Fun with electronics
Eric McIldowie · Physics World · 1995
Alistair Armitage's delightful defence of discrete semiconductor electronics (November p80) left me pitying him for being too young to have experienced the real thing: the rot had already set in when the transistor displaced the thermionic valve (tube). His generation can know little of the delights of real electronics: all that heavy metalwork cutting large holes for valve-holders in aluminium chassis; the excitement and risk of working with 250 V (or more) anode supplies; and the joy of seeing the vital warm glow of heated cathodes when the circuit was switched on, with the occasional firework display inside a valve if a serious error in wiring had been made.