Miscellaneous Miscellaneous
Far superior to Windows, this number cruncher never crashes.
Memories of the Cold War. People actually believed that if you build a shelter, you can live down there until the radiation goes away, then come out again. Right.
Here's the plans for the shelter, and a bottle of vintage 1961 water. It was only about two years ago that we threw away the bottled sugar and the hash brown potatos.
Dad built a geiger counter back around 1957, using a new electronic device called a "transistor".
The AAA flashlight battery on the right powered the transistor amplifier.
The large capacitor on the left, and the transformer was the high voltage power supply.
This unit used a spark gap rectifier. It's a very simple arrangement which works fine, as long as the gap is carefully adjusted. The microswitch is pressed repeatedly to operate the supply. When the switch contacts make, a AA penlight cell (removed, because after 50 years, they start to leak) sets up a magnetic field which builds up rather slowly, and produces a small pulse in the secondary. When the contacts break, the field collapses rapidly, and produces a large pulse in the opposite polarity. This is the only time that the potential is able to jump the gap, and the capacitor charges up.
When I was stationed in Germany, the only TV I had was an old GE "M" chassis set. I got it cheap because it had a shorted filter cap, which was an easy fix for me. The set was VHF only, and the only channel I could get was in East Germany. Their programming was amazing, even for 1972. They were at least 10 years behind the US.
I later bought a new TV so I could pick up the local stuff. All of the TV networks are government run, and the quality was outstanding - I never saw 'technical difficulty' of any kind.
The network I watched most was ZDF - Zweites Deutsches Fernseh (Second German Channel). Most of the American shows were dubbed into German - I Dream Of Jeannie, Eddie's Father, Raumschiff Enterprise (Star Trek), Laurel & Hardy, and many others. Movies were mostly dubbed "Manner Moschen Heiss" (Some Like It Hot), but a few were subtitled German with the English audio.
The commercials were set up nicely. Instead of butting in the shows, you could watch about 3 hours uninterrupted, followed by a block of 15 minutes of commercials. Long enough to get a lot of snack food ready.
Between each commercial, the Heinzelmannchen (shown above) would appear in a cartoon clip. At the end of the commercial block, they'd come back and do a one or two minute cartoon. One night they did a whirlwind trip around the world - eating French bread at the Eiffel Tower, doing a Russian dance in Moscow, or doing a bullfight in Madrid. When they got to America, they danced around a teepee singing "Yankee Doodle".
German TV was totally uncensored, especially late night. They had their own version of Sesame Street (Sesamstrasse), which had scenes that just couldn't be shown here.
Here are some eye-catching Halloween decorations that aren't that hard to build. Start out with a sheet of Masonite, and draw an outline of a character or object. Drill LOTS of holes along the outline at one inch intervals. Paint It Black. Press Christmas lights into the holes.
I have had lots of people slow down to look at these things.
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