Great bits of vintage kit

[ppppenguin]

Here's a thread for great bits of vintage kit that don't fall neatly into our main interests. I'll start with this canary revivier:

http://www.openculture.com/2018/05/the-d...-1896.html

[Nick]

I've always loved "Acoustic radar" - used for aircraft early warning - the photos are from Doug Self's (*) "Museum of RetoTechnology" 
           

(*) For those that don't know, Doug Self is one of the giants of audio engineering - an engineer through & through, he abhors audio-phoolery and has produced many wonderful designs, including the famed "Blameless amplifiers" - he's also a great writer - if you're into designing really fine amplifiers, they're a must-have.

[ppppenguin]

Doug Self has covered the field rather well.

Acoustic radar never worked very well, even with the best of kit. But until we had real radar it was the best we had for locating otherwise invisible aircraft. That and observers with binoculars. Our original Chain Home radar had a decidedly improvised look about it, but it worked and it worked in time for when it was most needed. The Battle of Britain would have been lost without it. The Germans had no idea what those tall masts were for. They had no idea that such low frequencies could be used for radar.

Chain Home was an excellent engineering example of "we want it working and we want it yesterday". It was expensive and far fromt he best possible solution but it did the job well enough and was worth every penny. Part of the reason it worked is that we had a large pool of skilled radio amateurs who made good radar technicains. By contrast the Nazis had banned amateur radio so had no such skilled reserve. The corollary is that their radar systems were rather better engineered than ours. Their "Wurzburg" radars were superb bits of engineering, later to be used in radio astronomy after the war.

[Nick]

Wasn't the propaganda story to explain why the RAF shot down so many German aircraft at night that the pilots ate lots of carrots...

Nothing to do with radar of course !!

Thus was the myth frequently repeated to small children who won't eat their veg born...

[Murphyv310]

How about this.
https://youtu.be/J7SV65DFNy8

[Amrad]

Hello Nick.

'veg born' What's that??

Regards,

Dave.

[Nick]

'veg born' What's that??

It's "use of English". Consider: Thus was the myth (frequently repeated to small children who won't eat their veg) born.

[Terry]

Wasn't the propaganda story to explain why the RAF shot down so many German aircraft at night that the pilots ate lots of carrots...

Thus "Cat's Eyes" Cunningham
.

"The captions read that his eyesight was so exceptional it allowed him to see in the dark with the same visually ability as a domestic cat. It was also said that his diet of carrots provided him with vitamin A which allowed him to maintain excellent night-vision."

[Nick]

To be honest, my favorite was always the Turbo Encabulator...

[radioman]

Fire up the gramophone :-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV5-s3b_0S0