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From: baker@wbc.dec.com
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: RE: Homemade tubes, semiconductors, etc...
Message-ID: <1814@mountn.dec.com>
Date: 2 Aug 90 17:34:47 GMT
Sender: news@mountn.dec.com
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Lines: 24


	[Line eaters ?!? What line ea

	A LOOOOONNNNNNGGGGGGGGG time ago, there was an article in
	Popular Electronics on making wet-cell diodes using a vat
	of sodium borate and water with two electrodes in it, one
	copper and the other aluminum.  The idea was to connect a
	6.3 V filament transformer across the electrodes for awhile;
	the AC would cause a coating (which the article described as a
	"semiconducter film") to form on the electrodes.  After
	disconnecting the AC source, you could measure a sizeable
	difference in current flow through the cell, depending on
	whether the copper or the aluminum electrode was connected
	to positive.  Unfortunately, the forward resistance was
	real high, so this thing didn't have a lot of pratical value.

	The article appeared sometime in '64 or '65...

	Now maybe with three electrodes, and a big enough cell, you
	could build a power transistor; or maybe an SCR in your
	bathtub, yeah, yeah, that's it...

	-Art Baker
	(All the usual disclaimers...)