A FAWCETT

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Experiments Y Can Do
Electron ubei Space Electro ics
Radio-TV-Hi-Fi Computers
Automation Electronic Music
Radio Astronomy Electronic Doctor

Y I

Audio Amplifier Experir

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 ELECTRONICS GUIDE
by Donald C. Hoefler

A FAWCETT BOOK NUMBER 437

LARRY EISINGER EDITOR -IN -CHIEF
GEORGE TILTON MANAGING EDITOR
SILVIO LEMBO ART EDITOR

W. H. Fawcett, Jr President
Roger Fawcett General Manager
Donald P. Hanson Assistant General Manager
Gordon Fawcett Secretary -Treasurer
Roscoe Fawcett Circulation Director
Ralph Daigh Editorial Director
James B. Boynton Advertising Director
Al Allard Art Director
Ralph Mattison Associate Art Director
George H. Carl Production Director

FRED HONIG EDITOR

Stoff Artists
NICK CARLUCCI . . . . ASSOCIATE ART EDITOR
Harold E. Price Michael Gaynor
Larry Flanagan Stanley Moskowitz
John S. Selvaggio Howard Katz
Mike Eastman Bob Vatter
Frank Bermudez George Zymarakis
Michael deLucia

Phyllis J. Bendremer Production Editor

Benita Mills Assistant Production Editor

ELECTRONICS GUIDE, Fawcett Book 437, is

published by
Fawcett Publications, Inc., Greenwich, Connecticut. Editorial
and advertising Offices: 67 West 44th Street, New York
36,
New York. General Offices: Fawcett Building,
Greenwich,
Connecticut. Printed in U.S.A. Copyright 1960 by Fqwcett
Publications, Inc.

Cover photos by Grayson Tewksbury, Fawcett Studios.

Cover art by Frank Schwartz.
British Information Service

7
 In Spore Time at Home-Prepare for a Better Job-or
Your Own Business in One of the Many Branches of
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LECTRON
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I

DeVRY TECHNICAL INSTITUTE

"One of North America's 4141 Belmont Ave., Chicago 41, Ill., Dept. co -a
Foremost Electronics

.ii1'
Please give me your FREE booklet, "Electronics
and YOU," and
Treining Centers"
1 may prepare to enter one or more branches of
ewe
177
tell me how I

1 Electronics.
1
a r1i ..,.
Name

Street
e.ense rnir+r
Age

Apt._
DeVRY TECHNICAL INSTITUTE City Zone State

Formerly DeForest's Training, Inc. 2044

Canadian residents address DeVry Tech of Canada, Ltd.
626 Roselawn Ave., Toronto 12, Ontario
CHICAGO 41, ILLINOIS

3
 CONTENTS

Chapter 1
Chapter 7
THE WORLD OF ELECTRONICS
6 ELECTRONIC WORKMEN 80

Chapter 2 Chapter 8
THE TINY ELECTRON 22 LISTENING TO THE STARS 90
Chapter 3 Chapter 9
THERE WAS LIGHT 36 ELECTRONIC MUSIC 98

Chapter 4 Chapter 10
TUBELESS TUBES 50 MEDICAL ELECTRONICS 110
Chapter 5 Chapter 11
ELECTRONS AT PLAY 62 SEEING EYES 120
Chapter 6 Chapter 12
ELECTRONIC BRAINS 72 SPACE AGE ELECTRONICS 132

Table of Experiments
1 BUILDING A CODE TRANSMITTER 16 10 CONVERTING A TV SET FOR HI-FI 68

2 BUILDING AN ELECTRONIC SWITCH 18 11 BUILDING A SIMPLE COMPUTER 76

3 GENERATING AN ELECTRIC CURRENT 28 12 BUILDING AN ELECTRONIC TIMER 82

4 BUILDING A POWER SUPPLY 32 13 BUILDING A RAIN ALARM 86

5 BUILDING A RADIO TRANSMITTER 40 14 TUNING IN ON THE STARS 94

6 BUILDING A PHOTOCELL RELAY 44 15 BUILDING A TUNEABLE AUDIO OSCILLATOR ...104

7 BUILDING A CRYSTAL SET 54 16 BUILDING A SIGNAL TRACER 116

8 BUILDING A TRANSISTOR RADIO 58 17 BUILDING A DIRECTION FINDER 124

9 BUILDING AN AUDIO AMPLIFIER

64 18 BUILDING A WIRELESS RELAY 134

4
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5
 Chapter 1

THE WORLD OF ELECTRONICS

An introductory survey

Above is the control desk of the radio telescope at Jodrell on Services

tions which enable the track of a star or planet to be Bank. High-speed coBritish
mputers Isolvetithe equa-
receive radio waves from space, the telescope can plotted and followed automatically. Designed to
be used as a huge celestial radar transmitter.

MILLIONS of miracles are performed

by the science of electronics every
day. This fact somewhat bedazzles our
vision, and we fail to realize that, broadly
speaking, electronics is really nothing
more than electricity. That's all. Just,plain
old electricity, which most of us have
known all our lives.
Purists may cavil at that statement, and
earnest young students may pooh-pooh it,
but the fact remains that it is increasingly
difficult to draw any clear distinction be-
tween electricity and electronics. That both
of them are concerned with the flow of
electrons is now agreed by all but the most
antediluvian reactionaries. But time was
when the two sciences did seem to have
little or nothing in common.
Bell Telephone Laboratories
Radio Tubes Lee DeForest is shown holding his audion tube
Electronics was once concerned solely which became the magic key for unlocking the
door of a great and new scientific -electronic age.
6
/ These men are getting practical training in NEW Shop -Labs of

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Chartered Not For Profit Chicago I, Dept 20-9C
RADIO ELECTRONICS
dMél.
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CHARTERED AS AN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION I. W. COOe5. Jr.. ese:een,
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Chicago 7. Dept 20-H9,
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7
 Westinghouse

Using a model of a new -type germanium crystal, with the vacuum tube, and the vacuum
a physicist demonstrates how germanium atoms tube was used only for radio broadcasting
attach themselves to form crystals in thin strips. and communications. But in time the tech-
niques of radio were applied to a variety of
industrial applications, in control, meas-
Ribbon-like germanium crystal rises from molten urement and computation. Thus the
pool in this crystal growing furnace. Strip is vacuum tube found itself doing all sorts of
same form as used in making of transistors. jobs never envisioned by its inventors.
Rest n¢hmise
i
During those growth years, the science
of electronics was synonymous with the
science of the vacuum tube. But a change
in thinking was in order when some new
types of tubes had gasses introduced inside
their glass envelopes, and these tubes
began doing jobs which the vacuum tube
couldn't do as well, if at all. So the broader
term electron tube came into use, and the
study of electronics was widened to in-
clude the behavior of electrons in gasses.
Later, we discovered that a variety of
crystalline materials had the properties of
semiconductors, which also can do many
jobs as well or better than vacuum tubes.
So now we must concern ourselves not
only with the movement of electrons in a
vacuum, but also in gasses and solids as
well. Which brings us just about full circle
from where we began. For the flow of elec-
trons through a wire conductor is also
electron flow through a solid. Electron mo-
tion differs in the various mediums, but
whether it be a vacuum, a gas, a conductor
or a semiconductor, it's still electrons in
 I'd like to give this to
my fellow men...
while I am still able to help!
I was young once, as you may be-today summer home, my Cadillacs, my Winter -
I am older. Not too old to enjoy the fruits long vacations and my sense of independ-
of my work, but older in the sense of being ence-behind all the wealth of cash and
wiser. And once I was poor, desperately deep inner satisfaction that I enjoy-there
poor. Today almost any man can stretch is one simple secret. It is this secret that
his income to make ends meet. Today, I would like to impart to you. If you are
there are 'few who hunger for bread and satisfied with a humdrum life of service
shelter. But in my youth I knew the pinch to another master, turn this page now-
of poverty; the emptiness of hunger; the read no 'more. If you are interested in a
cold stare of the creditor who would not fuller life, free from bosses, free from
take excuses for money. Today, all that worries, free from fears, read further.
is past. And behind my city house, my This message may be meant for you.

By Victor B. Mason
something for nothing. I have never met a ing out a product that has a steady and
I am printing my message in a maga- ready sale in every community. A half
zine. It may come to the attention of highly successful man whom the world re-
spected who did not sacrifice something to dollar spent for raw materials can bring
thousands of eyes. But of all those gain his position. And, unless you are will- you six dollars in cash-six times a day.
thousands, only a few will have the ing to make at least half the effort, I'm not In this message I'm not going to try to
vision to understand. Many may read; interested in giving you a "leg up" to the tell you the entire story. There is not
but of a thousand only you may have achievement of your goal. Frankly, I'm enough apace on this page. And, I am not
the intuition, the sensitivity, to under- going to charge you something for the going to ask you to spend a penny now to
stand that what I am writing may be secret I give you. Not a lot-but enough to learn the secret. I'll send you all the in-
intended for you-may be the tide that make me believe that you are a little above formation, free. If you are interested in
shapes your destiny, which, taken at the fellows who merely "wish" for success becoming independent, in becoming your
the crest, carries you to levels of inde- and are not willing to sacrifice something own boss, in knowing the sweet fruits of
pendence beyond the dreams of avarice. to get it. success as I know them, send me your
name. That's all. Just your name. I won't
Don't misunderstand me. There is A Fascinating and Peculiar ask you for a penny. I'll send you all the
no mysticism in this. I am not speak- information about one of the most fascinat-
ing of occult things; of innumerable Business
ing businesses you can imagine. With these
laws of nature that will sweep you to I have a business that is peculiar-one of facts, you will make your own investigation.
success without effort on your part. my businesses. The unusual thing about it You will check up on conditions in your
That sort of talk is rubbish! And any- is that it is needed in every little community neighborhood. You will weigh and analyze
one who tries to tell you that you can throughout this country. But it is a busi- the whole proposition. Then, and then only,
think your way to riches without effort ness that will never be invaded by the "big if you decide to take the next step, I'll
is a false friend. I am too much of a fellows". It has to be handled on a local allow you to invest $15.00. And even then.
basis. No giant octopus can ever gobble up if you decide that your fifteen dollars has
realist for that. And I hope you are. the whole thing. No big combine is ever
I hope you are the kind of man-if
been badly invested I'll return it to you.
going to destroy it. It is essentially a "one Don't hesitate to send your name. I have no
you have read this far-who knows man" business that can be operated with- salesmen. I will merely write you a long let-
that anything worthwhile has to be out outside help. It is a business that is ter and send you complete facts about the
earned! I hope you have learned that good summer and winter. It is a business business I have found to be so successful.
there is no reward without effort. If that is growing each year. And, it is a busi- After that, you make the decisions.
you have learned this, then you may be ness that can be started on an investment
ready to take the next step in the so small that it is within the reach of anyone Does Happiness Hang on Your
development of your karma-you may who has a television set. But it has nothing
to do with television. Decision?
be ready to learn and use the secret I
have to impart. This business has another peculiarity. It Don't put this off. It may be a coincidence
can be started at home in spare time. No that you are reading these words right now.
risk to present job. No risk to present in- Or, it may be a matter that is more deeply
I Have All The Money I Need come. And no need to let anyone else know connected with your destiny than either of
In my own life I have gone beyond the need you are "on your own". It can be run as a us can say. There is only one thing certain:
of money. I have it. I have gone beyond spare time business for extra money. Or, If you have read this far you are interested
the need of gain. I have two businesses that as it grows to the point where it is paying in the kind of independence I enjoy. And if
pay me an income well above any amount more than your present salary, it can be that is true, then you must take the next
I have need for. And, in addition, I have expanded into a full time business-over- step. No coupon on this advertisement. If
the satisfaction-the deep satisfaction-of night. It can give you a sense of personal you don't think enough of your future hap-
knowing that I have put more than three independence that will free you forever piness and prosperity to write your name
hundred other men in businesses of their from the fear of lay-off, loss of job, depres- on a postcard and mail it to me, forget the
own. Since I have no need for money, the sions, or economic reverses. whole thing. But if you think there is a
greatest satisfaction I get from life, is shar- destiny that shapes men's lives, send your
ing my secret of personal independence with Are You Mechanically Inclined? name now. What I send you may convince
others-seeing them achieve the same While the operation of this business is you of the truth of this proverb. And what
heights of happiness that have come into partly automatic, it won't run itself. If you I send you will not cost a penny, now or at
my own life. are to use it as a stepping stone to inde- any other time.
Please don't misunderstand this state- pendence, you must be able to work with
ment. I am not a philanthropist. I believe your hands, use such tools as hammer and VICTOR B. MASON
that charity is something that no proud screw driver, and enjoy getting into a pair 1512 Jarvis Ave., Suite M -176-B
man will accept. I have never seen a man of blue jeans and rolling up your sleeves.
who was worth his salt who would accept But two hours a day of manual work will CHICAGO 26, ILLINOIS
keep your "factory" running 24 hours turn-
9
 Radio Corp. or America

