rjenkins
New in Town
- Messages
- 26
- Location
- Sheffileld, England
I've been an electronics nut near enough all my life, and my parents were avid antiques collectors.
Naturally the two interests crossed and I developed quite an interest in early electronics.
I had to get rid of a lot when my parents died, but these are a couple of smaller items I kept hold of at the time:
A 'Minifon' pocket size wire recorder. It's just 4 inches wide.
This is a valve (tube) device, it used a 30V battery plus a 1.5V battery for the electronics, plus a 12V battery for the motor. It worked perfectly, though I never found the correct size 12V battery.
(I sold it around 2003).
This is a bit bigger, a 'Recordon' dictaphone which uses coated paper discs as the recording media. It has a magnetic head in the tip of the arm, and a needle which runs in the bakelite scroll disc. The knob on the arm 'knee' adjusts the offset of the needle to match the tracking to any disc.
The discs even have fold marks printed on so they can easily be sent through the post!
I've still got this one, it was still working fine the last time I tried it (some years ago). The microphone socket was shattered when I acquired it, hence the the five pin din. I've since got the correct four pin socket but not fitted it.
The scratches on the lid are quite minor & nothing like that obvious in normal lighting, but that image was the best to show the grain of the bakelite.
I still have a few other oddments, such as coils for crystal sets and some four pin valves, but a lot of the nicer items had to go due to lack of space at the time.
Examples were a working PDP-8i computer with ASR33 teletype and a Wurlitzer jukebox originally built to take 78 RPM records.
That had been 'upgraded' at some time to work with 45 RPM singles, and had two gilded wood and chrome remote wall boxes that took 'threepenny bit' coins.
It was the same 12 disc mechanism used in the dome top cases, but in a plain case to work with the remote units.
Naturally the two interests crossed and I developed quite an interest in early electronics.
I had to get rid of a lot when my parents died, but these are a couple of smaller items I kept hold of at the time:
A 'Minifon' pocket size wire recorder. It's just 4 inches wide.
This is a valve (tube) device, it used a 30V battery plus a 1.5V battery for the electronics, plus a 12V battery for the motor. It worked perfectly, though I never found the correct size 12V battery.
(I sold it around 2003).
This is a bit bigger, a 'Recordon' dictaphone which uses coated paper discs as the recording media. It has a magnetic head in the tip of the arm, and a needle which runs in the bakelite scroll disc. The knob on the arm 'knee' adjusts the offset of the needle to match the tracking to any disc.
The discs even have fold marks printed on so they can easily be sent through the post!
I've still got this one, it was still working fine the last time I tried it (some years ago). The microphone socket was shattered when I acquired it, hence the the five pin din. I've since got the correct four pin socket but not fitted it.
The scratches on the lid are quite minor & nothing like that obvious in normal lighting, but that image was the best to show the grain of the bakelite.
I still have a few other oddments, such as coils for crystal sets and some four pin valves, but a lot of the nicer items had to go due to lack of space at the time.
Examples were a working PDP-8i computer with ASR33 teletype and a Wurlitzer jukebox originally built to take 78 RPM records.
That had been 'upgraded' at some time to work with 45 RPM singles, and had two gilded wood and chrome remote wall boxes that took 'threepenny bit' coins.
It was the same 12 disc mechanism used in the dome top cases, but in a plain case to work with the remote units.
