I was born well before transistors were invented. When I
did my research in graduate school they were not widely
used for one-of-a-kind research equipment. The first
computer I remember was an old IBM tube job. It generated
enough heat that it took a lot of the university's chiller
load to cool it. It was always blowing fuses and tubes.
The machine could be used for about 3 hours per day if you
were lucky--the rest was changing fuses and tubes and other
kinds of trouble-shooting.
My experimental work was done on an iron-free beta-ray
spectrometer. It had a huge array of vacuum tubes in the
current-output stage. I believe that there were 10 or 12
tetrodes in the last stage--they were almost impossible to
keep balanced so that the machine would function properly.
Oh well! Enough of the old-times stories WBN
Barlow Newbolt
Department of Physics and Engineering
Washington and Lee University
Lexington, VA 24450
Young man if I could remember the names of all of
these particles I would have become a botanist
Enrico Fermi
Telephone and Phone Mail: 540-463-8881
Fax: 540-463-8884
e-mail: NewboltW@madison.acad.wlu.edu