I’ve been on a big anachronism kick lately, so it really resonated when John Kheit turned me on to this video of analog numeral displays. This is the sort of thing we had to look digital before we had digital. Or something like that. As noted by Boing Boing, this technology is called “edge lit digital display,” and it’s part analog and part mechanical. In the video, you can hear the mechanical relays clicking and buzzing away as they control which digit is being displayed. The video comes from Steve Johnson, who runs a website deliciously Steve’s Antique Technology. Steve, you had me at “Antique Technology.” He’s got a lot of info on these old systems.
Check It Out: And Now for Some Old Fashioned ‘Digital’ Numeral Displays
Edge lit is not half as groovy as Nixie Tube equipped stuff. You can have your dumb failed “smart” watches, I’ll stick to my Nixie Tube watch, any day !!! I remember in 1957-59 we had a small clock that would flip little panels each time a minute or hour would change….now fit THAT in a watch somehow……….. d:)