Why should a transistor radio from 1954 be causing a buzz online? Could it be part of a realisation that, amid talk of invention, no novelty is completely new?

The Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes has a few words to say about novelty, fashion and innovation.

"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be: And that which is done is that which shall be done: And there is no new thing under the sun."

The Regency TR-1 transistor radio, made in 1954, had a decent claim to be a genuine piece of innovation, however. It was, by popular agreement, the world's first commercially sold transistor pocket radio.

Small enough to hold in your hand, and powered by batteries, it came in a variety of delicious colours, including green, pearlescent blue, lavender, white and red