Oldest thing you have came across.

I was sitting here and just thought gee I am only 18 and I have came across a few things but I wonder who else found something that has been in the industry longer then I have found. There are so many things that people could list off but I am talking anything from scrap clean ups to ewaste. Would love to see some pictures!! Just curious and love to hear a few stories (pics or not)

It might be a forum glitch but I coulda sworn I saw farrarrecycling post this about a second ago. No matter, I don't have any images but the oldest thing i've come across was an IBM 286 that my home town had set up as a weather station for the weather channel. I just happened to be there when the guy was updating the system over from a 286 desktop to a dx2 tower and asked him for it. Was surprised he gave it to me with how most people are with stuff. This was back probably 18/19 years ago in 1997 when I was toying around the idea of dismantling electronics for their parts and thought I was the only one doing it lol.

You saw correctly haha. I accidently posted under his account and felt really numb after that. So I scurried to try and delete it with no success so yeah. I got it fixed now haha. So you did that the year I was born in. Its hard to come by them computers now a days even I know that.. haha

oh yes - it wasn't that long ago that NASA upgraded all their systems on the space shuttles from 386s to dx2s that still run dos. I'm sure there are others on the board that have found older and odder things then me.

The oldest was also perhaps the hardest thing I ever scrapped. A 100+ old piano. I first had a piano person look at it, she told me a lot about it, most important information, was in her opinion, the old upright piano could not be restored. I did the piano demo, surgically because I wanted to save as much wood as I could. The wood was old-wood, tight grains that is hard to find these days. There was only three original "Ivory" keys, the rest had been replaced with plastic keys. I was surprised and as a coin collector, very happy about the amount of old US coins that were inside this old piano. This piano breakdown was not easy, the metals counting the coins: Silver, Copper, Brass, Steel, Cast Iron, with some nice old wood and a little Ivory too!

I really couldn't say what the oldest thing I've come across is, because much of the scrap I get I dig up, and there's lots of pipe and such that's been in the ground a good while, probably a hundred years or more in some cases.

One old thing, non scrap, I did come across, which any scrapper that uses an oxy/gas torch will appreciate, was an oxygen tank. As you may know, they get stamped with the dates at which they need to be re-tested.



I highlighted the dates with chalk, to show up better in the picture.

Yes, you're seeing it correctly--the earliest date stamped on there is January of 1917.

I really hated to turn that one back in once I'd emptied it...

Not scrap but some old leather bound books, The oldest circa 1842. It's a non-fiction, a British officer surveying Canada.
But I placed them somewhere and now can't find.

Originally Posted by nutpie

Not scrap but some old leather bound books, The oldest circa 1842. It's a non-fiction, a British officer surveying Canada.
But I placed them somewhere and now can't find.

Is that book called 'The search for the magnetic north'? Or something like that? I have a copy at home but it buried under motherboards at the moment.
'levay' might be the name of the writer (sp?)
It mentions cannabilism in the wild north a few times near the start of the book.

If its the book I'm thinking of, its one of the best books I have ever read. And its also just a condensed version of what he wrote, as his actual diarys were burnt when the shed they were in caught fire.

I will have another look tonight.

Originally Posted by eesakiwi

Is that book called 'The search for the magnetic north'? Or something like that? I have a copy at home but it buried under motherboards at the moment.
'levay' might be the name of the writer (sp?)
It mentions cannabilism in the wild north a few times near the start of the book.

If its the book I'm thinking of, its one of the best books I have ever read. And its also just a condensed version of what he wrote, as his actual diarys were burnt when the shed they were in caught fire.

I will have another look tonight.

No, I don't think so. That specific book, I don't think it was widely published. It was more like a journal of a frontiersman/surveyer. I don't think it was a book meant for entertainment. But there were some other books. Maybe one of them? I just don't know where I put them.

Any time I look in a mirror

I have some coins from the 1700s to 1920s

1920 radio that still works .