I've collected things like the samples below from Carboot sales and antique and collectors fairs, mostly at bargain prices
(the Bush radio below was £45).  These are just a few of the items I use daily, from a long gone era when home appliances
were made to last - Not much today will still be working in 50 years time.
I also have a few Bakelite telephones (from the early 50's -working and plugged in)
Several valve (tube) radios - Bakelite and wooden, the earliest is a 1930's Marconi,
together with a large collection of oil lamps, from normal wick lamps to the Alladdin mantle lamps.
I love the old Tilley/Primus/Optimus pressure cookers and lanterns, of which I have several including
a massive (3ft? high approx.) Tilley floodlight projector, which has a 1/4 mile beam, and several Tilley Radiators -
parafin powered pressure heaters where instead of a conventional light mantle there is an asbestos or metal mantle
that heats and radiates via a shiny metal dish.

1950's Bush DAC 90 Valve radio

together with a later Bush portable transistor radio

1950's Sunbeam mixer

a 1940's GEC "butterfly" toaster

I must have 20 odd Aladdin model 23 and similar

A couple of early fans - A Limit and a Frost

Not forgetting my trusty old Smiths Alarm from the late '40's I believe?
It still wakes me of a morning!

Click here to see some Tilley and other parafin powered items
 

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