You'd be surprised how little a pound of mercury is. I had a neighbor once who had done mining in Alaska. A byproduct of the smelting was mercury, and he had a small flask full of it. I was shocked how heavy it was.
-Phil
It drives me crazy when I don't feel like I got enough mercury for my money.
You'd be surprised how little a pound of mercury is. I had a neighbor once who had done mining in Alaska. A byproduct of the smelting was mercury, and he had a small flask full of it. I was shocked how heavy it was.
-Phil
Yes mercury is very heavy. Once in Chemistry class someone got a little carried away and transferred too much into a pyrex glass beaker. When they picked it up the bottom of the beaker shattered from too much stress from all the weight. Ever see a what looks like silver lava flowing and turning into droplets everywhere...
I have a similar memory from Chemistry class. The teacher, affectionately known as "Mad Martha", brought out a glass u-tube to illustrate how to make a mercury barometer. She stretched it a little too far to fit on a ring stand. Oops. Silver drops dancing every which way. These days it couldn't happen, a major hazmat faux pas. At the time it brought out a dust pan, maybe more by the custodian after class dismissed.
I still have a bottle of mercury that weighs about 8#, inherited from my father who found it while hiking in the Colorado mountains back in the 1930s, in an abandoned mining operation.
Back on topic, sort of. Mercury wetted contacts in relays and switches used to be fairly common, in order to forestall contact bounce. With such a switch you wouldn't need the transistor latch for debouncing.
...The first time I saw this kind of circuit was about 30 years ago where it was used to control and maintain the direction of a motor.
Yes, those 2N239 transistors drawn as NPN blocks (ok, it was back in 1956) and those 1N200 zeners should be easy enough to obtain, along with the 45V "bias".
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It drives me crazy when I don't feel like I got enough mercury for my money.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/5V-Flip-Flop-Latch-Relay-Module-Bistable-Self-locking-Switch-Low-Trigger-Board/122838224891
Thanks for relaying that.
No need for bait & switch, I'm happy to provide the current contact info.
I still have a bottle of mercury that weighs about 8#, inherited from my father who found it while hiking in the Colorado mountains back in the 1930s, in an abandoned mining operation.
Back on topic, sort of. Mercury wetted contacts in relays and switches used to be fairly common, in order to forestall contact bounce. With such a switch you wouldn't need the transistor latch for debouncing.
https://www.google.com/patents/US2879412
...The first time I saw this kind of circuit was about 30 years ago where it was used to control and maintain the direction of a motor.
That looks like a classic two transistor multivibrator circuit with caps and diodes included to make it into a flip-flop.
Haven't I seen flip flop/bistable circuits like that using regular diodes instead of zeners?
Sequential Switching Bistable Multivibrator: http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/waveforms/bistable.html
Yes, those 2N239 transistors drawn as NPN blocks (ok, it was back in 1956) and those 1N200 zeners should be easy enough to obtain, along with the 45V "bias".
Are you sure you used "this circuit"?
Agreed. MUCH heavier than a pound of gold.
Give me a pound of feathers any day of the week.
But wait, a pound of diamonds might be better
http://micro.lonegunman.co.uk/post/7569351752/a-pound-of-feathers-weighs-more-than-a-pound-of
Never knew that.
Speaking of technicalities, it should be said that the pound of gold weighs less as it is the deviant.