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  • TV programme with Ian MacNaught Davies - teams identify old technology

    From NY@21:1/5 to All on Sun Aug 6 12:08:51 2023
    XPost: uk.diy

    Does this ring any bells...

    A TV quiz programme, probably from the 1980s or 1990s, in which teams of
    TV personalities often with a scientific or engineering background (eg Tomorrow's World presenters) were given obscure objects to "play" with
    and identify. These were often early versions of technology which is commonplace today. Ian MacNaught Davies was either the quizmaster or
    else a regular on one of the teams.

    I remember one of the device was a *manual* photocopier. It used
    xerography just like a modern photocopier or laser printer, but all the
    stages had to be carried out by hand: charge a photo-sensitive plate by
    waving a charged wand over it, expose the plate to a reflection of the document, dip it in a tray of toner, place it on a sheet of paper, fuse
    the toner to the paper by waving a hot wand over it. They said that a
    skilled operator could make a copy every (I think) 30 seconds.

    Now what was the programme called?

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  • From Brian Gaff@21:1/5 to All on Mon Aug 7 09:39:05 2023
    XPost: uk.diy

    I sort of remember it, but there was another show that was the visual
    version of Call my Bluff, where a panel had to judge what things were as
    there were three possible uses suggested by celebs for each one. Was this
    the one you are thinking of, or another one.
    Brian

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    "NY" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message news:E0qdnU8Mwtre4lL5nZ2dnZfqnPadnZ2d@brightview.co.uk...
    Does this ring any bells...

    A TV quiz programme, probably from the 1980s or 1990s, in which teams of
    TV personalities often with a scientific or engineering background (eg Tomorrow's World presenters) were given obscure objects to "play" with and identify. These were often early versions of technology which is
    commonplace today. Ian MacNaught Davies was either the quizmaster or else
    a regular on one of the teams.

    I remember one of the device was a *manual* photocopier. It used
    xerography just like a modern photocopier or laser printer, but all the stages had to be carried out by hand: charge a photo-sensitive plate by waving a charged wand over it, expose the plate to a reflection of the document, dip it in a tray of toner, place it on a sheet of paper, fuse
    the toner to the paper by waving a hot wand over it. They said that a
    skilled operator could make a copy every (I think) 30 seconds.

    Now what was the programme called?

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  • From MB@21:1/5 to Brian Gaff on Tue Aug 8 08:07:39 2023
    XPost: uk.diy

    On 07/08/2023 09:39, Brian Gaff wrote:
    I sort of remember it, but there was another show that was the visual
    version of Call my Bluff, where a panel had to judge what things were as there were three possible uses suggested by celebs for each one. Was
    this the one you are thinking of, or another one. Brian



    Around Summer 1989 he chaired "It's Patently Obvious" on BBC1 which was described as the "egg-head guessing game"


    https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0/20?q=It%27s+Patently+Obvious#top

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