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Thursday Quiz — Parallax Forums

Thursday Quiz

What am I and what I was I used for? (hint: metal spool)

tangled.jpg

Comments

  • Floss?

    latest?cb=20120727221430
  • Speaker driver?
  • WBA ConsultingWBA Consulting Posts: 2,933
    edited 2017-03-16 19:38
    is Valdemar Poulsen involved?


    I have had this item at my desk for ~15 years and I ask all new Engineers/Techs that I hire to tell me what it is:
    WhatIsIt.jpg
    393 x 121 - 9K
  • I cheated and used a Google image search.
  • WBA's looks like a deburring tool.

    -Phil
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,244
    I'm a spool of stainless steel wire. What is my use?
  • Safety wiring for aircraft bolts and nuts-the ones that have holes in them just for this.
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    edited 2017-03-16 20:10
    I cheated also. I believe it was German design.
  • Safety wiring for aircraft bolts and nuts-the ones that have holes in them just for this.

    If so, then given erco, the aircraft would likely be a blimp or dirigible.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    No, I used to wire up nuts like that to stop my old BSA and Triumph motorcycles from shaking themselves to bits!

    That and "tab" washers.
  • LA6WNALA6WNA Posts: 138
    edited 2017-03-16 21:16
    erco wrote: »
    I'm a spool of stainless steel wire. What is my use?
    Fishing...?

    Shark fishing
  • I didn't cheat by looking up the image. I had a wire recorder I got from an antique store in Pomona about 20 years ago (also bought a cool 70s-era portable 8-track player at the same time), and it had spools a lot like this. The wire seemed a little thicker.
  • Not my pic, but this is the model of 8-track I had. Super cool! (The wire recorder I gave away to someone. Never worked anyway, though it had one of those cool "electric eye" volume indicator tubes.)

    1995 x 2993 - 1M
  • Duane DegnDuane Degn Posts: 10,588
    edited 2017-03-16 21:25
    Since the spool is also metal, I think it's intended to provide a conductive path back from an object either being released by a balloon or shot by some sort of rocket.

    Older guided missiles trailed wires behind for control inputs.

    I wouldn't think they'd use that sort of spool if the connected object was being shot with a rocket. I don't think the wire could unroll fast enough.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,244
    I had a wire recorder I got from an antique store in Pomona about 20 years ago (also bought a cool 70s-era portable 8-track player at the same time), and it had spools a lot like this.

    Winner winner, chicken dinner! That didn't take long at all. Gordon is THE MAN!

  • ercoerco Posts: 20,244
    is Valdemar Poulsen involved?

    DOH! Sorry, I missed Andrew's post, he nailed it straightaway. Well done young man! You and Gordon get to split a bag of Fahnestock clips!
  • Hah, I was trying to be sneaky as to not give anything away to others trying to figure it out.

    Funny story how I learned about wire recorders.... In an old episode of Hogan's Heroes, they receive a gift of a pair of hand knitted socks that of course made it past the guards. One toe of the sock had a thread hanging out and they threaded that into a wire recorder disguised as a sewing machine to play back a secret message. I wondered about trying to actually make one and after a few minutes on Google, found out that it wasn't just a TV show prop but wire recorders were real.
    http://www.rfcafe.com/miscellany/homepage-archive/2013/Wire-Recorders-HogansHeroes-Sock-Player.htm
  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    edited 2017-03-17 01:07
    erco wrote: »
    Winner winner, chicken dinner!

    The machine in the YouTube video looks very like the one I had, except mine also had one of those green "magic eye" tubes that indicated volume. It briefly made what could be considered sound -- maybe 15 seconds -- when I think some caps blew. After that it was just loud hiss. I was always going to fix it, but instead, to make room in the garage I just gave it away to a friend. I think these were very popular in the 50s as an alternative to wax or plastic belt transcription machines for dictation.

    I haven't been to the Pomona antique stores in maybe a decade, and I know many of my favorites from the 80s and 90s are no longer there, but for a time, it was a great place to pick up things like this, and for not much money. I think I paid $35-40 for the recorder, but about $125 for that 8-Track, seeing how it's one of them there mod'ren designs (I overpaid; the plastic was yellowing, not all white like in the picture I posted). These days everybody tries to sell the stuff on eBay and charge way too much shipping. The wire recorder was quite heavy, and probably would be $50 to ship.
    erco wrote: »
    You and Gordon get to split a bag of Fahnestock clips!

    I'll take a burger at Five Guys next time you're down, if you're buyin'. I'm still dreaming about the last one I had...

  • ercoerco Posts: 20,244
    "Wires" (wire recorders) got so small in recent times as to be wearable.

  • ercoerco Posts: 20,244
    edited 2017-03-17 01:31
    erco wrote: »
    You and Gordon get to split a bag of Fahnestock clips!


    Gordon: I'm very sorry about that typo. I meant Fahnestock Chips, Pringles' newest flavor. That classic taste of musty metal goodness!

  • erco wrote:
    I'm a spool of stainless steel wire. What is my use?
    Total red herring, sir! Isn't stainless steel non-magnetic?

    -Phil
  • erco wrote: »
    (hint: metal spool)

    How is the spool being metal a hint?

    The spools in the Techmoan thumbnail don't look like they're metal. Does the spool really need to be metal?

    I wouldn't think you'd want electricity flowing through the wire.

    Do you have a working device?

  • I found an article that mentioned type 420 stainless in connection with a wire recorder. 4xx series low-nickel stainless is magnetic (witness its application in cookware for induction stovetops).
    http://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/recording.technology.history/begun6.html
    However, other recorders there mention 18-8 wire. That is puzzling. Well, cold working (as in pulling wire?) can make any stainless turn magnetic. (18-8 is like type 304, 18% chromium, 8% nickel, generally not magnetic).

    Another tidbit was that in early implementation the wire was magnetized transversely, perpendicular to the direction of motion, with poles on opposite sides of the wire. However, the playback strength would subsequently vary with the twist of the wire. So, later implementations placed the two poles along the direction of motion, so the wire was magnetized the wire axially, insensitive to twist on playback.



  • MikeDYurMikeDYur Posts: 2,176
    edited 2017-03-17 14:32
    erco wrote: »
    I'm a spool of stainless steel wire. What is my use?


    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire-guided_missile

    If not then, I go with the dental floss for jaws.
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