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Here for the first day of the new year are three electronics-themed comics
from vintage issues of Electronics World and Popular Electronics
magazines. My favorite is the page 84 comic where the sign on the Telco Rectifier Components president's wall is
apropos. Maybe one of the interview questions for job applicants was #1: "Did
you notice the sign on the wall in the waiting room," and #2: "Did you 'get
it?,' and please explain." In 1956 when that comic appeared, AC-to-DC power
supplies used high voltage vacuum tubes, typically 300 volts or more. Hefty
capacitors were needed to remove enough ripple from the "top" of the DC to
render it undetectable in the circuit output - especially if the output was
audio where a 60 or 120 Hz (50 or 100 Hz in Europe) "hum" could be detected
superimposed on the audio. Even in video signals, threshold detectors in analog
decoder circuits could trigger at the wrong level with excess ripple. In 1963,
when the page 89 comic appeared, a service call by a TV technician was about $1
to get him to the house, then time an material after that. The implied $34
speeding ticket would be equivalent to
$348 in today's money (10x inflation since then, if you believe The Man's
numbers). These comics make good fodder for opening your technical presentations.
I colorized the original B&W drawings.
Electronics-Themed Comics
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October 1961 Electronics World
Table of Contents
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles
from
Electronics World, published May 1959
- December 1971. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.
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"Farnsworth has a nice technique when they mention the trouble."
October 1961 Electronics World (p87)
"That's 34 service calls you owe me."
October 1963 Electronics
World (p89)
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October 1956 Popular Electronics
 Table
of Contents
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.
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October
1956 Popular Electronics (p84)
These Technically-Themed Comics Appeared in Vintage Electronics Magazines. I
personally scanned and posted every one from copies I own (and even colorized some).
272 pages as of 12/16/2025.
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