Don Pearce wrote:
On Sat, 3 Nov 2007 20:08:43 -0000, "Fleetie"
wrote:

"Ian Thompson-Bell" wrote
I remember when I first got into transistors in the 60s that Practical Wireless in the UK had a series of articles for
transistor based receivers that were built on a piece of wooud. You used wood screws with copper washers to connect things
together. worked great.

Ian
Indeed so. When I was _very_ young (maybe 9 or 10), my first
electronics book was (literally and honestly) a LADYBIRD book,
written by some Rev. (spit) someone-or-other, IIRC. Anyway, it
described various simple transistor circuits, for example,
an astable multivibrator "flip-flop", wherein 2 small MES bulbs
would flash on and off in opposition.

The circuits were suggested to be assembled on small wooden boards,
with those wood screws and screw-cap-things that go between the
screw head and the wood. I forget what they're called. Anyway,
I was lucky in that my Dad gave me a proper "modern" breadboard to use.

The transistors used in the book, and by me, were germanium PNP AC128 types.
With long bendy wires on them and a red dot to indicate the emitter
(again, IIRC). EBC.


Very nearly - it was the collector back then. Were they the type with
clear gel filling that you could use as phototransistors if you
scraped the paint off?

d


IIRC types like the AC128 had metal cans. I think it was the good old
OC71 that you could scrape the paint off to make a photo-transitor -
that is until they started filling them with opaque gunk.

Spoilsports!

Ian