Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!rochester!rutgers!ucla-cs!zen!ucbvax!zion.berkeley.edu!max
From: max@zion.berkeley.edu (Max Hauser)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Old-fart electronics quiz (long)
Message-ID: <19930@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Sun, 2-Aug-87 13:50:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.19930
Posted: Sun Aug  2 13:50:43 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 2-Aug-87 22:01:31 EDT
References: <19929@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <1901@kitty.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: max@eros.berkeley.edu (Max Hauser)
Distribution: na
Organization: U.C. Berkeley
Lines: 40

As expected, Larry here put my quiz to shame.

In article <1901@kitty.UUCP> larry@kitty.UUCP (Larry Lippman) writes:
>
>	You forgot the 2N35 (probably the first, most common germanium PNP
>signal transistor) and the 2N255 (a very early and popular germanium PNP
>power transistor in TO-3 package).  

Well, actually I didn't forget them, but one has to draw the line 
somewhere. I still have a box of 2N255s somewhere in storage.
They burnt out easily, as I remember...

>> 13. What is a thyratron? a magic-eye tube? a compactron?
>
>	Don't forget the ignitron, skiatron, and carcinotron (probably
>the most unusual name for a vacuum tube)...

I omitted the ignitron on purpose, since it is not all that archaic
(it's still heavily used, in power work), but I have never
heard of the others! I did warn that it was mostly a solid-state quiz.

>> 24. What is a couplate? a micromodule? the difference between
>> thin-film and thick-film hybrid circuits?
>
>	Don't forget "cordwood stacking"...

Good point, that was a serious omission. What age does to the memory...

One more thing -- some people collect old radios; I collect old op 
amps. I have mint Philbrick K2 series amps going back to the
mid-1950s, with Airpax choppers and 12AX7s. Sometimes I give a talk
on op-amp evolution to EECS undergrads. I use FETs in the tube 
schematics for clarity, of course, but you should see the eyes 
pop at the sight of +- 300V DC power rails.

Max Hauser, UC Berkeley EECS Department

   UUCP: ...{!decvax}!ucbvax!eros!max
   Internet (old style): max%eros@berkeley
   Internet (domain style): max@eros.berkeley.edu