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KB2VXA > TODAY 16.07.15 13:58l 42 Lines 2255 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 6949_VK6ZRT
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Subj: Re: N0KFQ > Today Jul 15
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Sent: 150716/1127Z @:VK6ZRT.#BUN.#WA.AUS.OC #:6949 [Boyanup] $:6949_VK6ZRT
From: KB2VXA@VK6ZRT.#BUN.#WA.AUS.OC
To : TODAY@WW
Ah, another one up close and personal. Near the end mention was made of the
Ford Model T very close to home and the beginning of a lifelong hobby that
grew into a career in electronics. Already off to a shaky start I was wiring
small lamps, switches and batteries using cardboard as a chassis when I found
treasure at the library, Things A Boy Can Do With Electricity published in
the 1920s. I'm not that old, it was one of their newer books. (;->) There it
was, HIGH VOLTAGE in the form of a Model T spark coil! It drove various
tubes, class demonstrators of cathode rays, electrons, and Geissler tubes,
forerunners of neon, these came later. Lucky me, an uncle was restoring a
Model T flatbed truck, there was my spark coil. Down at the hardware store
was the biggest 6V lantern battery I'd ever seen, PERFECT. Having become
somewhat proficient at soldering I solved the problem of connecting Fanstock
wire clips to the copper disc contacts and I was on my way. BTW, later came a
15KV neon sign transformer that saved the expense of batteries but just a bit
too much for one of my Geissler tubes given by another uncle, the end
electrodes wilted but it still worked.
Yep, I was on my way alright, high voltage BITES. That was when I started
accumulating electrons, eventually enough to qualify as a cation and
sufficient charge lightning was afraid of me. Time passes, charge dissipates,
now it's wise I take shelter in a thunderstorm.
Oh and BTW, the full nickname of the Model T is Tin Lizzie and sometimes
Flivver after the box that held 4 spark coils. I forget the name of the
device that fed battery power firing them sequentially, Google is your
friend. Later came Kettering and the familiar distributor, the system that
lasted all those decades until those infernal computers came along retiring
the Saturday driveway mechanic, me.
"New Jersey, the most American of all states. It has everything from
wilderness to the Mafia. All the great things and all the worst,
like Route 22."
Jean Shepherd K2ORS (SK) & WOR radio personality
73 de Warren
Station powered by JCP&L atomic energy, operator powered by natural gas.
Message timed by NIST: 16-Jul-2015 at 11:27 GMT
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