Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles
from Popular Electronics,
published October 1954 - April 1985. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged.
This Electronic Menu Quiz
appeared in the August 1963 edition of Popular Electronics magazine. Robert
Balin created many such quizzes for Popular Electronics over the years (see list
below). It challenges you to match the common food-related term for a device with
its picture. If you've been around electronics labs and/or read electronics hobbyist
magazines for a while, chances are you have run across most of the terms. I
suggest you click on the image to get a full-size view of the drawings to be
able to see all the detail. A couple
of the names I have to admit not being familiar, so they seem rather 'corny'...
get it?
Electronic Menu Quiz
By Robert P. Balin
Many of the nicknames most technicians use for electronic parts, effects, or
methods, are also names of common foodstuffs, such as those on the electronic menu
below. Of course, any resemblance is purely a visual one! Nevertheless, see if you
can match the electronic dishes (1-10) with the corresponding sketches (A-L).
1 Spaghetti __
2 Ham __
3 Link __
4 Acorn __
5 Prune __
6 Banana __
7 Honey__
8 Pie __
9 Cone__
10 Salt __
Answers below.
Quizzes from vintage electronics magazines such as Popular
Electronics, Electronics-World, QST, and Radio News were published
over the years - some really simple and others not so simple. Robert P. Balin
created most of the quizzes for Popular Electronics. This is a listing
of all I have posted thus far.
1 - J SPAGHETTI is the slip-on
sleeving used to insulate bare wiring.
2 - C A HAM is a radio operator
who has been granted an FCC amateur radio license and call letters.
3 -
G The part of a fuse that melts when the rated current is exceeded is the
LINK.
4 - A The ACORN is a type of vacuum tube for UHF applications,
which has no base, and has its pins
brought out through the sides of the glass envelope.
5 - H To PRUNE
a coil means to adjust the spacing between turns or to remove turns to alter its
inductance.
6 - F A BANANA plug has a segmented springy metal
prong that maintains a low-resistance contact in the
mating socket.
7 - I A HONEYcomb coil has a pattern in which the position
of adjacent turns is continuously shifted to
minimize distributed capacitance.
8 - D The PIEcrust effect is a kind
of TV picture distortion due to a hunting action in the horizontal
automatic frequency control circuit.
9 - B A CONE is the conical paper
diaphragm in a loudspeaker.
10 - E Rochelle SALT crystals having the
chemical name sodium potassium tartrate are used in
phonograph cartridges.
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