Probably 105% of this blog’s readers couldn’t care less about my post, Obscure puzzlement last Thursday. But I don’t care about those readers, just the ones who are interested in the stuff I like. Here is a picture of the item, a 2N404, correctly identified by reader Pete S. I probably soldered a hundred of these transistors onto circuit boards while working on the radar sets on the ship.
The 2N99 is shown here too because it’s the oldest transistor I ever owned. Lots of these oldies were partly handmade, unlike today’s electronics which are cranked out by the trillions on very expensive machines. If you were to try to make a computer out of these as capable as today’s average laptop, it would be bigger than Texas, hotter than the sun, louder than a 747, take all the electricity generated in North America, run slower than molasses, cost an arm and a leg from everyone east of the Mississippi, and break down the instant it is turned on even if it were running Mac OS X.
Glad they didn’t even try.
4 comments:
I like neat old stuff like that. While the transistor has evolved and is still with us, there are other wonderful things of simple but brilliant technology that have passed from the scene: the typewriter, the slide rule, the vernier caliper, and the D'Arsonval galvanometer. OK, maybe the typewriter isn't simple. These used to be ubiquitous and did their jobs well but are now fading from memory. The mechanical wristwatch is making a strong come-back.
My slide rule from high school (rhymes, don’t it?) is still in good shape. My typewriter from early college still works. I never could afford a vernier caliper, and I must have at least two old beat-up D’Arsonval galvanometers. I gave up on my Rolex mechanical watch 45 years ago because it wouldn’t keep time. I bought one of the very first Swiss quartz mechanical watches, which still works superbly.
Years ago I read an article about how much a fancy Swiss mechanical watch movement costs. About $150 average. It gets put in a gold case and sells for $5,000 and up. Way up. The case costs about $150 also. Woof!
I noticed people are starting to use typewriters over here again - they are cheaper than PCs and laptops and people are starting to remember that.
As hard as I try, my old typewriter refuses to send or receive email.
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