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Seven things that were actually quite convenient and, in some cases, were with us for years. Today, however, they’ve all but disappeared.

Pagers and beepers

In many companies, the little beeper became a status symbol because, after all, it identified its wearer as an indispensable employee. Motorola then sparked off the next stage with the pager. While the beeper only worked within the company network, you could be reached anywhere with the pager. The little display could show a short text message or a phone number for a return call.

The typewriter

IBM replaced the traditional mechanical typewriter with its ball head Selectric typewriter. And with the correction tape, they also gave us an easy means of correcting typos. Olivetti brought out the first machine with an integrated memory. For the first time, you could store text and call it back up on a small display, though the process was somewhat laborious. This was the rather tentative beginning of personalized mass mailing.

The answering machine

It hasn’t quite had its day yet: as voicemail or a mailbox, it has simply got its digital transformation behind it. As a stand-alone device, however, sitting there between the phone and the wall connection, it is now only rarely to be found. But are answering machines for landlines still even used? At home at least – despite the fact that my phone company offers it free of charge – I haven’t used it for years.

Road maps

When I sold my car, I came across a set of road maps from the 70s. They’d been lying unused in the glove compartment for years. Replaced by navigation devices of all shapes and sizes, they probably still have some sort of lonely existence in many cars. And now it occurs to me spontaneously to ask: who still has gloves in their car’s glove compartment?

Videotapes and CDs

They’re probably still lying around in plenty of households. And they’re often pretty useless, because the devices used to access their content are long gone. We’re talking here about videotapes and CDs. Both are now hopelessly outdated, long since replaced by other digital solutions.

Telex and fax

In editorial offices and at estate agents, at least one telex machine clattered away with the incessant arrival of new reports from agencies or new orders.
And the sending of copies via the telephone line – the fax – was a tremendously convenient invention. Only the invention of thermal paper was less successful, with the writing disappearing after a relatively short time, leaving only a beige-white sheet of paper that was then difficult to write on.

Glue sticks and Tipp-Ex

The amount of paper we used to glue together in the office! But try finding a glue stick in an office today – it will not be easy. What would you want it for? Modern word processing is just so much easier. There may well still be typos, but the last Tipp-Ex must be as dry and hard as stone by now. And for the younger generations, this is an office resource that is totally alien to them.