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From: francis@cs.ua.oz.au (Francis Vaughan)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics,sci.chem
Subject: Re: Has anyone made any homemade valves (tubes), semiconductors ...
Message-ID: <1259@sirius.ucs.adelaide.edu.au>
Date: 1 Aug 90 11:16:39 GMT
References: <872@massey.ac.nz> <972@flash.UUCP> <1990Aug1.023331.20141@loft386.uucp> <1990Aug1.081830.15979@mlb.semi.harris.com>
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In article <1990Aug1.081830.15979@mlb.semi.harris.com>,
del@thrush.mlb.semi.harris.com (Don Lewis) writes:
|> 
|> I seem to recall reading "The Boy Electrician" by the same author many
|> years ago.  It had lots of plans for spark coils and tesla coils, told
|> how to use X-ray tubes :-O, etc.  He also had some more recent books
|> on how to build things intercoms and audio amps (5 watts, wow!).

This was one of the all time great books in my opinion. What a book! I
buit a few things from this book, (the Tesla coil being my favorite). 
The recent books were not nearly as good (not written by J W Simms, but
someone cashing in on the success of the older books).

Some of the projects were frightening in the level of danger. One
chapter describes how to recharge secondary cells from the DC mains.
(This WAS written a while ago.) How do you tell if it is DC? Stick
the wires in a grass of water, is one wire bubbles twice as much as
the other you know it is DC, and you also know the polarity! The
stuff and X-Rays also totally ignorant of the dangers. He suggests
that an X-Ray tube can be purchasd for 5 shillings!

It aslo described how to build your own primary and secondary cells
(carbon zinc and lead acid). These were not toy projects, but intended
as replacments for commercial products. A complete description of 
a telephone to build, motors AC and DC, morse code stuff. Absolutely
fascinating stuff. 

						Francis Vaughan