Still Running

82 things with 5,125 years of service between them. Every one of them still gets used.

No. 0020Electronics

c. 1950

Motorola record player

Loud enough to surprise its third owner An RCA tube record player from the 1950s. Not a Motorola, and not the one in the story.

Running about 76 years

No. 0112Electronics

c. 1974

Unisonic 749 calculator

43 years in steady use, on the plug A Unisonic 740 calculator with a green fluorescent display, a close cousin of the 749. Not the one in the story.

Running about 52 years

No. 0108Electronics

c. 1975

GE 4870 AM/FM radio

Saved up for the digital one. Dust stays on. A General Electric 7-4550 AM/FM clock radio in a woodgrain case, an older GE model with a dial tuner. Not the 4870, and not the one in the story.

A General Electric 7-4550 AM/FM clock radio in a woodgrain case, an older GE model with a dial tuner. Not the 4870, and not the one in the story.

Running about 51 years

No. 0109Electronics

c. 1976

Electric clock radio

Grandma's spare, sent off to college in 1976

An Emerson flip-number alarm clock radio, a style common in the 1970s. Not the one in the story.

Running about 50 years

No. 0111Electronics

c. 1986

HP-41CX calculator

Bought for engineering school, mostly adds these days An HP-41CX calculator made in 1986. Not the one in the story.

Running about 40 years

No. 0110Electronics

1988

HP-12C financial calculator

Issued on day one of an accounting job, October 1988 An HP-12C financial calculator made in 1988. Not the one in the story.

Running 38 years

No. 0080Electronics

1994

Windows 3.1 PC

Set up in 1994 and never once put online A tower PC running Windows 3.1, on display at the Living Computer Museum in Seattle. Not the one in the story.

Running 32 years

No. 0019Electronics

1996

HP LaserJet 5si

Tray 1 sometimes takes the whole stack An HP LaserJet 4 made in 1993, a smaller office printer from the same family. Not the one in the story.

Running 30 years

No. 0021Electronics

c. 1998

Alarm clock

Made it through two apartment fires, three weeks apart

Running about 28 years

No. 0022Electronics

2006

iRobot Roomba Discovery

Held together with screws, which is the whole point A Roomba Discovery back on its charging dock, photographed in 2006. Not the one in the story.

Running 20 years

Got something old that still works?

Tell us what it is, what year it's from, and one thing about it nobody would guess. A photo helps. A person reads every one before it goes on the wall.

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