little worn. Maybe it should go in the museum too.

August 19, 2009 at 10:29 AM

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