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Advancements in technologies made obsolete before they were perfected IOTL

A borderline case (related to my previous one) - audio amplification.
Valves are arguably similar to vinyl, in that (as you say) OTL is more like what Meadow was musing about in the OP, where there are still people working on refining them today, albeit only for a niche market--whereas one can easily imagine TLs like the one you describe here, where people on the Cybergrid are pondering how good a vinyl record or a thermionic valve one could make with modern methods, but nobody has done it.
 
Schindler’s List , Is Paris Burning and Chimes at Midnight are trash”

-Japhy, 2018
Not what I said.

Well I will say that about Is Paris Burning? But the mastery of the form was achieved decades ago. Hell the greatest efforts that Spielberg pulled off on Schindler are plays of the lightness and the darkness that would be apparent to Orson Welles Howard Hawks or Billy Wilder.
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo-compound_engine

Aircraft piston-engine swan song. Killed by the turboprop, a full-blown turbine not connected to a piston engine. Ironically, turboprops benefited from technological advances made by... turbine-boosted piston engines. Such as P-47 and P-38.
It went this way
- compressors driven by the piston engine itself (Allison V-1710, Merlin, Griffon)
- compressors driven by a turbine, a turbine driven by the piston engine exhaust gases (R-2800, R-3350, R-4360, turbocompound)
- turboprop: turbine connected to a propeller, without a piston engine (Tyne)
- jet engine: gone is the propeller.

Turbocompoud piston-engines are like the last, advanced steam locomotives, or the last ocean liners like France: perfected to near perfection, but nonetheless obsolete, pushed by the wayside by a more advanced, simple technology.
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo-compound_engine

Aircraft piston-engine swan song. Killed by the turboprop, a full-blown turbine not connected to a piston engine. Ironically, turboprops benefited from technological advances made by... turbine-boosted piston engines. Such as P-47 and P-38.
It went this way
- compressors driven by the piston engine itself (Allison V-1710, Merlin, Griffon)
- compressors driven by a turbine, a turbine driven by the piston engine exhaust gases (R-2800, R-3350, R-4360, turbocompound)
- turboprop: turbine connected to a propeller, without a piston engine (Tyne)
- jet engine: gone is the propeller.

Turbocompoud piston-engines are like the last, advanced steam locomotives, or the last ocean liners like France: perfected to near perfection, but nonetheless obsolete, pushed by the wayside by a more advanced, simple technology.

Marshal of the RAF, John Slessor believed that aircraft powered by Turbo-compound engines such as the Napier Nomad would fulfil a vital role for medium speed passenger and freight traffic as aerial tramp steamers in the post war world.

What killed of the Turbo-compound engine (and other large reciprocating engines) was need for specialist fuel supplies at every airport across the globe, and the increased reliability turboprops. Gas Turbines could also be scaled up or down in size for individual aircraft designs rather than having the aircraft be designed for a specific engine.

Another example of technology that was obsolete before it was perfected is Autocylus. It was an ionisation detector used detect diesel emissions from snorkeling submarines and was fitted to Shackleton MPAs. The Mk.II version could not tell the difference fishing trawlers and submarines and would be unserviceable in humid conditions. An improved Mk.III that was to equip the Nimrod that solved these issues, along with protection from electrical interference from the aircraft's systems, was only perfected in the 1960s, when SSNs became the main adversary.
 
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Not what I said.

Well I will say that about Is Paris Burning? But the mastery of the form was achieved decades ago. Hell the greatest efforts that Spielberg pulled off on Schindler are plays of the lightness and the darkness that would be apparent to Orson Welles Howard Hawks or Billy Wilder.

But a non sequitur vis a vis Suleiman. Although I will note that you answered the OP by demonstrating that the format had achieved maturity before replacement, you did not answer Suleiman’s (entirely reasonable given context) assertion that you are considering all black and white films made since the film noir era to be bad.

To more finely ask the question then:

1. Do you believe that good black and white films have been made since the 1950’s, and

2. Do you believe that those films would have been better in color or some other form besides black and white?
 
Another example of technology that was obsolete before it was perfected is Autocylus. It was an ionisation detector used detect diesel emissions from snorkeling submarines and was fitted to Shackleton MPAs. The Mk.II version could not tell the difference fishing trawlers and submarines and would be unserviceable in humid conditions. An improved Mk.III that was to equip the Nimrod that solved these issues, along with protection from electrical interference from the aircraft's systems, was only perfected in the 1960s, when SSNs became the main adversary.

Sniffing the smelly exhaust of a submarine diesel to find it and deep-charge it. Now that's a clever trick (don't try that in Paris, or the thing will instantly burst - thanks to France unabated love for diesel).
But then again that should remain useful to track SSK (that is, non nuclear attack subs ?) Does it work with AIP ?

The technology of biplanes was pretty well refined when it had to give ground to Spitfire or Hurricanes. In fact some of the last biplanes had enclosed cockpit and retractable gear and also V-12 (although none seemed to have had all three of them: Avia 534 had V-12, Gladiator had enclosed cockpit, I-153 had retractable undercarriage). The reason why they lasted for so long was a couple of tactical advantages related to having twice the wing area for the same span: low wing area made them extremely agile and nimble, and also STOL.
During the Spanish civil war, I-153 biplanes kicked the asses of early Me-109s, to the point fascists pilots called them "rats".
And then there was the Beech Staggerwing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beechcraft_Model_17_Staggerwing

Heck, Crazy Ivan even put ramjets on a freakkin' I-153. Imagine an inflated-ego SR-71 saying "ramjets are for speed, and speed is for monoplanes of course" and this one stepping in and saying "screw you"
gydpiehhg5wy.jpg
 
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Heck, Crazy Ivan even put ramjets on a freakkin' I-153. Imagine an inflated-ego SR-71 saying "ramjets are for speed, and speed is for monoplanes of course" and this one stepping in and saying "screw you"

Lord only knows what beautiful insanities the Russians would have committed had Stalin not decided one day that all aircraft designers were involved in a plot to kill him. :cry:
 
nah, Kruschchev (damn name !) did more damage when he decided that future belonged to SAMs and ICBMs and Sputniks. And you thought Duncan Sandys was bad ? Mister K was Sandys cubed.
Did not noted that the propeller was two bladed, like a WWI SPAD.
 
Lord only knows what beautiful insanities the Russians would have committed had Stalin not decided one day that all aircraft designers were involved in a plot to kill him. :cry:

The Antonov A-40 is deeply disturbed by your implication that Russian aircraft design didn't reach peak beautiful insanity IOTL when they strapped wings to a tank.

AntonovA40.jpg
 
The Antonov A-40 is deeply disturbed by your implication that Russian aircraft design didn't reach peak beautiful insanity IOTL when they strapped wings to a tank.

AntonovA40.jpg

What the hell would a single tank have done on the battlefield?! They needed a plane that could carry multiple tanks! And Katyushas! And able to provide massive suppressive fire while everything was being unloaded! And had jet engines to crush capitalism faster!
 
In-Universe example within the Star Trek-verse: Data's positronic brain, which only Soong could replicate, seems less efficient than just making holographic A.I., which can be made far cheaper, and completely by accident, if one isn't too careful.
 
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