Technologies Introduced On Programme
In many cases the show offered the British public its first chance to see key technologies that subsequently became commonplace, notably:
- The Breathalyser (1967)
- The ATM (1969)
- The pocket calculator (1971)
- The digital watch (1972)
- Teletext (Ceefax) (1975)
- The personal stereo (1980)
- The compact disc and player (1981)
- The camcorder (1981)
- Barcode reader (1983)
- Radio Automation, pioneered on Pirate FM 102 (1992)
- Clockwork radio (1993)
- Robotic vacuum cleaner, pioneered on Electrolux Trilobite prototype (1996)
Perhaps the best-remembered item in the programme's history was the introduction of the compact disc in 1981, when presenter Kieran Prendiville demonstrated the disc's supposed indestructibility by spreading strawberry jam on a Bee Gees CD. The show also gave the first British TV exposure to the group Kraftwerk, who performed their then-forthcoming single "Autobahn" as part of an item about the use of technology in musicmaking. Another programme concerning new technology for television and stage lighting featured The Tremeloes and the Syd Barrett-led Pink Floyd.
Read more about this topic: Tomorrow's World
Famous quotes containing the words introduced and/or programme:
“Young women ... you are, in my opinion, disgracefully ignorant. You have never made a discovery of any sort of importance. You have never shaken an empire or led an army into battle. The plays by Shakespeare are not by you, and you have never introduced a barbarous race to the blessings of civilization. What is your excuse?”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“The idealist’s programme of political or economic reform may be impracticable, absurd, demonstrably ridiculous; but it can never be successfully opposed merely by pointing out that this is the case. A negative opposition cannot be wholly effectual: there must be a competing idealism; something must be offered that is not only less objectionable but more desirable.”
—Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929)