Tag: sparc trivia

11 Feb 19

Traffic passing by formal relay (via amateur radio) originates from the founding of the American Radio Relay League. The NTS as it exists today was first outlined by George Hart, W1NJM (died 24 March 2013) in “New National Traffic Plan: ARRL Maps New Traffic Organization for All Amateurs” as part of the September 1949 issue of QST. While traffic passing between amateur radio operators was nothing new, Hart’s system extended coverage of traffic capability in a uniform manner across the U.S. and Canada, creating formal section and area nets devoted to handling NTS-organized traffic.

Source: Wikipedia

10 Feb 19

Jan Rudolph Deiman and Adriaan Paets van Troostwijk used, in 1789, an electrostatic machine to make electricity which was discharged on gold electrodes in a Leyden jar with water. In 1800 Alessandro Volta invented the voltaic pile, and a few weeks later William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle used it for the electrolysis of water. When Zénobe Gramme invented the Gramme machine in 1869 electrolysis of water became a cheap method for the production of hydrogen. A method of industrial synthesis of hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis was developed by Dmitry Lachinov in 1888.

Source: Wikipedia

9 Feb 19

The Leyden Jar, named after the city Leiden,  the Leyden jar could store high voltage, (Despite its mundane and safe appearance, the Leyden jar is a high voltage device, and it is estimated that at a maximum the early Leyden jars could collect electrical energy from friction in a range from 20,000 to 60,000 volts ).  

The Leyden Jar has metal inside and outside of the container then partially filled with water or other type of liquid, the cap has a nail protruding through it and a ground attached to the outer metal shell…

Sources for the Leyden Jar … Wired.com

Wikipedia

7 Feb 19

Specific power, or gravimetric power density, indicates loading capability. Batteries for power tools are made for high specific power and come with reduced specific energy (capacity).

The relationship between specific energy and specific power.
The water in the bottle represents specific energy (capacity); the spout pouring the water governs specific power (loading).

Source: Battery University.com

6 Feb 19

Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta

In the years between 1776 and 1778, Volta studied the chemistry of gases. He researched and discovered methane after reading a paper by Benjamin Franklin of the United States on “flammable air”. In November 1776, he found methane at Lake Maggiore, and by 1778 he managed to isolate methane. He devised experiments such as the ignition of methane by an electric spark in a closed vessel.

The Voltac Pile: When two metals and brine-soaked cloth or cardboard are arranged in a circuit they produce an electric current. In 1800, Volta stacked several pairs of alternating copper (or silver) and zinc discs (electrodes) separated by cloth or cardboard soaked in brine (electrolyte) to increase the electrolyte conductivity.  When the top and bottom contacts were connected by a wire, an electric current flowed through the voltaic pile and the connecting wire.

Source … Wikipedia

3 Feb 19

“Q” codes were originally created around 1909 as a list abbreviations by the British Government to communicate with British ships and coast stations. The “Q” codes had a list of 45 codes and facilitated the communication between people who speak different languages. At the Third International Radiotelegraph Convention in London (1 July 1912) it was signed into the Service Regulations and on 3 July 1913 became a rule for use.

To distinguish the use of “Q” codes transmitted as questions from those transmitted as statements, operators used the Morse question “INT” (dit dit dah dit dah) as a prefix to the “Q” code.

Source … Wikipedia

2 Feb 19

Known as class B emission by the International Telecommunications Union, Damped Wave has been prohibited since 1930 due to its wide bandwidth and additional electrical noise. The transmission wave started at max signal and tapered off to zero for each key. The Spark Gap Transmitter and Damped Wave were last used in 1920 and replaced by Vacuum Tube Transmitters…

Source… Wikipedia (Damped Wave) …… Wikipedia (Continuous Wave)