Answers on a postcard please...

Another weekend goes by and one of my favourite sellers at the flea market had a few items from a late tinkerer called Bob. It seemed that Bob was always playing around with electrical stuff and for just a few dollars, some oddities came into my possession, with no intended purpose besides curiosity. 

It seems that Bob liked to work with wood as well, basically "bread boards" for his electrical projects which is where a lot of circuits were tested out in the early days, then in the 1960s solderless breadboards, like the ACE 200k unit shown in the photo, became a lot more convenient for learning the hobby and testing out hair brained schemes.

A couple of DC motors, the little one has a pulley on it, the bigger one has a propeller and some good quality alligator clips. The other thing of interest is the over designed bank of resistors. It is a fact that once you start collecting resistors it becomes strangely addictive, difficult to resist. I like these ones, they will look good in the collection. I like sausages as well, although they are quite difficult to collect.

There were some other things too, a few solar panels and a nice tool box for my soldering kit, a whole bunch of things that I am hoping will keep me busy in the fall and winter, although I suppose solar panels will be of little use in the shorter days but here, now that summer has arrived, there is no urge whatsoever to sit at my bench fiddling with resistors and light bulbs, but that will change.

The sun is shining and the garden calls, I will do some painting today, and the things that once belonged to Bob will wait their turn until later in the year, although I may put some voltage on that ACE circuit to see what those three LEDs are supposed to be doing, perhaps that will be the subject of the next blog.