Sunday, June 2, 2013

Here's looking at you, kid: some old-timey optical viewers seen along the way

This one is Plymouth, Massachusetts...

 ...as is this one.

 Montauk, Long Island, New York


 Hamonasset Beach, Madison, Connecticut

 San Francisco

 Niagara Falls

 This is a cool alternative viewer, also at Niagara Falls, that kinda reminded me of...

 ...Wall-E.

This one from Gloucester, Massachusetts is my all-time favorite.

You know you're at a truly awesome tourist location when they have one of those great old-time optical viewers from the Tower Optical Company. They've been making these binocular viewers since 1932 and the company is still going strong. I love how these machines have kept their sci-fi-of-the-past look they've had ever since I was a kid. Anyone got a quarter?

2 comments:

Mod Betty / RetroRoadmap.com said...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who loves these things! (But am I the only one who calls that beach"Ham-and-Egg-set - ?! ;-))

Roadtrip62 - Don Milne said...

Nice gallery of these viewers. There's another good one at Colton Point State Park (Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania), near Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. I remember as a kid trying to split one quarter's worth of time among 5 of us...wasn't easy.