FW: incand lamps debate [wasRe: [LINK] Here's one that will snaga few]

[Eleanor Lister]

Adam Todd wrote:
> At 02:10 PM 23/02/2007, Eleanor Lister wrote:
>> >> The most basic and comreghensive example of all time, is the CRYSTAL
>> >> RADIO!
>> >
>> > Ahh, happy childhood memories.  My first radio was a BTH [1] crystal
>> > set in a beaut wooden case with *two* galena crystals and cats
>> > whiskers just in case one went "off".  I remember my father modding it
>> > by replacing one of the crystals with some gizmo that was war surplus
>> > from radars, called a *diode*, encapsulated in a glass tube.  :)
>> >
>> > [1] British Thompson-Houston
>> >
>> i learned to make crystal radios with the following ingredients:
>>
>> - a piece of wire tied to a water pipe
>> - the carbon rod out of a torch battery
>> - a razor blade
>> - a cheap earpiece
>> - another piece of wire sticky taped to my bedroom wall
>
> You will have to explain that one to me!  There are two critical
> components missing from where I sit!
omg, that was far too many years ago, but i think the aerial connected
to the razor blade, which sat sharp edged on the carbon rod, and acted
as a tuner.

racking my tired old porridge, i have a vague recollection of
cannibalising any electronics i could find to use the transistors as
diodes, and winding a coil on an empty toilet roll, but i also have a
vague memory of simplifying it even further.

sorry, not sure how it all worked.

regards,
    EL

------------
Eleanor Ashley Lister
South Sydney Greens
http://ssg.nsw.greens.org.au
webmistress at ssg.nsw.greens.org.au