1970s Design Indulgence

The first electric conundrum calculator appeared in what's now Milton Keynes nearly 80 years ago!

It was soon realised that the planet wasn't big enough to be home to many more of these conundrum calculating monsters. Somebody needed to make smaller, less volt-hungry valves.

Linearity didn't matter as long as the needed device switched potential cleanly and quickly. Having joined in the race, the Russians made weird valves without heaters, which reduced power demands. Like a two-year-old, the Americans saw more fun in the packaging than its contents and decided on the technology of glass - yes, silicon (well, erm, it started with germanium, but we'll skip that).

N's and P's decided whether electrons or the holes they left behind did the work (dead-simplicity intended).

First came the diode, and then they stuck two together and gave it a cat's whisker, and the transistor was born. It's inventor: William Shockley.

They invited the world to come (build it, and they will come), but they only told their friends how to make them. The "enemies" would have to guess, but they guessed right, and the secret wasn't secret anymore.

So what could they make from the transistor? Radios, amplifiers, televisions, or something more sinister?

Thanks to capitalism, the sinister could be funded by the people buying mass-produced transistorized products, and who better than the kids. They got rock'n'roll in the West and mambo in the East.

Transistorized hi-fi was dying a death, and while the hi-fi press were inventing ever-sneaky ways of saving their bacon and that of their friends, the kids had had enough.

Orwell thought porn, booze, and football would be sufficient for the proles. Add to that the games console!

In 1976 the "cheap shop" was trying to sell a pack of 10 blank compact cassettes without luck. The reason was they were not TDK or BASF (even EMI couldn't get a foot on the ladder). They were Chinese, and the case halves were held together by melted polystyrene, probably done with a soldering iron, or it looked that way. They were basically sh*t.

Skip ten years to 1986, and the UK electronics industry was mothballing its home operations. It had started moving it all to China. The Regan -Thatcher economic rebalancing act had unwittingly created a gold rush.

The sinister had begun under the guise of humanistic progress. Let us not forget that it had all started from military beginnings, and it is now firmly headed to military endings - somebody else's military.

There are many connections with everyday life with these technological advances, far more than Orwell's porn, booze, and football could have ever achieved. The strings are being pulled by the very party Orwell's 1984 feared. Facebook, Twitter, and all kinds of apps are Orwell's "telescreens." The electric conundrum calculator has become so almighty powerful in the hands of our "former" enemies.

And as for this amplifier? I don't think I've done a bad job considering it's made from devices never intended for the job!

Tremendous 'new knowledge'' you have kindly generated and shared gracefully .....perhaps a new section on the website 'Resource base'' perhaps the technical terms explained in lay man and we have updated H Hart or other for 2021.

I have accumulated several power supplies units over the years and thought to have achieved sufficient understanding to accept Dutch source transformers as the definitive  'Avant Guard' design and Construction and C core to supply Midrange range frequencies But your research experiment in Transformers efficiency and distortions merit an Official Publication. Audio enthusiast who spend many thousands to reach a more authentic and natural Tone  need to know of your IMPORTANT work. Pray for dedicated topical AUDIO DESIGN journal from GSP or as a Newsletter in layman language ..I pray.