Here at Quixotic Quantum Quandary, I try to highlight my eclectic collection of random things, and give all of you a chance to show off your knowledge of said eclectic thing-a-ma-jiggers. Of course, they can’t all be things that I own, although I assure you it isn’t for lack of effort. Today’s Quandary is something that I aspire to have one day, and I have been close before to getting one. The main thing is, that I really don’t want to pay for the cast off old technology pieces that I acquire, and no, I don’t want to steal them either. I prefer to think of myself as a rescuer of items from the scrap heap of history.
What you see here was once very useful, but like so much in today’s society, when the new model comes along these get tossed aside. Certainly not easily disposed of, at least not properly, I’ll wager you have seen a few lying about, waiting on someone to figure out what to do with them. When replacement time comes around, it can be a bit of an inconvenience for the customers, but they usually appreciate the increase in speed offered up by the newer models. So take a look, and see if this rings your bell!
As always, if any of you out there in internet-land have some mysterious morsels that you would like to see sent up Quandary style, please send some photos my way! Just email HycoSpeed@gmail.com and throw Q³ in the subject line so I’ll see it.
Hanz and Franz? I would have thought Lucy and Ethyl might be more appropriate.
<img src="http://www.gasoline-stations.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=511&g2_serialNumber=4">
But Hanz and Franz will pump you up.
Well, the first thing rolling numbers in the form of 00.00 brings to mind are old gas pumps, which I think fits in with everything else you said? I can't imagine what 000.0 is for, but 0.00 could be price per gallon?
Remember the kind that had a little transparent hemisphere on the side with little marbles that would bounce around inside to show you the gas was flowing? I can't remember what my fascination was, but I really liked those as a kid. Not nearly as great as the pay-at-the-pump things they've got now. I love those, they allow me to further limit my interaction with humans. Can't wait until the grocery store has self check out. I am well aware you don't know my name and just read it off the loyalty card, stop that.
Hanz and Franz are the names of the shuttle crawlers, aren't they? I can't see how that figures in with gas pumps.
Oh, and they're those guys on SNL, who are here to pump you up. Which does support my knee-jerk guess.
Back when fuel prices were a tenth of what they are today, the extra digit for the total sale was mostly unnecessary. A 25-gallon fill-up at $0.35 (full serve, with a free glass) still gets you change from a ten.
<img src="http://www.jalopyzgolden.com/cart/ccdata/images/full4_10_195.jpg" width=500>
I kind of assumed gas prices had been over a dollar a gallon for a very long time. I don't know really what a gallon is, just that it's quite a lot (the American dollar used to be worth more, too).
That was probably shorthindsighted of me, gas prices have more than doubled since I started driving. Which was… 14 years ago? No, I can't possibly be that old. 63c/L, them was the days.
Bah… We had it down to 15c a gallon… and held it to that for decades…
Ah the days of 500hp and 10-12 miles per gallon when your just cruising… Nothing like spinning the gas gauge faster then the clock hand.
In 1999 or 2000 when I was still daily driving 500 cubic inches of Cadillac, there was a gas station that opened up along my route to and from work. For a couple of months, regular was 70.9 cents per gallon and premium was 79.9. It was cheaper than anyplace else around, but most other stations still charged less than 90 cents then. Unfortunately, about a year after the station opened, a highway-widening project was announced and the bulldozers knocked it down a couple years afterwards.
BTW, a US gallon of gas rounds to about 4 liters.
I'm betting the uncropped 000.0 picture reads liters, with gallons as a less likely guess, unless it's a truck stop pump.
Bah, probably one of those commie-pinko (pinko-commie?) soshulist petrol pumps you find in Yurp (I guess that it's the EeYuu now), or the Frozen Hell Up North of Michigan, metric bastards that they are.
When gas briefly went above $1.00 per gallon in the late 1970s, the owner of the only gas station in my hometown switched to the metric system. His mechanical pumps couldn't accommodate a price above 99.9 cents per unit but could easily dispense in liters. Tourists were delighted by the signs until they read the fine print….
Some old gas pump price gauge. Or a running time gauge for Hanz and Franz's diesel engines.
I tried to find a picture of an old Terrible Herbst (and that is spelled correctly) gas pump showing 25 cents a gallon, but there is too much crap to wade through, so bugger that for a lark.
Never heard of Hanz and Franz other than SNL. Must be some East coast yahoos.
The Clue is in the number 9.7 in the middle of zeroes,middle photo clip above.
Quantum theories,and conspiracy mechanics are in full application.
Old extremely-heavy-duty machinery — YellowStock as they're called around here — such as huge front-end loaders and dump trucks, or graders and excavators, used to use those spinny-dials as their equivalent of an odometer. It doesn't do a whole lot of good trying to measure distance travelled in a vehicle that doesn't move more than 100m at a time, so they measure hours instead. Their gauges look exactly like those, right down to the fact that most of the older ones would only have a single decimal point.
Yes, I know it's probably a gas pump, but someone needs to throw out an alternate theory!
Hour meters are still pretty common, even analog ones. McMaster-Carr sells some that count the hours as long as the machine is vibrating, no electricity required. http://www.mcmaster.com/#hour-meter-counters/=jxi…
Well, y'all didn't need me to tell you this was an old gas pump. Hopefully this week's Quandary is a tad more challenging…