Right. Transistors, photovoltaic cells,

rectifiers and diodes employ a new -
compound semiconductor material
capable of very high temperatures.

Above. Transistors shown range from

a type used in giant computers, left,
to the smallest, right, especially de-
signed for hearing aid applications.

Right. Eight tubes and four resistors

are sealed in one-inch capsule. Model
shown is a multiple element logic
module with two triple -input gates.

General Electric Co.

motion, and as far as we are concerned, it's pacitive effects to compression and elas-
all electronics. ticity.
Electronic Circuits This practice led to some bad guesses,
however, and only a few unreconstructed
Every electronic device comprises one or old-timers still hold to it. Electronic ad-
more circuits, the heart of which is usually vances have been so rapid, furthermore,
a tube or transistor. The complete circuit that now it's more common to find the me-
also has other electrical components, such chanical engineer using electronic con-
as coils, condensers, resistors and connect- cepts in solving his design problems.
ing wire. Thus the electronic circuit can be The ties between electronics and me-
roughly compared to a mechanical system chanics are still strong, however. One of
in which the tube represents a motor and the fundamental ideas in practical elec-
the other components act as the belts, tronics is the varying voltage which stands
chains, pulleys, gears and shafts. for some changing physical value. Sound
Not long ago engineers used to go becomes an electrical voltage, for example,
through a mental "shifting of gears," think- through the medium of the microphone.
ing of an electronic circuit in terms of an Light is converted into electricity by a pho-
equivalent mechanical system, in order to tocell or video camera. Even changing
understand its operation. For example, temperatures can result in varying volt-
it was common to compare the flow of cur- ages.
rent in a wire with the movement of water
through a pipe, to relate certain inductive Electronic Signals
effects to inertia and momentum, and ca - Electrical voltages of this type are called
10
 You
of
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11
 signals, and the device that generates them
after stimulation by an outside source is
known as a transducer.
In addition to the microphone and TV
camera, other transducers include the
phono pickup and tape reproducer.
It will be noted that all of these appear
at the input of the electronic circuit. That
is, they convert some other physical quan-
tity into a signal which is then fed into the
electronic circuit. Another family of de-
vices which is equally important is the
output transducers. These have the job of
converting the electronic signals back into
physical form, either the same as or dif-
ferent from the original. Examples in this
group are TV picture tubes, loudspeakers,
meters and various types of recorders.
All of the signal movement we have dis-
cussed so far is of the closed-circuit va-
riety. The signal, that is, has remained at
all times confined within the circuits of the
electronic devices. But this doesn't have to
be so, for there is a way in which these
signals can escape the bounds of electronic
circuitry and shoot out in every direction
in space.
For this to happen, the electronic signals
must be converted again, this time into
electromagnetic waves. This conversion,
as well as the reconversion from electro-
magnetic waves back into electronic sig-
Powerful radio relay has 20 -ft. mast and 21/2 -ft. nals, is the basis of radio, television and
reflector, 1s used by the U. S. Marine Corps. The radar. The transducers in this case are
unit's message band is designed extremely narrow. transmitters, antennas and receivers. But

British Information Services

Bell Telephone Laburaroriea

"Electronic lung" uses spectro-
graphic method of monitoring the
Photo taken in mid -thirties shows experimental electrical wave air for minute amounts of ber'
guides. Similar systems may one day carry 200,000 telephone Hum metal dust, is used in r
voices by means of radio waves of less than one -quarter inch. types of industrial instal'

12
 4eata 5teeeeetied
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TO A BETTER JOB AND HIGHER PAY!

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The SECOND CLASS radiotelephone license qualifies
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install, maintain and operate most all radiotelephone for your future. y
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HOLLYWOOD 1505 N. Western A. -e .G
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13
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14
 British Information Services

Radar is used extensively as aid in navigation,

air traffic control and in most types of defense
warning systems. The set shown above is British.

Probably the most versatile tool in the whole elec-

tronic field is the cathode-ray oscilloscope. The
model at left is available in kit form from Eico.

Television is today widely used in closed-circuit

industrial application, as well as for entertain-
ment purposes. Below is latest type color camera.
NB( Trie' si',!,

the wondrous thing is that between the

transmitting and receiving antennas, even
though they may be miles apart, there need
be absolutely nothing but empty space.
Radio transmission over long distances re-
quires Federal licensing, but the short-
range station shown in Exper_ment No. 1
will enable you to send code messages for
several hundred feet over the air.
Electronic Communication
One important branch of electronics,
then, is communications. Its purpose is to
send intelligence or information of some
sort from place to place: a telephone call,
TV show, police call or instr> ctions from
an airport control tower to a plane. In
every case the information is converted
into an electronic signal by a transducer,
such as a telegraph key, a microphone,
[Continued on page 20]
15
EXPERIMENT 1
Building a Code
Transmitter
O 0 00 O 0 O 0 0 0 0 0 0
O 0 00 O 000 O 0 O O o O O o;
O 00 O O 000 O 0 O O O G
ji
ïI O
0 00
0
O O O

O o
O
O
0
0
O
O(
C
O 0 O O
o o o
O 0 0 0 0 0 0
O
o

O O O 00 O
O
RR

O O O O O O
O o 0 o 0 0
^ >
O 0
,.

00000000 Ó 0 1;10 00
0 O o
O
O
OOO¡O 020
O
0 0 0 0 0 O-O 000000000000000

,,
, 1
1.;,,
r .

Feedback coil is formed by winding 10 or 15 Key grip uses forefinger on knob, thumb and
turns of No. 26 wire on van -loop antenna coil. second finger at sides, for best wrist motion.

16
 RADIO one of the oldest, and still one of the
is key, which applies voltage from the battery be-
most exciting, applications of the science of elec- tween the emitter and collector of transistor TR..
tronics. So let's begin our experiments by getting The transistor is conducting, and current flows
you on the air right away. The code transmitter through the oscillatory circuit only when the key
is depressed. At the same time there is an audio
-
shown in the accompanying illustrations is built
from readily available components or, as shown frequency feedback circuit for tone production
here, it is one of the projects in the Lafayette comprising C., R,,, and a tap off part of L,. The
Transistor Experimenters 15 -in -1 Kit. pitch of the tone is determined by the resistor and
The unused parts shown in the picture diagram, capacitor, and may be varied by changing the
such as the relay and potentiometers, are required value of either of these components.
for succeeding experiments. Two transistors, type A wire ten feet or less in length serves as the
2N107, are needed, although only one is used transmitting antenna when connected to terminal
for your transmitter. The battery voltage is 12 A. A ground probably won't be necessary, but a
volts. wire from terminal G to a cold water pipe will
The circuit is a standard regenerative type, in suffice if needed.
which tickler coil L. feeds a part of the output To operate the set, first tune a standard AM
from the transistor back to the input by inductive broadcast receiver to any quiet spot on the dial.
coupling to L,. This feedback coil is made by Then hold down the key and adjust L, until you
winding 10 to 15 turns of No. 26 insulated wire hear a tone on the set. Now when you key the
directly over the form of L. signal according to the Morse code, you can send
Radio emissions are controlled by the hand messages or practice the code over the air.

,:,,
: ^t`
t4kter

,44 ,
.

4e.
-
.
s
.
ti #4,
..
'
..

`'t4.ti .-..0

N.,,
* '' . h,
K /)," /r.
. .,(e 41.> 1
/!`
XifiJÏ.d
.x,

,,
rrz _

With radio tuned to quiet spot on dial, key is

depressed and transmitter tuned by varying Li.
 Building an
EXPERIMENT 2 Electronic Switch
LAMP

oOPrn
SUPPLY

I10-Ii0
VOLTS
aOCTCL[
AC

VOLTS

PLATE 20+
+17 PLATE

41111111111---Nen
Detecting element (above) can be made by stripping the
GRID -1 8+ ends of a pair of wires, keeping them closely spaced.

CATHODE -11-3+
GRID - 2 REFERENCE 0
O
-
+5 GRID -1

AND--------------._ _----CATHODE
GROUND LEVEL
- 3- GRID-
AND
2

O \/
¡¡-GROUND

Addition of salt makes water conduct.

Current flows between detector wires,
making relay close and light lamp.

