After
looking at so many vintage electronics magazines, the differences in form factors of resistors, capacitors,
inductors, amplifiers, and even hookup wire between then and now is very apparent. Physical sizes have
shrunken significantly, and the packaging materials are noticeably more refined today. There were no
surface mount devices, and nearly all components had either long leads for wrapping and soldering to
posts or lugs, or they had lugs or posts to which said components leads - or hookup wire - was attached.
Seeing this canned capacitor advertisement from Cornell Dubilier in NASA Tech Briefs, made
me do a double-take since it is reminiscent of capacitor packages of yore. For that matter, it could
be a plug-in quartz crystal from a mid-last-century vacuum tube radio set. Of course the pilot's flight
suit and airplane in the background confirm a present-day vintage.
Posted January 6, 2017
|