electronics like its 1922

[strawberry]

it would be more fun with hand made resistors and capacitors
sounding lightbulbs

[AndyBeez]

Cool. [ except for the H.T. ]

Back then, our EE ancestors built their circuits on real breadboards.

[TimFox]

I especially admire the mica capacitors and the "body-end-dot" rod resistors, but those alligator clips are anachronistic.

[Gyro]

It's the first time I've seen tube construction like that, that hasn't involved a glass lathe.

[TimFox]

Cool. [ except for the H.T. ]

Back then, our EE ancestors built their circuits on real breadboards.

Note the brads holding the brass squares to the wood breadboard, forming useful terminals.

[bsfeechannel]

I especially admire the mica capacitors and the "body-end-dot" rod resistors, but those alligator clips are anachronistic.

Alligator clips were available in the 1920's:

https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Catalogs/Allied-Catalogs/Allied-Catalog-1929.pdf

Page 46. Just 7c a dozen.

[jonovid]

awesome stuff jdflyback, way to go!

[TimFox]

I especially admire the mica capacitors and the "body-end-dot" rod resistors, but those alligator clips are anachronistic.

Alligator clips were available in the 1920's:

https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Catalogs/Allied-Catalogs/Allied-Catalog-1929.pdf

Page 46. Just 7c a dozen.

The clips on page 46 of the 1929 Allied catalog are not alligator clips, certainly not like the ones illustrated in the post that are on modern cheap test leads.

[bsfeechannel]

The clips on page 46 of the 1929 Allied catalog are not alligator clips, certainly not like the ones illustrated in the post that are on modern cheap test leads.

Try this one.

https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Catalogs/Lafayette-Catalogs/Lafayette-1932-Spring-Summer.pdf



Not only they resemble the alligator clips we have today, but they also are called alligator clips.

So, they are period correct.

[TimFox]

Since we’re nit-picking, the Lafayette catalog is from 1932…

[bsfeechannel]

1916

[TimFox]

The 1916 ad shows two kinds of clips, but neither is an "alligator clip".

[Cyberdragon]

The crocodile clip or alligator clip was invented in 1908 by Ralph Mueller.

https://pecm.co.uk/mueller-electric-inventors-of-the-crocodile-clip/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mueller-electric-inventors-of-the-crocodile-clip

[TimFox]

In careful usage, the "alligator clip" has upper and lower jaws that meet, while in the "crocodile clip" the upper jaws go inside the lower jaws.
My original "anachronism" comment referred to the modern cheap alligator-clip test leads in the photo that are ubiquitous now.

[coppice]

It's the first time I've seen tube construction like that, that hasn't involved a glass lathe.

When I was at UCL they got some of Fleming's original experimental thermionic diodes out of storage, and used modern parts to make a simple radio from one of them. It was some anniversary event. Those valves looked like they have been produced by an expert glass blower.

[strawberry]

1920 1.10$ adjusted to inflation 2022 ~18$
thicker metal for jaws not to slip when grabbing on some thinner wire..

[TimFox]

It's the first time I've seen tube construction like that, that hasn't involved a glass lathe.

When I was at UCL they got some of Fleming's original experimental thermionic diodes out of storage, and used modern parts to make a simple radio from one of them. It was some anniversary event. Those valves looked like they have been produced by an expert glass blower.

I'm curious about the original Fleming valves:  were they constructed by adding an anode to a pre-existing commercial incandescent lamp?

[coppice]

It's the first time I've seen tube construction like that, that hasn't involved a glass lathe.

When I was at UCL they got some of Fleming's original experimental thermionic diodes out of storage, and used modern parts to make a simple radio from one of them. It was some anniversary event. Those valves looked like they have been produced by an expert glass blower.

I'm curious about the original Fleming valves:  were they constructed by adding an anode to a pre-existing commercial incandescent lamp?

Well, I was there in the early 70s, and all the staff who made those things had moved on....

If you look at the pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleming_valve I think they work historically from left o right. Its quite possible the right hand picture is the one I saw being fired up. I remember it had a tubular anode like that one, The construction wasn't much different from early incandescent lamps. A nipple at the top seemed to be the point of evacuation, like early incandescent lamps, or most valves up to the end of their reign in the late 60s/early 70s. However, I don't think they modified an incandescent lamp. They made a custom envelope from scratch in a similar style. The bulbous shape was probably just the result of it being blown by hand.

[TimFox]

Interesting detail from your source:  Fleming called his device an "oscillation valve", which confused me until I realized his meaning that it "valved" oscillations, not that it was an "oscillating valve".
Careful language usage!

[bsfeechannel]

In careful usage, the "alligator clip" has upper and lower jaws that meet, while in the "crocodile clip" the upper jaws go inside the lower jaws.

At the company where the alligator clip was invented, they think otherwise:

My original "anachronism" comment referred to the modern cheap alligator-clip test leads in the photo that are ubiquitous now.

And they were ubiquitous then. Mueller alone produced 85,000 alligator clips per day way back in 1922.

[TimFox]

I maintain that the distinction between an "alligator clip" and a "crocodile clip" is useful, and there is no point in using both terms to describe the "alligator clip" in the lower part of that picture.
Sometimes, you will find a crocodile clip to be more appropriate for your application, and if they both have the same name how do you specify the desired clip?
That's why I used the term "in careful usage".
I notice that Mueller Electric (who make high-quality crocodile and alligator clips) refer to their BU-85 as a "crocodile clip", where the jaws nest, which agrees with my point here.
https://www.muellerelectric.com/product_files/449/DS-BU-85.pdf
They also refer to their BU-60 as an "alligator clip".  https://www.muellerelectric.com/product_files/325/DS-BU-60C.pdf

[bsfeechannel]

I notice that Mueller Electric (who make high-quality crocodile and alligator clips) refer to their BU-85 as a "crocodile clip", where the jaws nest, which agrees with my point here.
https://www.muellerelectric.com/product_files/449/DS-BU-85.pdf
They also refer to their BU-60 as an "alligator clip".  https://www.muellerelectric.com/product_files/325/DS-BU-60C.pdf

Taken from the last picture I posted above.

In the US, we have one type of clip that is referred to as a crocodile clip -- which is a type of center-spring ALLIGATOR CLIP.

So, crocodiles are also alligators when it comes to clips. In other parts of the world, alligator clips receive other suggestive names (besides the equivalent of crocodile) like lizard clips, pike jaws, jacaré (a type of South American alligator) clips, and so on and so forth.

The name is irrelevant. The thing is that the alligator/crocodile/pike/jacaré/lizard clips/jaws of the kind shown in the video were available since the beginning of the rise of electronics in the early 1900s.

If we're looking for a real anachronism in the OP's video, it is the music at the end: it should be ragtime. Not pop.

[TimFox]

True crocodiles and alligators have different shaped jaws, but neither have the exact shape of what I insist on calling a "crocodile" clip where the upper jaw goes inside the lower jaw.
https://www.everythingreptiles.com/alligator-vs-crocodile/
Note that alligators have a U-shaped snout, while crocodiles have a more pointed triangular snout.
I recommend the nomenclature used in the two Mueller data sheets I posted, since the two clips are different and it represents careful usage to call them something different.
Again, the "anachronism" I mentioned was not the clips themselves but that they were modern cheap Radio-shack-type clip leads.

[bsfeechannel]

RadioShack was founded in 1921.

[TimFox]

Did they use thin PVC insulation on their clip leads back then?