18
 THE detecting element of the electronic switch that all voltages are referred to ground, whereas
can be used to sense the presence of any material on the right they are referred to the cathode.
having less than seven megohms resistance. When Both of these scales say exactly the same thing,
the detecting leads are connected by such a but with only a changed point of reference. Thus
material, the relay contacts will operate an ex- on the left we see that the cathode is three volts
ternal circuit or actuate the lamp included here. positive with respect to grid 2 and ground. But
The circuit can be built up most easily from the if this be true, then grid 2 and ground are three
Allied Radio 12 -in -1 Electronic Lab Kit. This is a volts negative as compared to the cathode. In
modified "breadboard" arrangement, with all of electron circuits it is conventional to use the sys-
the components mounted for easy interconnection. tem at the right, with all voltages referred to the
The basic board with all components is shown on cathode potential.
page 32. In the photos we are using the switch to demon-
If you prefer, of course, you can build the set strate how water becomes more conductive with
from standard components which you may have the addition of ordinary table salt. With the salt
on hand. water placing a partial short circuit across the
Operation of the circuit depends upon a probes of our detecting element, grid 2 becomes
change in the relative voltages between the plate
positive, more plate current flows, and the relay
and screen grid. Voltage is sometimes referred
is energized, thus extinguishing the lamp. The
to as potential difference, which means that we
are always talking about a voltage existing be- sensitivity is controlled by the adjustment of R,.
tween two points. Two ways of looking at this are If you prefer the lamp to go on instead of off,
shown in the diagram, where we see on the left connect to the other relay contact, terminal 13.

ANTENNA

® aI aOIOpI LW BARE win)

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r
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arK
waT
e3 u
10 n 12 Tr.
4
YELLOW U
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` 20. 210 220 29 244 26. 2

Et a
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VENTILATED AREA ile r

I~=:it
-e` 31 320 330 340 330 3
NqTOCK
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OF COVER U V
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1 MICROPHONE HEADPHONES
R-7 IMEG

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INDICATOR LAMP
5-Z

3",
19
New lightweight high -power silicon rectifier comes Dynistor diode high-speed switch, 200 milliwatt,
in nine peak -inverse -voltage ratings from 50 to is multijunction germanium switch that functions
500 volts, provides up to 70 amperes of direct in fractions of microseconds. Unit is triggered
forward current, weighs less than three ounces. by pulse which can be under one microsecond.

es t. ingh,lnse
[Continued from page 15] Westinghouse

a television camera or a teletypewriter. photographic record. In Experiment No. 2,

The signal is then carried by wire line, a light goes on to indicate whenever you
radio waves, or both. Depending on the are talking.
nature of the signals, electronic communi- Other electronic instruments include the
cation is called telegraphy, telephony, tele- photographic exposure meter and color-
vision or telemetry. The first three are imeter, the electron clock and the ioniza-
quite familiar, but the fourth, the baby tion gauge used in physics laboratories.
of the family, is still showing off its great The chemist uses a pH meter to determine
potential. the acid or alkaline state of a solution, the
Telemetering is also known as data engineer uses an electronic strain gauge,
transmission, which means the sending of the doctor an electroencephalograph, the
information gathered by instruments from astronomer a radio telescope.
an unnamed point. One of the first
devices to telemeter information back Electronic Controls
to a control station was the radio -sonde In any system involving the use of
weather balloon. Now when we want to power, there is also a need for controlling
know how high or how fast our last guided this energy accurately and rapidly. The
missile went, or what the conditions are hydraulic brakes on a car, or the switches
aboard an artificial satellite or inside an on an electric stove, are just two examples
atomic reactor, telemetering gives us the of low power devices which control high
answers. powered ones. It doesn't take much work
to depress a brake pedal, yet this will stop
Electronic Instrumentation a car weighing well over a ton. And little
This leads us to a closely related branch effort is required for turning on a stove,
of electronics. As we implied earlier, al- yet the voltages and temperatures con-
most any physical effect such as heat, light, trolled are powerful enough to cause
sound, vibration, infrared and X rays, death.
can produce an electronic signal if a suit- The idea of using a low -power device to
able transducer exists. One of the advan- control a high power system is the basis
tages of electronic systems is the ability to of the servo principle, and the devices
amplify, to strengthen very feeble signals. themselves are called servomechanisms.
Thus the transducer needn't be very sensi- Since they are in effect amplifiers of power,
tive, and it must not upset the physical they can be at least partly electronic in
condition it is attempting to measure. nature. Electronic servomechanisms are
At the output of the electronic circuit widely used in automatic pilots, artillery
we have a readout device, which gives us fire control systems, and in many factory
the desired information. In the engine production and assembly processes.
ignition analyzer the indicator is usually a Since even the best servo system is in-
cathode ray tube. On a Geiger counter animate, it is still a slave to mankind and
it is an ordinary meter. The electro- must be told what to do. It can have a
cardiograph may provide a permanent "master" in constant attendance, pushing
20
 British Information Services
Above. Electronic high-speed sorting machine is
used to check length and diameter of steel roller
to 1/500,000th inch at rate of 5,000 per hour.

Use of high-speed computers is widespread today

in scientific and business organizations. The ISM
705 data and processing machine is at left.
International Business :Machines

buttons, throwing switches or turning

rheostat knobs. In this case the system is
called an open cycle control.
But in many cases the instructions are
prepared in advance, and recorded in some
way, such as on a punched or magnetic
tape. Or the system may be self-correct-
ing, such as the automatic pilot which
senses when the airplane is going off the
set course and automatically makes cor-
rection. This type of operation, in which
a human starts it off but then leaves the
system to take care of itself, is known
as closed cycle control and the process is
called automation.
Electronic Switching
Many electron tubes and circuits can
be adjusted so as to act as on -off de- Hughes Aircraft Co.
vices. That is, instead of passing vary-
ing currents as an amplifier does, they All -electronically controlled machine tools have
will pass either a fixed amount of cur- tape control which flows through this bank of
rent or no current at all. Thus they are contact relay and blinker light master panel.
in effect electronic switches. They don't
wear out mechanically, and when they Spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction equipment is
do fail, usually plugging in a new tube or used to test stress of materials; study of alloy
transistor will make the repair. compounds. chemical reactions and identifications.
A huge number of electromechanical Radio Corp. of Am. -
switches and relays are employed in au-
tomatic telephone dialing systems, but
the handwriting on the wall says that
they are doomed for replacement by elec-
tronic switching circuits. Electronic data
processing equipment, better known as
computers or "electronic brains," also de-
pend for their operation upon hundreds of
electronic switches.
Now that we know a few of the things
this art of electronics embraces, let us
study the source of this wonderment: the
infinitesimally small electron itself.
Chapter 2

THE TINY ELECTRON

The nature of matter electron theory

light. A phy3icist sans screen of a cloud chamt er, watching

he tracks of nuclear zrrticles. The chamber makes paths of sub-
microscopic rude= particles visible. A cloud is zreatei in a
:onfined volume b- t13 sudden expansion of air in the chamber,
:ausing 3 suer-actu:ation of that air with water vapor. When
nuclear particles t -averse this cloud, droplets are -ormec along
oaths Df the partel.... due to ionization of the air mo.ecules.
Path o- droplets can ...3e photographed with strong light source.

?2
IT isn't surprising to learn that the ter known as common table salt, which we
science of electronics depends upon all eat every day.
that tiniest particle of matter called the If we take the salt or the water and start
electron. Not only that, but much of what to break it down, we can subdivide it fur-
we experience in life is explained by the ther and further until only one single
electron theory of matter. molecule of it is left. But if we break down
The scientist calls matter "anything that molecule, we no longer have the salt
which occupies space, and has weight and or the water. Thus we can say that the
dimensions." In a general way, then, we molecule is the smallest possible part of a
can say that matter is anything which can compound substance.
be detected by one or more of the five Going even further we find that if we
human senses. break up the water molecule, it splits into
Nearly all objects of matter are thought atoms, two of hydrogen and one of oxygen.
to be made up of a huge number of tiny Remembering that hydrogen and oxygen
particles called molecules. Each substance are both elements, we can gather that,
has its own particular molecular struc- while the molecule is the smallest particle
ture, and so there are as many types of of a compound, the atom is the very tiniest
molecules as there are substances-an al- part of an element.
most infinite variety. Suppose we go even further and look in-
side one of the hydrogen atoms, the sim-
Chemical Elements plest atom of all. If this were possible, we
We also know, however, that all matter would see that it looked like Fig. 1. Here
consists of elements, usually in combina- we see a central nucleus, with a satellite
tions of two or more. One of the elements revolving around it in orbit, just as our
is hydrogen. Another is oxygen. Both hy- planets swing around the sun. The nucleus
drogen and oxygen are gasses, but when of the hydrogen atom contains a single par-
they combine in a certain way a liquid re- ticle called a proton, which is actually a
sults: common everyday water. Another unit of electricity, said to be positively
example is sodium, a soft putty -like solid, charged. Similarly, the tiny planet re-
and chlorine, a gas. Both of these are volving around the nucleus is called an
poisons, yet they can combine to form a electron, the basic particle of negative
new crystalline solid, sodium chloride, bet- electricity.

At left is photograph taken with the help of a cloud chamber. When 2.2 billion electron volt protons
accelerated by the Brookhaven Cosmotron strike a graphite target, protons and neutrons flying out may
bombard cloud chamber containing hydrogen. The long streaks from top down are protons or mesons.
Neutrons remain invisible since they have no electric charge and thus do not interact with other atoms.
The three -pronged effect at right was caused by incoming neutron hitting a proton. While the invisible
neutron bounces off, proton shoots straight down to bottom of photo and two pi mesons carom off, one
downward, one to left. Other tracks it photo are caused by less energetic particles such as electrons.

Below, left, is Benjamin Franklin's electrostatic machine which, when wheel was turned, created static
electricity by friction. At right is an old historic print of Alessandro Volta (1745-1827), the Italian
physicist, inventor of the "Voltaic Pile," which is the true forerunner of today's modern electric battery.
The Franklin Institute Culver Senite
 Culver Berries Culver Service

N P
------f Q.}

Drawing of Crookes' Tube, a cathode-ray tube,

by Sir William Crookes. At top is experiment of
diverting the tube's rays with help of a magnet.

Photo, left: Georg Simon Ohm (1787-1854), noted

German physicist, who gave us Ohm's Law.

Neutrons, Too comprise, are made up primarily of pro-

Now let's look inside a more complex
tons, neutrons and electrons. And the dif-
atom, that of carbon. As we see in Fig. 2, ferences in characteristics of substances-
this atom has six protons in its nucleus. It from gold, to silver, to the air we breathe,
to a pastrami sandwich-the only differ-
also has six neutrons in the nucleus. Neu- ences are in the number and arrangement
trons have no electric charge, but may be of the protons, neutrons and electrons
thought of as a sort of nuclear cement, which go to make them up.
holding the protons in space, as in Fig. 3.
Orbiting around this nucleus we find an Electric Charges
equal number of electrons. Very interesting, you say. But what does
This is the customary condition for an all this have to do with electronics? Well,
atom, with the number of its planetary we shall see. Electrons and protons are
electrons equal to the number of nuclear called electric charges because of the way
protons. Since the positive charge of each they react to one another. Electrons tend
proton is exactly equal to the negative to repel each other with relatively enor-
charge of each electron, the two opposite mous forces, and protons react against
types of charges cancel out and the atom other protons in the same way. But elec-
is said to be electrically neutral. If all sub- trons have an equally strong attraction for
stances were always neutral, however, protons, and protons feel the same way
there would be no science of electronics, as about electrons.
we shall see. This fact provides us with one of the
All electrons are identical, as are all pro- basic electronic laws: Like charges repel
tons. And while the electron is about twice and unlike charges attract. If this were not
the diameter of the proton, the proton is so, atoms and molecules would be flying
about 1,840 times heavier. To get some idea apart in all directions. It is only the attrac-
of how infinitely tiny the electron is, think tive force between positive charge of the
of the orbit the earth makes around the nucleus and negative charges of the plan-
sun, which happens to be around 186 mil- etary electrons that holds them together.
lion miles in diameter. Then compare that Often, however, this delicate balance be-
huge circle to an ordinary ping-pong ball, tween charges within the atom or molecule
of about an inch or so in diameter. Now may be easily upset. The substance may be
the ratio of the earth's huge orbit to the of the type which will readily lose a few
diameter of the ball is about the same as electrons from its outermost orbit, or shell,
the ball is to an electron. or this same shell may constantly be seek-
All atoms, no matter what material they ing to add a few more.

