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 …
Category Archives: engineering
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, …
Bullshit baffles brains?
The new job is going reasonably well, I’m not sure that I’m over-keen at being introduced to people as the solution to all their troubles, but I hope I can be useful. Tomorrow I have to entertain, persuade and divert some industrial partner visitors. Progress on the project they are coming to see is pretty …
CatCam
I’ve often wondered just what my cats get up to when they shoot out of the house in the morning heading for parts local, but unknown. I’ve pondered fitting them out with a camera to capture their day, but never done more then ponder it. A chap in America has taken the idea and made …
Engineering I approve of
Are you bored? Then why not make a Thermic Lance out of tin-foil and spaghetti? Go on, you know you want to.