Oldphemera

This isn't my find, but what a find at a yard sale by Dr. A on Mastodon!

"Radio jack" is an old but still occasionally used term for a 1/4" TS (or TRS) plug, the "big" style headphone jack, a.k.a. a "phone plug." The plug - as perfect as it is in well-stored new-old-stock condition - isn't particularly ephemeral, but that cardboard box label absolutely is, and holy crow what a gem! FIGHTIN' UNCA SAM is ready to CONNECT CABLES for YOU!

Federal Telephone and Telegraph advertised heavily in old tech media, when tech media meant the latest amazing invention - RADIO! Which was amazing and did change the world. The "telephone and telegraph" in the name was absolutely legitimate, too - they got started operating telephone services in New York State, particularly but not only Buffalo.

The best sources I can find say they were bought by and absorbed into International Telephone and Telegraph, later ITT Corporation, later ITT, in the mid-1920s. ITT, of course, continues to exist as a specialty component maker for aerospace, industrial, and similar customers - not unlike what Federal was doing back in 1922.

Is this really ephemera? Nah. Is it old as fuck? SURE IS! And such a lovely found object it is, too. Look at that the Lufkin Rule Co. fond. It doesn't rewind itself, either - that little flappy bit in the middle flips over and becomes a crank so you can wind it back in yourself. It won't break because really, it can't.

These are all over the place on eBay, in various lengths. This one's old - they started making steel rules like this in 1890, by which time they were already in Saginaw, Michigan, and not Cleveland, Ohio, where the company was founded.

This particular tape is in the 1963 catalogue, but is not new at that point - it's an established product. But it's not in the 1947, even though the closely-related (and similarly decorated) Chrome-Clad tape is. If I had to guess, and I do have to guess, I'd guess it was released in the early 1950s to try to catch some of that decade's substantial DIY market - a lot of homes were sold with unfinished second storeys or basements, with the idea that you'd finish them out yourselves as your family grew, while already having a place to live.

Front and back covers of Mead Composition 100 sheet wide-ruled notebooks, from 1994 (left) and 2025 (right), 20 years apart. Fronts are in the top image, backs are in the lower.

Notable for both their similarities and their differences, the 1994's white front label very much appears to have been cut out by hand and pasted onto a background for photography and printing as would've still been common - if not typical - at the time, whereas the 2025 is naturally and clearly all-digital.

This particularly shows up in the back where the greater flexibility of digital allows for text to be placed on the faux-wrinkle-coat texture via strategic placement of black fill areas behind the otherwise-too-small text. All that text ended up in the large white medallion on the front of the 1994 edition, where legibility would've been assured.

Found this matchbook with this ad. The design is VERY old - note the USSR teddy bear stamp - even if Father Frost is in red instead of the more typical blue for some reason, that's Soviet. But it's been updated much more recently, and the company advertising 500 junk stamps to "get your collection started" is still very much around and they don't charge that much more than they did whenever this matchbook was printed.

I found an old manual for a... 1970s? Early 1980s? gas range and the drawings of all the clock options are pretty charming. Enjoy!

TYPE A and TYPE B!

But wait! there's more! If you have the money. Check out these mechanical digital clock drawings!

so many little knobs

SO MANY

I think by "eye level models" they mean "wall ovens." Not sure tho'. Very 2001: A Space Odyssey regardless tho'.

("HAL, please open the oven bay door."

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave."

"Why not, HAL?"

"The cake isn't ready yet, Dave.")

PARCO Faucet Washers! Various sizes, all BEVELED and PACKED IN THE U.S.A. BY UNION LABOR.

I'm pretty sure the actual age order, oldest to youngest, is peacock blue with price, peacock blue with price covered over by a sticker at the factory (the sticker is under the plastic), then the orange pair with the tree cut off because they reversed the size and price sticker position layout.

The design time is certainly late 1950s to early 1960s - the diamond windows in that ranch house with the open roof above the porch screams 1962 to me, but could well be earlier seeing as it's California. (The double-width garage, same notation.)

I like the little caricatures too.

PARCO made it until 2016, when they did not in fact go out of business but got bought out! So they're now a division of a large company. At some point they moved from Bell, California to Ontario, California, but it's not exactly a big move, it's all part of the massive LA metroplex. I don't know where they were in Bell, but there's a big industrial area with some old (and disused) railroad tracks going through it, though, so I imagine that's where. There are a couple of industrial buildings on Randolph that look just about old enough. And I think there were more, but they got torn down and replaced with newer in the last couple of decades.

Found in an old storage area:

ELEPHANT brand Steel Wool 8 pads, 0000 finest

(these are not my preferred pad, but hey, you do you xD) I like the little elephant mascot, it's cute! Amazingly, this brand is still around, too. I don't know how old this particular package is, but I imagine it's from the 60s or 70s - or at least was designed then. I'm not sure what's up with the giant I, either, unless it's supposed to invoke... an I-beam? Those are also steel, so maybe that's it.

Why an elephant? I don't know, why not? Shut up. xD

Okay, so lots of us have little spring-loaded clips to hold bags closed, and they come in a bunch of different styles and shapes and are basically in every grocery, right? Half of the ones in the cabinet came from college and we probably picked them up in shared housing when roommates moved out.

This one is from 1991 and has patent numbers. I noticed because it broke and I whipped up a new one real quick in TinkerCAD and 3D-printed a replacement partly because I could and partly because the spring and grippy bits (both removed in the photos) were in fine shape.

Guardsman Products, Inc. of Grand Rapids, Michigan was founded in 1963, and seem to be gone, though there were enough reorganisations and re-foundings to be unsure about whether it was 1993, 1995, or 1998. They appear to have several different type of clip products including Chip Clip, such as Cereal Clip, in case you weren't aware you could use the same clip for more than just chips.

The first patent (ending in 791) was applied for by Francis R. Groth on May 26th, 1981. The idea that this idea had an associated patent just kind of astounds me. It builds upon the lower patent (ending in 600), an earlier patent from 1980, which includes an image which looks a lot like a clothespin with two chopsticks attached. Both are long expired, but still assigned to Guardsman Products.

Check out this absolutely gorgeous atomic age letter opener I found. The back side is a ruler marked in US inches without decoration, but the front is what's glorious.

This isn't as old as the usual Oldphemera entry, but it's aged so badly that I'm calling it fair. What is this? This is an unused front automotive license plate year sticker from Washington State in the year 2000.

Yes, really. Put out by the Washington State DOL. It's tiny, like any other year sticker, but... well. They were excited. They don't get to change the first digit of the year very often, so really, who can blame them?

Wow, we have a guest submission! That's new and neat!

This photo is from Scott Thomas, who found this old 45-volt photographic flash battery. This would've probably been from the late 1950s, and somehow, has never leaked! He tells me:

It's history-completely dead, but never leaked. Old camera batteries could range from 1.5 to 225 volts. Press cameras like you see in old movies had a huge high voltage battery to fire those big flashbulbs. The guy and girl who took photos for the Asbury College newspaper in the early '80s had one, and would often dress up as '40s style reporters when out photographing things for the paper. Added a bit of fun to it.

Here's another picture, found elsewhere, where the text has not blurred from age quite as much.

I post one goddamn thing to Oldphemera and now the phone client is convinced oldphemera is my primary blog and everything - everything goes to it. Including text messages and reblogs from my primary blog's feed.