24
 The Bettmann Archive
If either of these two events actually
occur, the body itself is said to be charged.
As an example, consider the old parlor
trick of running a comb briskly through
the hair, and then using the comb to pick
up bits of paper by static attraction. In this
case friction has caused the comb to gain
some electrons, and thereby to become
negatively charged.
If the comb had lost electrons, the nega-
tive charges out in orbit would no longer
have canceled the positive ones in the
nucleus, and the substance would be said
to be positively charged. Since the comb
has added extra electrons, their force now
exceeds that in each nucleus, and the sub-
stance is negatively charged. This leads us
to another fundamental electronic law:
A negative charge indicates an excess of
I
electrons, while a positive charge results
from an electron deficiency.
When a body becomes charged, the con-
dition we are discussing is actually one of
static electricity. And at this point we
should understand that man cannot gen-
erate electricity. We can cause electrons to
move from place to place, yes, but whether
Sir John Ambrose Fleming (1849-1945), English we use friction to cause the movement, or
electrical engineer, inventor of the diode tube. a dynamo, or a solar battery, we are simply
controlling electrons which are already
Madame Curie (1867-1934) won two Nobel Prizes, there. A battery or generator no more cre-
one in physics in 1903, one in chemistry, 1911. ates electricity than a pump creates water.
 FIG. 1. The hydrogen atom is the sim-
plest of the elements, having only one
proton in the nucleus, surrounded by
a single, negative -charge electron.

ONE
Culver Servire British Information Servire, ELECTRON
Above, left, Professor 1. J. Thomson (1856-1940). famous English physicist,
At right is a portrait of Lord Rutherford (1871-1937), who, in Cambridge, Nobel Prize winner in 1906.
discovery of the positively charged nucleus, which discovery eventually England, made the fundamental
led to the splitting of the atom.

Radioactivity sistors, and which we will discuss in Chap-

There is another type of electron move- ter 4.
ment within certain elements, wherein
they are constantly and spontaneously Electric Current
shooting off protons and electrons. These In Experiment No. 3 you have generated
elements are very unstable, and their be- an electric current by magnetic induction.
havior is called radioactivity. Their char- Anything which will cause an electron flow
acteristics are constantly changing, but in a conductor is called an electromotive
since they have such a large number of force. In Fig. 4 a battery is the source of
protons and electrons to begin with, the e.m.f. This flow does not mean that each
noticeable changes occur very slowly. excess electron flows all the way through
Nevertheless, it is quite possible that in the conductor to the point of electron de-
time a radioactive element will actually ficiency. It is something more akin to the
change into another element. Here in na- maneuver in croquet when you try to
ture is a transmutation of the kind the knock your opponent's ball out of the park.
ancient alchemists were attempting to per- In this case you hold your foot on your
form by changing lead into gold. own ball so it won't move. But when you
Getting back to our hair -and -comb ex- smack it with the mallet, the opposing ball
periment, the charge developed between which was lying next to it goes flying. You
these two /bodies can be easily discharged could do the same thing with a whole string
by the simple process of touching the comb of croquet balls in line if you wanted to.
to the hair without the earlier friction Then you'd strike the blow at one end, but
movement which set up the charge. But it the ball at the other end of the line is the
is interesting to note that the bodies do not one which would take off.
actually have to touch. This same kind of chain reaction occurs
The excess electrons on the negative in a conductor. An electron near one end
body may flow through another medium to strikes another, that in turn hits still an-
the positive body and so restore the equi- other, and so on until the effect is felt all
librium. When this happens, the medium is the way down the line. Thus no one elec-
said to be an electrical conductor, and the tron moves very far, but the effect of the
electron flow constitutes an electric cur- electron flow is felt at all points along the
rent. conductor.
Now if we connect the ends of a copper
The conductor is usually a metallic wire. wire to the terminals of a battery, a fairly
But it could be a liquid, such as an electro- sizable electron current will flow. But if we
plating bath. Or it might be a gas, as in connect a carbon rod to these same termi-
a neon tube. It can even be nothing at all, nals, the current will be much less. Obvi-
as in a vacuum tube, about which we'll ously some materials are better conductors
learn more in the next chapter. And now than others. Why?
we have new types of solids known as It appears that the better conductors are
semiconductors, which go to make up tran - those whose atoms will fairly readily give
26
 ELECTRONS

NEUTRON
üjo PROTON

FIG. 3. Simplified drawing of the nucleus of a

helium atom. Two protons are "glued" together
by two protons. The two electrons are not shown.

SIX PROTONS PLUS SIX -NEUTRONS.

FIG. 2. The carbon atom has six planetary elec-

trons, each in its own orbit, surrounding a nucleus
which consists of six protons plcs six neutrons.

up an electron from its outer shell or orbit.

The atoms of some materials, on the other
hand, hold on to their electrons so tightly
that it is difficult to free any electrons and
cause them to move along in a given direc-
tion. Depending upon how strongly the
atoms hold on to their outer electrons, they
are called resistors or insulators.
The Ampere
Any current flow, even the slightest, in-
volves tremendous numbers of electrons.
The unit of electric current is the ampere,
in which more than six quintillion (6,280,-
000,000,000,000,000) electrons flow past any
given point in the circuit in just one sec- I"niverxity of 1'nlltoruiu
ond's time. Even so, only a small fraction
of the electrons present in the conductor go
to make up the current flow. In the case of The first two chambers in which E. O. Lawrence
a good conductor, it is estirr.ated that the and N. E. Edlefson tested the magnetic resonance
accelerator principle, which later became the
ratio is only 1 in 5,000. And in resistors and cyclotron. Chamber at left was made of odd pieces
insulators, of course, the ratio is even of window pane, scraps of brass and an overcoat
greater. of wax. Both were built and tested in early 1930.
The electromotive force which drives
electrons through a conductor may be gen-
erated in a number of ways. Among them FIG. 4. A simple electrical circuit, with the bat-
are the following: tery as source of electromotive force (A). The
1. By friction between two bodies, as same circuit is shown as a schematic (B) at right.
in our comb experiment. This is called
electrostatic induction.
2. By chemical action, as in the dry cell
or storage battery.
3. By electromagnetic induction, as in
the dynamo in an electric power plant.
4. By thermoelectric action, when the
junction of two dissimilar metals is
heated.
5. By photoelectric emission, when cer-
tain types of sensitive surfaces are
struck by light.
6. By piezoelectric effect, ín which cer- (B)
[Continued on page 31]
>-7
 Generating an
EXPERIMENT 3 Electric Current

Parts required for experiment

are simple. Horseshoe magnet,
center -reading milliammeter and
length of wire will suffice.

Moving wire rapidly downward

(left) through magnetic field
causes momentary deflection of
meter, then return to zero.

Moving wire rapidly upward

(below) through magnetic field
causes meter pointer to deflect
same amount, opposite direction.

GALVANOMETER

CONDUCTOR

STRONG PERMANENT
U -SHAPED MAGNET
DIRECTION
OF MOTION

Schematic representation of experiment

shows conductor cutting invisible flux.

2R
 IN this experiment we learn the principles of shown by the reverse deflection of the meter
the electric generator, which impels an electron pointer.
current through wire conductors, ultimately mak- If you hold the wire still, even right in the
ing up the electric power we consume in home middle of the magnetic flux, no current will flow.
and industry. The materials required are simple: Obviously the conductor can cut no flux lines
a fairly powerful horseshoe magnet (the odd -
unless it is in motion (or unless the magnet is in
shaped one shown here was picked up at low cost motion). Thus as long as the magnet and the wire
from surplus); an inexpensive milliammeter, pref- are both stationary, no lines will be cut and no
erably of the zero -center type; and a short length current will flow.
The magnitude of the voltage generated will
of wire.
depend upon the rate at which the lines of force
This experiment is based on o discovery of are cut. If we move the wire more rapidly, the
Michael Faraday, which has since 'peen accepted voltage will increase. By the same token, two
as an electrical law: whenever a conductor cuts wires would cut twice as many lines as one, and
across magnetic lines of force, a voltage is in- so the voltage would seemingly be doubled.
duced in that conductor. Lines of force are con- But when we try doubling our wire, we find
tinually flowing out of the North pole and into that the voltage drops to zero. The reason is
the South pole of any magnet. When a wire con- that equal voltages are being induced in opposite
ductor is moved down between the two pole directions, and they cancel each other out. We
faces, a voltage will be induced. Similarly, when can double the voltage, however, by forming the
the conductor is moved upward through the gap, wire into a square loop, twisting so the two sides
current will flow in the opposite direction, as move in opposite directions.

Folded pair of wires generates

no current externally, as two
currents flowing in opposite
directions cancel each other.

Wire in square loop form, when

rotated through field generates
currents which add together. as
in huge commercial dynamo unit.
 I. INIECTION OF IROTONS.-

z ie eos to zeo--
flow lt Works
COSMOTRE,R
WAMANTS

2. REVOLUTION IN MAGNETIC FIELD

Protons from electrostatic generator "shot"

into metal vacuum tank of the Cosmotron
at an energy of 3.6 million electron volts.

3. ALTERNATING VOLTAGE TURNED ON TO ACCELERATE

SONE PROTONS.

AGGCLERATNG vOLTAG OTHER PROTONS

wRICH ARE OUT Or
STEP ANO NAVE SEER
SLOWED DMN h n(
v1LTAGE SPIRAL IN
STRIKE r.E INSIDE
NA, AND ARE LOS*

ENTNGENDÑAT Ñi
wT+GE */ROSS GAPOF uOCur
GUMBCR. UUSNG ABWEONE
óiMó *N7OOITd.q
iNOrossETó

ú0w 00.N

Increasing magnetic field causes protons to

spiral in around Cosmotron making 350,000
turns per second.
The protons that have been speeded up by
4. PROTONS ACCELERATED TO
PEA
AsOOT 125,000 MMES
accelerating voltage, stop spiraling in, group
SECONO OR 9O5 OF THE SPEED OF UGNT.
together in a sausage shaped bundle and
continue to revolve at higher and higher
speeds.

