I worked for the company that used to make those hand crank sirens that the U.S. Military used for decades. I found out that the person who made those retired and then passed away. Unfortunately, the ability to make them passed with him. The company had the plans, but lacked some secret building method that only the one engineer knew. After about a year of off and on searching, the plans could not be found. The technology was lost.
I have another device I bought from a thrift store called an EZdrive. It was a removable storage device that used a metal platter, like a harddrive's, to store data. Each cartridge stored between 100-135MB. I believe this came out to rival the ZipDisc and the LS Superdrive. Needless to say, EZdrive lost the battle and is long gone. But what is someone wants to use them, fix them, or use the technology behind it? With a handful of remaining drives, I have 2, the tech is almost gone.
There is a video game I played on PC as a kid that had a simple and interesting look. At the time, I thought I could try and make a game similar. After a while, I was in over my head. So, I sought out the company that made the game and try to license the source code. The company was gone, people were retired, and all the source was unavailable. The same goes for software; the technology, for this game, is lost.
Is there a place for old designs, a Design Engineer Project Graveyard perhaps? If there isn't, the world needs it.
What old technology do you think should be saved?
Cabe
