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From: larry@kitty.UUCP (Larry Lippman)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Old-fart electronics quiz (long)
Message-ID: <1911@kitty.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 6-Aug-87 23:47:02 EDT
Article-I.D.: kitty.1911
Posted: Thu Aug  6 23:47:02 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 8-Aug-87 15:07:32 EDT
References: <19929@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <1901@kitty.UUCP> <504@nitrex.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: Recognition Research Corp., Clarence, NY
Lines: 40
Summary: More electronics nostalgia...

In article <504@nitrex.UUCP>, rbl@nitrex.UUCP ( Dr. Robin Lake ) writes:
> > I still have a box of 2N255s somewhere in storage.

	I just looked in my storage building to see if mine were still
there.  Yup!  They were made by Sylvania, have a black top, and the copper
is VERY tarnished.

> How many netters still have the devices mentioned in their parts box?
> My parts box was purchased at the ORGINAL Radio Shack store on Washington
> St. in Boston (now somewhere under City Hall) 31 years ago.  Little
> changed since then, I can find at least 10 of the named devices well-
> organized in the little drawers!

	Anyone remember the "junk" sold by Olson Electronics during the
50's and early 60's?  I can recall them selling "modular" vacuum tube
assemblies from IBM computers in the early 60's.  With some hindsight,
this stuff was probably from IBM 709's.  Later in the 60's they were
selling small IBM printed circuit boards with transistors, probably
removed from 1401's and similar early solid-state machines.
	I don't know if Olson Electronics is still in business; their
last store in the Buffalo, NY area closed a few years ago.

> P.S.  Does anyone have an "01A" vacuum tube?  I need one for a vintage
> vacuum-tube voltmeter.

	Vintage VTVM...  Lemme guess: it's either a General Radio (with
the sloping panel, copper-lined wood case, and bakelite "probe") or a
Ballantine (big, black and ugly).  I had both of these gadgets as a kid,
but alas trashed them before I was old enough to appreciate "nostalgia".

	Here's a real test of nostalgia: anyone remember acorn-shaped
bias batteries?  During the early 60's I acquired two pieces of WW II
vintage test equipment (a Ferris Instruments RF field-strength meter and
a General Radio variable frequency detector) which used them, but by then
these batteries were quite obsolete.

<>  Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp., Clarence, New York
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