5. TARGET INSERTED N PATH Of PROTONS.

DETECTING
RMSTRUATEMT

,T0060 ß2sNAE
LOST

saTM2M-
ME M OTG6 ARE Now
4.0]O.mO W M1TMEiiÓETEÑ
REVOLVING AT
TEES PE, SIc
AMO
ARE CONTMyLLr SHIFTING
SAUSAGE SHAPED
BUNDE[ OF PROTONS
uNE

THEN POSM,DNS FROM OPE BECOMES SMALLER

ENS Of THE BVEYE TO iN DIAMETER
T. OTHER

TARGET INSERTED NAP-

IDLT.TO EVENTUALLY
Each passage through accelerating voltage NTERSECT ALL GN-
CULATNG PROTONS
adds 800 electron volts of energy to the
protons. After about 3 million turns - the
equivalent of four trips around the earth -
these protons have acquired the energy of Detecting instruments, such as cloud cham-
2.3 billion electron volts. bers, are used by scientists to study result of
collision of these neutrons and other part-
icles with various elements.
30
[Continued from page 27] rent. Now if an e.m.f. of one volt will force
tain crystalline substances generate a current of one ampere through a conduc-
voltages when subjected to mechani- tor, that conductor is said to have a resist-
cal strain. The crystal or ceramic ance of one ohm. Every circuit element has
phono cartridge is a good example of some resistance, since there is no such
this. thing as a perfect conductor, but when it
is specifically desired to limit the current
The Volt flow to a certain value, an element is in-
The term "voltage" was just used, be- serted in the circuit, known as a resistor.
cause the volt is the unit of electromotive There is a very close and direct relation -
force, just as the ampere is the unit of cur - [Continued on page 34]

FACTS ABOUT THE COSMOTRON

The Proton Beam

I

Energy of protons (attained) 2.3 Bev

Time required to accelerate 0.8 sec
Time interval between pulses 5 sec
Number of
revolutions to full energy 3 million
Distance
travelled by protons 130,000 miles

The Magnet

Turning radius of magnet 30 ft

Vacuum chamber,
inside dimensions 36 in x 6 in
Weight of magnet steel 1800 tons

The Magnet Power Supply

Maximum power supplied

to magnet 40,000 horsepower eolunibia University
Energy delivered to magnet
Uranium element is placed into graphite pile of
in one pulse 11 million joules New York's Columbia University atomic reactor.
Energy returned
to flywheel 8 million joules
Below is photograph of the Alternating Gradient
Injection System Synchroton, Brookhaven National Laboratory. A
circular 840 -foot diameter tunnel will accom-
Energy of injected protons 3.6 Mev modate housing for the magnet assembly. The
Number of drawings on page 30 show how the cosmotron
works. Table at left gives facts and figures.
injected protons ._. 1000 billion
Required energy control 0.1 percent
Accuracy of time to
inject protons 1/100,000 seconds

Radio Frequency Acceleration

Lowest frequency 350 kilocycles

Highest frequency
(2.3 Bev) 4100 kilocycles
Radio frequency power
(2.3 Bev) 180,000 volt -amps
Frequency control .. 0.1 percent
Brookhaven Nallona, Laboratory
EXPERIMENT 4 Building a Power Supply

; dri r4
r VII OS +,4 ;er
t 06118 +
l

Tiny selenium rectifier above is dwarfed even by miniature tube. Rectifier Is wafer stack under
left end of tubular capacitor. Cover plate (below) encloses complete power supply plus electron tube.

lon s+
POWER
SUPPLY
C R T7--wvv--NN--
R-I
i00.1-1

-i
R

''GROUNO
110.120
VOLTS
60CYCLE
AC

3 4
HEATER FOR
12NS

1 T

32
 THE energy required to operate the transistor transformer Ti are not as great as A, because
circuits used in these experiments comes from they have been stepped down by the transformer.
batteries. For the electron tube experiments, Selenium rectifier CR is a one-way crystal de-
however, we use your house power, which is vice, which permits electrons to pass through it
developed from water power, coal and steam, or, in one direction only. On the reverse halves of
in the future, atomic energy. This house power, each cycle it acts like a very high resistance and
however, must be changed into the form required effectively blocks off the current.
by the tube, and this is the function of the power This rectifier is a two -section unit, however,
supply. each of which passes opposite alternations of the
The power supply performs two important lobs: wave. That is, positive pulses can get through
first, it changes the value of the house voltage one section while the negative pulses can get
to that required by the circuit (in this case, the through the other. But the two sections are so
voltage is reduced considerably, for safe han- connected that the opposite alternations of the
dling); second, it rectifies the current by changing
wave are in effect flopped over so that they are
it from alternating (AC) to direct (DC) current,
now all in the same direction.
the same kind as is delivered by batteries.
The result is that the negative pulses have now
Referring to the simplified schematic diagram,
the incoming house current at A goes through become positive also, and the current now is
variations from 0 to + to zero to -, and back known as pulsating DC. This pulsating current
to zero. This is one complete cycle. Similar wave- then goes through a smoothing filter comprising
forms B and C at the secondary windings of R,, R2 and C2, to come out as smooth DC.

D
O
E
O
" USEFUL POWER

(7-2 HASFILTERED)
I\ OUT RIPPLE 1
WITHOUT 021
IN CIRCUIT J
B+
R1 R-2
:=Z C-2
TO HOUSE
POWER
110-120 VOLTS +
60 CYCLE A.C.
co

ANTENNA

., \, BUSBAR (BARE

Y: tR
WIRE)

®r A
I

71191
Iº U U
(00 ({4
110 121 13®

U U U U
?A
(SD 161 170 IB®
LUJ U U U
I

a__ E. _n 11_ n
6 190 200 210 224 230240 234 264 274 204 S
l
I I r l i 411
(I,
ty[
i ll
¡V
OiOf/\ÿL
.w[-
e -

'.
. I IÌ u li
29, 304 314 320 334 34. 350 360 ve 384 m
U NJ U U U U1J
U U 10L00
I

l LJ
lu 11 11 I I I rt .

D0T
00
11

MICROPHONE HEADPHONES

INDICATOR LAMP A¡e

31,
A ®fI m1 B ._ xrc[

33
 Brookhaven National L.horator, Radio l nrn of .\Illel'!.'a
The linear electrostatic accelerator, known as Complex equipment is used for study of super-
the Van de Graaff Generator, accelerates sub- high current density electron beams for micro-
atomic particles to a speed approaching 15,000 wave and millimeter -wave radar techniques. Unit
miles per second, bombarding targets for physical, extracts electrons from gas discharge of mag-
biological, medical or chemical research. Man netically -confined mercury pool arc, accelerating
at left adjusts and tightens target chamber. and forming them into high -current electron beam.

FIG. 5. The transformer permits the stepping an [Continued from page 31]
AC voltage up or down, but it will not pass DC.
ship between resistance, current and e.m.f.
A -C GENERATOR
If the voltage increases, we would expect
the current to go up also. But if the resist-
ance increases, the current will drop.
These relationships were expressed in a
group of three little mathematical formulas
over 130 years ago by a German scientist,
after whom they are named Ohm's Law.
-PRIMARY This is one of the most important of all
MAGNETIC 7, COIL I
electronic relationships.
LINES OF
Mr. Ohm adopted the letter symbol 1
t
>TRANSFORMER

SECONDARY (intensity) for the current in amperes, E

COIL .) for the e.m.f. in volts, and R for the resist-
ance in ohms. In one form Ohm's Law tells
us that to find the current in amperes in
any circuit, we must divide the e.m.f. in
OUTPUT VOLTAGE volts by the resistance in ohms. Thus the
formula becomes I = E ± R.
As an example of how this works, let's
The mass spectrometer, an electronic, high -vacuum find out how much current a light bulb
instrument. The sample in a vapor phase is ad- having a filament resistance of 12 ohms will
mitted to the analyzer system where molecules pass when it is connected to a source of
are bombarded with a stream of electrons. This e.m.f. of 117 volts:
breaks the molecules to charged ions, which are
accelerated to a target where current is produced. I =
// -
amperes9.15
7
Now suppose we want to determine the
resistance when the voltage and current
are known. For example, what is the re-
sistance of the windings of a 12 -volt starter
motor when the current through them is 2
amperes?
R =
1-- 2 - 6 ohms
Finally, consider the case where the re-
sistance and current are known, and the
voltage must be found. Say we have a pilot
ScN Ynrk University
Radio Corp. of America
Sometimes it is desirable to convert AC
to DC, as you did in Experiment No. 4,
using a device called a rectifier. And some-
times it is necessary to convert DC to AC,
in which case we use an inverter.
Although AC is the only type in which
the electrons slow down to a halt, and then
do an about face and head off in the other
direction, the rate of flow of DC need not
be constant. That is, the number of elec-
trons passing a given point in a DC circuit
may vary widely from moment to moment.
If it does, the current is called pulsating
DC.
It is important to understand this dis-
tinction, because the electron tube, which
we study in the next chapter, is essentially
Electron diffraction chamber, shown at head a one-way device. This means that it will
level, is inserted into the electron microscope pass only AC. It may therefore be used as
column in place of the intermediate lens, permits a rectifier, just like the semiconductor
operator to observe the fluorescence of a speci- diode in Experiment No. 4. But when the
men being bombarded by an electron beam while tube is used as an amplifier of AC signals,
the picture of the diffraction pattern is taken. it also converts them to pulsating DC. But
we are getting ahead of our story. First
we must learn something of the inner
lamp which has a measured resistance of 4 workings of the electron tube, the very
ohms. When lit to full brilliance it draws a cornerstone of the art of electronics. e
current of 1.5 amp. Can we use this lamp
in a 12 -volt circuit? The heart of the first full-scale atomic -electric
E=IxR=1.5X4=6volts generating station in the U. S. The 58 -ton, multi-
Since this is a 6 -volt lamp, it would quickly million dollar nuclear core, or fuel charge, is
burn out if 12 volts were impressed across lowered here Into position with its precious fuel
it. So the answer to the question is de- consisting of 14 tons natural uranium and 165
pounds highly enriched uranium. It is within
cidedly no. this core that the "hot" nuclear reaction, or fis-
AC and DC sion process, will take place when the Ship-
pingport atomic power plant goes into operation.
The electrons which go to make up an
electric current can flow either in one di-
rection constantly, or they may move back
and forth in the circuit. A current which
always flows in one direction is called
direct current. Current which flows first
in one direction and then the other, back
and forth, is known as alternating current.
It is senseless to argue that one form of
current is better than another, as Thomas
Edison and George Westinghouse did
many years ago, for each type has its spe-
cial characteristics and important uses.
Because AC enables us to utilize the
transformer effect shown in Fig. 5, in which
a voltage may be stepped up or down with-
out loss in power, it has largely supplanted
DC for power transmission. But AC inher-
ently also has other types of opposition to
current flow in addition to resistance.
These new opponents are reactances, and
they may be either inductive or capaci-
tive. The total opposition to current flow in
an AC circuit, resulting from resistance,
inductive reactance, and capacitive re-
actance is called impedance.
Weatingbouee Electric Corp.
 Chapter 3

