Monday, September 24, 2012

Another Historic Milestone in Human Civilization is Crossed

It was reported in the media on March 13, 2012 that the last printed edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica has been printed. A milestone to be recorded along side that of the ending of the publication of the logarithmic tables in the CRC Handbook and the use of the slide rule, to mention a few of the other milestones of civilization. The Encyclopaedia Britannica has been printed continuously since it was first published in Edinburgh Scottland in 1768.

I remember, sometime in the early '70s when you could finally purchase a calculator to compute a logarithm with a device of smaller volume than the section of tables consumed within the CRC Handbook.
Other milestones that have been passed:
Dialing a rotary telephone
Using a floppy disc
Use of the typewriter or carbon paper
Photography based upon developing silver emulsion film
Elimination of ice to cool refrigerators
The elimination of the telephone book as a means of finding a residential phone number.
Elimination of the cord on a residential telephone line

Other looming milestones are:
elimination of the phone booth
the ebook replacement of the paper book
the mobil phone replacement of the residential phone line.

If you have some others you would like to add to this list please add some of your own.

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