Lessons from an adaptor

I absolutely love the adaptor above. Whilst simple, plastic and cheap. This adaptor represents much more. No not just the “good ‘ol times” listening to my favorite songs; but an important lesson on technology, people and life in general.

First, if you don’t know what this item does let me explain.

It is a cassette tape to headphone jack adaptor, with an iPhone lighting adaptor attached. Essentially connecting a cassette player to a lighting input 🚗 🔌 📲

The options for music in my parents older car are between the radio and the cassette player. Quickly, mp3s, iPods, smart phones and music streaming services were introduced to the world, and we needed better ways to get our music to vibrate through the car speakers.

This adaptor was the answers ✅ and I began to wonder how and why the cheapest and well functioning solutions was a series of cables that connect technology from the late 1920s to smartphones of 2019.

How

Cassette tapes

Magnetic tapes or cassette tape are old and astoundingly complex for their time. The concept of magnetic data storage was proved in 1928 by a German-Austrian scientist.

In 1927, after experimenting with various materials, Pfleumer used very thin paper which he coated with iron oxide…