THERE WAS LIGHT

The Edison Effect and the tubes it led to
THOMAS A. EDISON, the inventor of direction only in the bulb. From the heated
the electric light, made a very impor- filament to the positive plate, it traveled
tant contribution to the modern art of with the greatest of ease, but from plate to
electronics way back in 1883. One might filament it was stopped cold.
even say he discovered electronics. Only
he didn't know it. And it was nearly a The Diode Tube
quarter century later before another man Edison recorded his observations in his
in another country suggested the possi- laboratory notebook, but made no effort to
bility of using Edison's discovery in the explain or use them. Neither did anyone
then infant art of radio communication. else at the time. And there matters stood
Edison's historic experiment is illu- until 1905, when Prof. J. A. Fleming of
strated in Fig. 1. Using one of his ordinary London suggested a practical application.
carbon-filament light bulbs, he added a He proposed that a two -element tube or
metal plate inside the same bulb, but sepa- valve, based on the "Edison Effect," might
rated from the filament. When the plate be better than the galena crystal then used
was connected to the positive terminal of for the detection of radio waves. You'll
the filament battery as shown, the meter learn more about crystal detectors in
pointer moved up. Apparently there was a Chapter 4, when you actually build a crys-
flow of electric current right through the tal set (Experiment No. 7).
empty space, from the filament to the As for the "Fleming Valve," it is the
plate. basis of today's diode vacuum tube. Such a
When the battery was disconnected from tube is shown in Fig. 2, where we see it is
the plate, the current ceased. And when very similar to the experimental Edison
the plate was connected to the negative bulb in Fig. 1. The two elements are still
battery terminal, there still was no current commonly called the filament and plate, or
flow. Obviously, current could flow in one more correctly, the cathode and anode.

,eiliÉa

+11111i
FIG. I. A positive plate placed In an electric FIG. 2. Diode powered by two batteries: left one
bulb will attract electrons from the filament. heats filament, right charges plate positively.
30
Edison Laboratory National Monument this photograph his
shown
Thomas A. Edison, after whom the Edison is named,
-plate flow of l e oratory
with some experimental light bulbs, riggedF
n to de isst filament -to

Most tubes today have more elements Vacuum -Tube Oscillator

than just these two, but before we study A tube which generates electrical vibra-
them it is time for you to go "on the air," tions is known as an oscillator, and one of
by building and operating your own radio the simplest types of these is shown in Fig.
broadcasting station. Details for doing this 3. When electrons flow from the cathode
are described in Experiment No. 5. to the plate, they pass through the per-
The heart of your broadcast station is forations in the third element, the grid. In
the transmitter, which generates radio en- the external circuit they must also pass
ergy and radiates it out into space. The through the feedback coil, Ll.
radiation takes place through the antenna, The current through Ll. develops a volt-
but first the radio waves must be gener- age in that coil, and by transformer action
ated, and this is done by means of a tube. a voltage is also developed in the grid coil,
A four -element tube is used in your radio L2. This voltage also appears then on the
station, because it not only generates radio grid inside the tube, and this in turn alters
energy, but also superimposes sound sig- the flow of electrons between cathode and
nals on the radio waves. Let's consider plate.
those two actions separately, and begin by The change in plate current flow will af-
learning how a three -element triode tube fect the voltage in L1, and also the voltage
can create radio energy. in L2, and the voltage on the grid. Thus we
37
 t.
+7by'3
j
S

lo
bs

`"
- cQ..egt

Edison Laboratory National

Monument
Above are some pages from Edison's notebooks dealing with the "Effect." Experiment
13, 1880, shows electric light bulb with metal pin inserted, similar
No. 1, February
to the drawing of Fig. 1, on page 36.

have a sort of "perpetual motion" machine,

in which energy is surging back and forth
continually between plate and grid.
The purpose of capacitor C, is to help de-
termine the number of vibrations or surges
in each second, known as the frequency.
Ordinarily the frequency of a broadcast
station is fixed by law, and you tune your
radio receiver to that frequency by varying
a capacitor in the set. But in Experiment
No. 5, you can also vary the frequency of
your transmitter by the adjustment of C8.
The triode tube is useful not only as a
Edison Laboratory National Monument generator of radio energy, but also as an
Made by Edison, here is what was probably the amplifier. The basic construction of a
first electron tube. Note metal plate inside the triode is shown in Fig. 4. In the middle is
carbon -filament bulb separated from filament.
the electron -emitting cathode, which may
either be directly heated by current pass-
ing through it, or indirectly heated by a
separate element as shown here.
Surrounding the cathode is the grid. This
is usually a spiral winding of wire, whose
turns are so spaced that the grid places
almost no obstruction to the passage of
electrons from cathode to plate. Outside
the grid is the plate, usually a cylindrical
shaped piece of metal. Electrical connec-
tion to all these elements is made through
wires leading to the prongs in the base of
the tube.
The Control Grid
The grid may be thought of as a trigger
Bell Telephone Laboratories or gate, which can be varied electrically
DeForest's audion tube, developed in 1912, is to control the electron flow between cath-
shown at left. At right is the high -vacuum tube ode and plate. For this reason, in tubes
developed in 1913 for the telephone repeater.
having more than two grids, this one is
38
 General Electric l'o. General Electric Co.
with
Modern "signal -splitting" twin triode receiving This miniature tube, 6EZ8, is a triple triode
tube with four plates instead of two, performs three cathodes, can be used as RF amplifier.
the same function as two separate triode tubes. oscillator and mixer in a single compact unit.

known as the control grid. The unique

value of this grid is the fact that any volt-
age change in the grid circuit will produce
a much larger change in plate current than
is possible with a large change in plate
voltage. Thus a small change in the grid
signal will cause a much larger change in
the output, with the result that the tube is
an amplifier of electrical energy.
The tube in your broadcast station of
Experiment No. 5 is actually a four -ele-
ment or tetrode type. But it this case it
can be thought of as two triodes in the
same enclosure, each sharing a common
cathode and plate. Thus one triode acts as FIG. 3. The triode ube may be used as an os-
a radio generator, while the other triode cillator. Above is a simple feedback type using
acts as an audio amplifier of the micro- the transformer effect between coils Li and Ls.
phone signals. Both the audio and the radio
signals are combined in the plate circuit,
and are together radiated from the an-
tenna.
The triode is an excellent audio ampli-
PLATE -\
fier, but when used as a radio amplifier it CONTROL
often forgets that it is supposed to be an GRID
amplifier, and instead suddenly becomes
an oscillator again. The result in a re- CATHODE
ceiver is the loud howl or "peanut whistle"
so familiar to old-time radio fans.
The villains are a trio of rascals having
the lengthy name of interelectrode capaci- HEATER---/
tance. They are shown schematically in
Fig. 5. Each of the tube elements acts as
the plate of a capacitor, with the "dielec-
tric" between the plates being the vacuum
within the tube. At low and medium fre-
quencies, the reactance (opposition to cur-
rent flow) of these little capacitors is so FIG. 4. Triode construction and schematic symbol.
[Continued on page 42]
39
 Building a
EXPERIMENT 5 Radio Transmitter

Allied ,. r11hre that the cIE092_ISR 12 in Eleetr.1n1. L1h

Kit. 10 Y 2.2 .iii,. 1

FCC r.,s r it.d r1iótion requirement fora low

power _0,1.1 are°on dr.ilee under rub; 1320E when
built according
in 'ht. manual and not morn than 10 feel of wire i,
nu nneunri uvd

Post legal notice on transmitter; showing it meets

rigid Federal Communications Commission's rules. Now you're on the air, broadcasting your voice
without wires, heard on your standard AM radio.

METAL DIAPHRAGM
(MOVED BY PRESSURE)
OF SOUNDS
CHARGED METAL
PLATE

SOUND WAVES
N AIR
TO GRID
OF TUBE

CARBON GRANULES
POSITIVE VOLTAGE
SOURCE RESISTANCE CHANGES AS'
DIAPHRAGM MOVES IN AND
OUT

WAVE (OSCILLATION)
CU

POrEI
on 400n 1 11.- I crcLt -TO[,1,000.0006 cc.
n¢ atl[MC Y- 1,0 00.000 CYCLES/Ole.
SUPPLY -_ ...
r
R. I

20
rt11M6141N0,

.0.120
VOLTS
60CYCLE
C
O6CILLT1011

ROUND

40
 YOU have already built a radio code trans- the whistle drops to inaudibility. Now you are
ready to broadcast.
mitter in Experiment No. 1. Now let's graduate
The vibrations in air which are set up by your
to an amplitude -modulated (AM) transmitter, on
vocal cords are converted to electronic signals by
which you can broadcast the sound of your own
the microphone. This is the same type as is used
voice.
on the mouthpiece of a telephone. As the draw-
The radio-frequency part of the AM transmitter
it ing shows, the main parts of the mike are two
is similar to that of your code set. Although
uses a tube instead of a transistor, the principle
charged metal plates (electrodes) which contain
a loosely packed collection of carbon granules.
of inductive feedback is used, through trans-
While the normal resistance of these granules
former L. But whereas the code transmitter used is around 500 ohms, it can drop to as low as 50
varying inductance for tuning, this time capacitor when they are packed together more tightly as
Cs is varied to set the transmitter on channel. a result of air pressure on the diaphragm. Since
This capacitor will tune the transmitter any- voltage is connected across the microphone elec-
where between 700 and 1,300 kc, which is most trodes, the varying resistance will result in a
of the upper end of the standard broadcast band. varying current.
To tune the transmitter, first turn on a receiver When someone talks into the microphone, this
and tune it to some quiet spot between 700 and signal is applied directly to the first grid of the
1,300. Then depress the key on the transmitter tube. The plate current is therefore varied not
and adjust C8 until a whistle is heard on the set. only in accordance with the r -f oscillations, but
Then further adjust Cö carefully until the pitch of also with the sound signal on the control grid.

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INDICATOR LAMP

41
 Westinghouse Electric Corp.
Westinghouse Eleetrlr t'oro.
Light image intensifier tube produces an image This five -inch cathode-ray tube can be used as
of reduced size with a brightness increase of flying spot scanner in video -signal generator.
1,000 times for 2,870 -degree Kelvin temperature. Nearly 1,000 lines can be resolved over tube face.

