Retro Tech: Kodak Carousel

Kodak Carousel

In series one of the television drama Mad Men, the advertising executives make a brilliantly over-the-top pitch to Kodak, which is launching its new projector.

‘It’s a time machine,’ Don Draper says. ‘It takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It’s not called the wheel.’ Dramatic pause. ‘It’s called the Carousel.’

All that for looking at holiday snaps.

Kodak had been making slide projectors since the 1930s, but the 1962 Carousel was the first that allowed slides (20, 36, 80 or 140) to be shown consecutively – all by remote control.

Thanks to the rise of PowerPoint and digital projectors, however, these devices have rather fallen out of favour; in 2004 Kodak stopped making the Carousel.

Posted on September 26, 2009 | Filed Under Tech