I was hoping to be spending this week at 24C3. It hasn’t worked out. A shame, as it looks like fun. Next year.
Monthly Archives: December 2007
Sixty today
On on Dec. 16, 1947 – sixty years ago today – the world’s first transistor was constructed and tested at Bell Labs, New Jersey, USA. Those responsible for the device were William Shockley, the theorist and John Bardeen and Walter Brattain who actually constructed the first one. What started life as a heap of precariously …
Lost Dagenham
Another image from the archives this week: Clay Cottages of Marston Avenue. You won’t find them there now though, these last two were demolished in 1962, razed to make room for garages. These particular cottages were around 500 years old – some of the oldest dwelling places in Essex. They originally had no first floor, …
High-voltage coincidence
I’m in need of a high-voltage, low current DC power supply temporarily for an experiment in the lab, prices for these from the usual suppliers run into the hundreds of pounds. Given that all (all but the very best ones anyway) they consist of is a string of diodes and capacitors in a Cockcroft-Walton configuration, …