[Continued from page 39] The arrangement of the elements in the

high that they pose no serious problem. tetrode is shown in Fig. 6. The construction
But at the higher frequencies these is very similar to that of the triode of Fig.
capacitors act almost like short circuits, 4, except that an additional grid appears
that is, direct electrical connections. Thus between the control grid and the plate.
the capacitance between plate and grid, This screen grid acts as an "electrostatic
Cpg in Fig. 5, will permit direct feedback shield" between grid and plate. A positive
between plate and grid, without bothering voltage is maintained on the screen-
with the external feedback coil used in Fig. though often less than on the plate-but as
3. This is very fine if we want an oscillator, far as radio frequencies are concerned, the
and the principle is actually used in the screen is connected directly to ground.
tuned -plate tuned -grid oscillator, but it This apparently contradictory statement
makes the triode almost useless as a high - is a concept which turns up again and
frequency amplifier. again in electronic design, so we'd better
take time to give it a closer look. It can be
Space Charge understood better by reference to the typi-
Another phenomenon in the triode is the cal tetrode amplifier circuit of Fig. 7. Note
space charge. When the cathode emits elec- that any current flowing out of the tube
trons, not all of them get all the way to from the screen grid meets a "fork in the
the plate. Some will remain in a crowd road." It can go either to the screen voltage
immediately surrounding the cathode, supply, or through the screen capacitor to
where they will tend to repel other elec- ground.
trons as they try to get to the plate. Direct current cannot pass a capacitor,
The net effect of the space charge then however, so any DC must follow the right
is to reduce the flow of electrons between leg to the power supply. Radio frequencies,
cathode and plate. Just how effective it on the other hand, can follow either course.
may be depends largely on the amount of Now the by-pass capacitor has such a
positive "pull" attracting the electrons in value that its opposition to the flow of
the tube. In the tetrode we get more of this radio -frequency current is practically nil.
pull by adding a second grid which, like The RF therefore takes "the path of least
the plate, also has a positive voltage. resistance" and flows directly to ground.
42
 i

General Ele,tri (o.

As clean as a hospital operating room is the controlled atmosphere area in this power tube plant.
Access is through a double airlock; air is filtered to keep out dust, lint and foreign matter of a size
down to 1/250,000th inch diameter. Workers wear lint -free garments, hair and finger coverings.

Secondary Emission 3. Strike the screen grid and form part

Adding the screen grid effectively pre- of the screen current.
vents and RF amplifier from slipping into 4. Strike the plate and become part of
oscillation accidentally, but it also intro- the plate current.
duces another interesting phenomenon 5. Strike the plate and dislodge second-
which is not always desirable. If electrons ary electrons.
arriving at the plate from the cathode And this secondary emission of item 5 sets
strike the plate with sufficient force, other up a reverse current:
electrons loosely held in the plate material 6. Flow from plate to screen grid and
may be knocked free, out into the space add to the screen current.
between screen and plate. Electrons This reverse current results in a lower-
emitted in this manner are known as sec- ing of the efficiency of the tube as an am-
ondary electrons. These electrons may plifier, for this current in effect subtracts
then come under the influence of the volt- from the normal plate current flow and
age on the screen and be attracted there thus limits the overall voltage amplifica-
instead. The screen current will therefore tion of the tube. It may also cause the tube
increase while the plate current decreases. to be erratic in operation and make for dis-
Here is a case where the solution to one tortion.
problem creates another, for while second- Suppressor Grid
ary emission undoubtedly exists also in
diodes and triodes, in these tubes it has The most common cure for this problem
no undesirable effects. is an additional grid, known as the sup-
There are a full half -dozen different pressor, placed between the plate and
electron actions in the tetrode, as shown in screen. The suppressor is connected di-
Fig. 8(A). When an electron is emitted rectly to the cathode, often inside the tube
from the cathode, any of these things may itself. The voltage on the suppressor is
happen to it: therefore negative with respect to the
1. Remain suspended in the space charge plate.
surrounding the cathode. Now the electron action within the tube
2. Be repelled by the negative control is a little different, as shown in Fig. 8(B).
grid. The first five types of movement are the
[Continued on page 46]
43
 Building a
EXPERIMENT 6 Photocell Relay

NO LIGHT
PRESENT BOUND ELECTRONS
(DO NOT CARRY CURRENT)

LIGHT PHOTONS
PRESENT (UNITS OF ENERGY)

O
BOUND ABSORBS BECOMES
ELECTRUN PHOTON FREE ELECTRON
(CARRIES CURRENTI

Flashlight or pilot light, take your choice.

When flash is aimed at photocell (top
right), its resistance drops enough to
actuate relay and turn off pilot lamp.
When beam from flashlight is cut off
(photo right) pilot lamp goes on again.

RELAY

Ion loon
4VNI
19+
POWER
SUPPLY R-1 R-2

121(5

vGROUNh SO Pfd
120
110
VOLTS
- IC -2
-C-4
SOCYCLE
AC SENSITIVITY
CONTROL
MEG CW
R-7
IS OA
R -S

GROUND GROUND- v
 WHEREAS the microphone in the preceding ex- is small, and actually negative with respect to
periment had its resistance varied in the presence the cathode. Under these circumstances little or
of a sound wave, the photo -conductive cell in no plate current will flow, the relay is not ener-
this circuit shows a varying resistance in the gized, and the indicating lamp stays lit.
presence of light. But when light shines on the photocell, the
Referring to the drawing, when light strikes the resistance drops to a low value, permitting more
photocell, some of the electrons within the cell of the B+ voltage to be applied to grid 2. This
absorb energy from the light. This additional in turn causes the plate current to increase, to the
"kick" is sufficient to free some of the electrons point where the relay contacts flop over.
from their orbits, and if a voltage is applied Sensitivity of the circuit is determined by the
these electrons will drift toward the positive ter- setting of R,. The higher its clockwise setting, the
minal. The result is an electron current, higher the voltage applied to grid 2. Less light
Since the current increases, the effect is the
therefore will be needed to make the tube con-
same as if the resistance decreased In darkness
duct and actuate the relay.
at room temperature the resistance of this cell
is around 100,000 megohms (millions of ohms).
To use the relay, aim a beam of light at the
But in strong light this resistance falls to as low cell and slowly turn R, clockwise until the relay
as 1/100 megohm. pulls in and the indicator lamp goes out. Then
When the photocell resistance is high (no light), when the light beam is stopped off, the lamp
this resistance is between grid 2 and the B+ should go on again. The relay contacts may also
voltage. The result is that the voltage on grid 2 connect to an external circuit.

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45
 [Continued from page 43]
same as in the tetrode, but item 6 now
becomes:
6. Secondary electrons are repelled by
the suppressor and return to the plate.
Another method for eliminating the un-
desirable effects of secondary emission is
space -charge suppression, in which an
electron beam provides the negative force
for repelling secondary electrons back to
the plate. This method is employed in the
beam power tube, of which the 6L6 is the
classic example. The internal structure of
this tube is shown in Fig. 9.
As the drawing shows, the beam power
tube has a cathode of flat cross section,
surrounded by two oval -shaped grids. The
FIG. 5. A triode has capacitance between Its two grids have exactly the same number
internal elements, indicated here by broken line. of turns. In construction they are lined up
directly opposite one another, so that as
CATHODE CONTROL far as the electron stream is concerned, the
GRID screen grid is in the shadow of the control
grid.
Two solid metallic beam -forming plates
are placed at the ends of the grid struc-
tures and electrically connected to the
cathode. They should not be thought of as
the equivalent of a suppressor grid, how-
ever, as the principle is quite different. Nor
should they be confused with the anode
SCREEN
plate, which is circular in shape in the
GRID L ATE region where it is struck by the electron
beam.
As the electrons are emitted from the
flat cathode, they are naturally attracted
by the positive charges of the screen and
plate. But instead of scattering in all direc-
tions as in other tubes, they are confined
FIG. 6. Internal construction of the tetrode tube. to two wedge-shaped beams by the elec-
Electrons from the cathode travel through the con- trostatic effect of the end plates.
trol grid, to the screen grid, and then to plate. These two beams, which are emitted
from opposite faces of the cathode, are
composed of a series of lateral "sheets" of
electrons, formed as they stream through
the spaces between the in -line grid and
SCREEN screen wires. Because of the very high
GRID speed of the electron beam, plus the fact
that the screen grid is effectively "shaded"
by the control grid, nearly all the electrons
fly right on by the screen. Thus the screen
current is quite small, even though the
screen voltage may equal or even exceed
the plate voltage.
Voltage Drops
When the plate voltage drops below the
screen voltage, here is where we run into
trouble from secondary emission in the
tetrode, and where space -charge suppres-
- +90V +250V sion is most effective in the beam tube. To
understand this, we must first consider
FIG. 7. Screen grid in the tetrode tube reduces what causes the variation in plate voltage.
interelectrode capacitance by a shielding effect. The amplified plate current signal is
useful only if it is used to develop a voltage
across a suitable load device, such as a re-
sistor, coil or transformer. But this voltage
drop across the load acts against the DC
plate supply. That is, the voltage applied to
the plate at any moment is the supply volt-
age less the drop across the load. And since
this drop will be constantly varying as the
plate current varies, so, too, will the actual
voltage on the plate be changing similarly.
Although there are ways of minimizing
this effect, in power tubes especially it is
desirable that the plate be able to go
through wide voltage swings without dis-
tortion. At the same time, the screen grid
is most effective in doing its job when its
voltage is as high as possible. So it is in-
evitable that at times the plate voltage will
swing below the screen potential.
It -is at these times that the screen grid
in the tetrode is most active in drawing
off the secondary electrons and adding
them into the screen current. But in the
beam power tube quite a different phe-
nomenon occurs. Here a space charge is
set up between the plate and screen, to
form an electron barrier against the sec-
ondary electrons.
As the electron beam moves out of the
region of the screen, it slows down when
the plate voltage is less than the screen
voltage. There is then a low -velocity
region between screen and plate, where
the electrons pile up into a high -density
space charge. This region is shown by the
heavy dashed lines between screen grid
and plate in Fig. 9. And since electrons
themselves are negative charges, this dense Reston Instruments
space charge cloud is intense enough to Front and rear view of photographic exposure
repel the secondary electrons back to the meter shows, top, the rear hinged baffle which
plate where they belong. opens to admit extra light to photocell. Closed
Both pentodes and beam tubes have baffle admits light through holes in strong sunlight.
greater output, sensitivity and efficiency,
as compared to tetrodes. As a result, they
are used extensively for audio amplifica-
tion, and almost exclusively for video and
radio applications.
Diagram below shows function of photocell in
Photoelectric Cells light meter. Light striking cell acts on the indi-
The photocell relay of Experiment No. 6 cator needle which registers on value scale.
is an interesting application of photoelec-
tric principles. Photocells are special types - c -
of tubes, quite different in their behavior
from the electron tubes we have been
studying. There are three basic types of
cells. The photo -conductive cell, which is
the type used in Experiment No. 6, changes
its resistance to the flow of current as the
amount of light falling on it is varied. The
photo-voltiac cell generates a voltage
across its terminals when its face is struck Reston instrunents
by light. The photo -emissive cell is similar
47
 RCA - NUVISTOR TRIODE
I DEVELOPMENTAL)

