Graham. wrote:

.


I vaguely remember making one in the mid '60s I seem to recall I used a small stump
of a carbon rod for one electrode and the rest of it I pulverised for the granules
I cant remember a second carbon rod, I thing the capsule might have been metallic.
I've no memory of the diaphragm, nor any of the finished mic in use which leads
me to believe the whole enterprise was a failure.

Our school text books showed the carbon rod in a dry cell surrounded by a muslin
bag containing the MnO2 depolariser, but I never found such a bag in all the U2s I
dissected. Was it present in the era you are talking about? Perhaps it goes further back
than that and my school's text books and teaching practices weren't renowned for
being modern.




But we all used to make things in those days. Now kids (IT people?) just
go to Tandy (sorry Maplin) or very expensive Hi-Fi stores and buy things
ready made.
I wonder how many would be able to put on a mains plug - let alone make
up even a SCART flail or a belling-Lee tele aerial connector?
They don't baulk at a SCART or HDMI lead that costs more than the
equipment connected.

Mike