General Electric Co. Radio Corp. of America

Ceramic circuits, "TIMMs,' for space electronics, The Nuvistor uses ceramic wafer platform sup-
include vacuum tubes, resistors and capacitors. porting an array of electrodes, Is about 1/10th
Photo shows comparison with standard tube. size of regular tube. The triode is shown above.

to a diode vacuum tube, except that its

cathode emits electrons when it is struck
by light, rather than heat as in conven-
tional tubes.
The most common use of the photo -con-
ductive cell is in a relay circuit as in Ex-
periment No. 6. The relay can be used to
control a warning device, or to operate an
electric motor, as in a garage door opener.
It is also an integral part of some types of
color -matching instruments.
A very familiar application of the photo-
voltiac cell is as a light meter. The pho-
tographer's exposure meter is an excellent
example of this. Another is in the control
of automatic wrapping machinery. Guide
Westinghouse Electric Corp. marks on the edges of the paper coming off
"Match Box" tube envelope, a new design, will of huge rolls are "read" by the cell, which
probably result in improved circuits. Tube stem in turn tells the shears when to cut. The
is eliminated and all leads are in one plane. resulting wrapper is then exactly the right
size, with the cut at the edge of the print-
"Stacked-tubes -in -glass," shown here without ing, not through the middle of it.
glass envelope, feature all elements around Although magnetic sound recording has
one axis, with ceramic spacers replacing mica. made great inroads in the motion picture
Sylvan)a Electric Co. field, the original system of photographing
a varying light beam is still widely used.
This optical track is invariably scanned by
a photo -emissive cell in the projector.
A fixed light shines on the cell through
the sound track on the film as the film
passes through the projector. As either the
area or the density of the track varies, so
will the emission of the tube. Hence the trode, a focusing electrode, and finally an-
output current of the tube will vary at an other accelerating electrode. Thus it is not
audio rate, exactly in accordance with the too unlike the tubes we have already
signal recorded on the film. studied.
But the cathode ray tube also requires a
The TV Camera deflection system, which permits the beam
Another interesting application of to move around, just as a searchlight beam
photo -emissive principles is in the televi- scans the skies. Finally, the CRT has a
sion camera. This instrument has an optical screen, which lights up whenever the beam
system just like any ordinary camera, but strikes it.
its image surface, instead of being a piece The brightness of the light spot on the
of sensitized film, is instead a mosaic com- face of the tube is controlled by the video
prising many thousands of photo -emissive signal received from the transmitter and
"globules." applied to the control grid. When the grid
Each of these globules will emit elec- is made more negative than normal, the
trons, the amount of emission depending spot dims, while a positive -going signal
upon the brightness of the light striking will increase the brightness.
them. The electrical state of each of these At the same time, the spot sweeps back
globules is then "read" one by one, and a and forth across the tube so fast that it
video signal voltage thereby developed. seems to cover the entire face of the tube
When this signal is superimposed on a at once. The formation of the picture is
radio signal, it goes out on the air as the therefore the result of the combination of
picture part of a television program. signals which position the spot at any in-
At the receiving end we need another stant, and give it the correct brightness at
type of beam tube to perform the inverse that same instant.
procedure. That is, the picture tube in our Cathode-ray tubes are also extensively
TV set must reconvert electrical signals used in electronic instruments for meas-
back into light. The correct name for this urement and analysis of electric waves.
device is the cathode-ray tube. The television color tube is essentially
This tube has three basic components. three tubes in one, with three electron
The electron gun produces an electron guns and deflection systems, and with a
stream, accelerates it, and focuses it into single screen which will glow in any of the
a narrow beam. It usually comprises a three primary colors, depending upon the
cathode, control grid, an accelerating elec- angle from which the beam strikes.

FIG. 8. Comparison of the electron flow in the FIG. 9. In a beam power tube sheets of electrons
tetrode tube (A) and pentode tube, with its travel to the plate from the cathode in center.
added suppressor (B). See text for detailed account.

BEAM -
CONFINING
ELECTRODE

CATHODE
GRID

SC PEEN
GRID

(A) (B)

PLATE

49
 Chapter 4

TUBELESS TUBES
Transistors and other semiconductors
r

Beil Laboratorles

USEFUL as electron tubes are, they are insulators. But they have other qualities
not essential to the súccessful opera- which make them remarkably useful for
tion of electronic devices. Indeed, probably electronic applications.
the very first radio receiver in your home With these applications, research into
was a crystal set, with no tubes at all. If still others has proceeded, to rapidly
crystal sets were before your time, you can accelerate the growth of that branch of
go back to this romantic era of radio science known as solid-state physics. For
history simply by performing Experiment in crystalline semiconductor materials,
No. 7, where you actually build a crystal unlike tubes in which electrons flow
radio set. through a vacuum or gas, the flow of
The crystal used in your radio is galena, electrons takes place through a solid sub-
an ore of lead, but as we shall see many stance. This in itself isn't new, of course.
other crystalline materials are now used It happens every day in metallic conduc-
in electronics. All of these substances have tors. But the way in which it happens in
one thing in common: their molecules are semiconducting materials is quite a differ-
always confined to a definite small space ent story.
relative to their neighboring molecules. Two of the materials most commonly
For purposes of visualizing what goes on used for electronic semiconductors are
inside these crystals, they are often repre- germanium and silicon. These are both
sented as comprising a lattice -like form. chemical elements, and what's more, in
Other substances, which have no regularly their pure state each of them is a very poor
spaced lattice are called amorphous. conductor. It is only after deliberate
Semiconductors doping with an impurity that they take on
their rather marvelous semiconducting
Another thing which many of these properties.
crystalline substances have in common is You will recall from Chapter 2 that the
the fact that electrically they are semi- electrons in the outermost shell of the
conductors. As we learned previously, atom are the ones which may be freed to
there are no perfect conductors and no form an electric current. In the case of
perfect insulators. But until fairly recently, germanium, there are four electrons in this
most of the materials involved in electronic outer shell. To simplify our discussion, we
current flow have been close to one of these will ignore those in the inner shells, and
two extremes. Now, out in the middle simply regard the germanium atom as
somewhere, we find semiconductors, which comprising a nucleus of four protons
are neither good conductors nor good surrounded by four electrons.
50
FIG. 1. Germanium crystal structure. Pure ger- FIG. 2. When germanium is doped with a valence -

manium is theoretically a perfect insulator be- 5 material, an electron flow can take place as
the case in an ordinary electron conductor.
cause
\\
of

// /
\
powerful bond between outer electrons.

//
is

/
\
\
/
/ /
\ \ /
GERMANIUM
NUCLEUS /
GERMANIUM `,
NUCLEUS
ARSENIC
NUCLEUS

\-
.\ /
/
/ \ FREE
ELECTRON
--
ELECTRON
BOND t.
ELECTRON

VOLTAGE
\ \ ELECTRON
-SUPPLY
- - - FLOW
I

\
+

Left. Arrangement of atoms in silicon is back- FIG. 3. When germanium is doped with a valence -
ground for refined silicon and variously shaped 3 material, the electron flow is effected by the

j
ingots of silicon. Transistor sits atop ingot. movement of "holes" toward negative terminal.
GERMANIUM \
/NUCLEUS
The Crystal Lattice INDIUM
NUCLEUS-
Now, since germanium is normally a / \ ,
crystal, its atoms assume the lattice
structure shown in simplified form in Fig. /
1. Here we see that adjacent atoms share
each other's outershell electrons, to tie the \
"HPOLE"
/
-
/
_ ELECTRON
BOND
whole structure together in a strong /
cohesive bond. If this bond were absolutely
perfect, there would be no free electrons
available, and germanium would be a
perfect insulator. As a practical matter, /

heat energy will occasionally dislodge a VOLTAGE

few electrons, but it takes more than this
to achieve the semiconducting properties
-- ELECTRON
FLOW
-I IlSUPPLY

+
that we want. Drs. W. Shockley, W. H. Brattain and J. Bardeen,
Suppose that we dope the germanium were awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics
with a controlled quantity of another ele- for their invention of the transistor. They are
ment having five electrons in its outer shown with model of semiconductor crystal.
shell. Either antimony or arsenic will fill Bell Laboratories
the bill. The fifth electron has no place in
the tight structure of Fig. 1, but is free to
roam at will. That is, it's a free electron.
The structure of Fig. 1 is then modified
to appear as in Fig. 2. Now each arsenic
atom becomes a donor of one free electron.
When a voltage is applied across this
crystal, there will be a flow of free elec-
trons through the circuit. Thus the
external behavior of the doped germanium
is the same as with any conductor. The
current flow is made up of free electrons,
or negative charges. The germanium is
therefore known as N -type.
You might infer from this that there is
another type of doped germanium, in
 BARRIER which there is a flow of positive particles,
P N -ELECTRONS and which might be known as P -type. And
HOLES o astonishingly enough, you'd be very nearly
o o right. Suppose now that we dope pure
0 germanium with a material having only
O0
0 three electrons in its outer shell, one less
---111. .011--- than the germanium atoms have. Gallium
or indium will serve this purpose very
well.
HIGH
FORWARD Positive Holes
CURRENT
Using indium, as in Fig. 3, we see that
one of the electron bonds around each
ELECTRON
FLOW -- indium atom has an electron missing. As
compared with the ideal structure of Fig.
1, there is now a "hole." But since a defi-
FIG. 4. When voltage of correct polarity is ap-
ciency of electrons indicates a positive
plied across P-N junction, current flows in ex- charge, this is the condition of the
ternal circuit from P layer around to N section. germanium with the indium impurity.
Going even further, however, the "hole"
BARRIER in the lattice acts just like a real positively
charged particle when a voltage is applied
across the crystal.
Referring again to Fig. 3, when the volt-
age is applied, stresses are formed which
encourage electrons within the crystal to
move in the direction of the positive
terminal by jumping into the holes in the
LOW
structure. But since there are simply no
REVERSE free electrons available, this means that
CURRENT more holes open up near the positive
terminal. Thus, while the electrons tend
ELECTRON to move toward the positive terminal, the
FLOW
holes in effect are simultaneously moving
toward the negative terminal.
Now we have an excess of electrons near
FIG. 5. When the voltage is reversed, with the the positive terminal and a deficiency of
negative terminal to P and the positive to N, electrons near the negative terminal. This
the resulting current flow will be almost zero.
is the classic condition for the flow of an
electric current through the external cir-
 ELECTRONS
cuit, and such a flow does in fact take place.
Loosely held electrons, which had re-
cently filled holes near the positive
P N / P
-HOLES
terminal, enter the external circuit. New 00°
O 0 0 0 óó
0
°.4
holes are thus created, which in turn are
filled as deficient indium atoms near the
0o
O
0
0
oo o -
positive terminal and rob their neighbors oo o 0
which are closer to the negative terminal.
As the holes reach that terminal, mean-
-
while, they are filled by electrons entering 1
from the external circuit. The current flow
may thus be thought of as the movement
of holes from negative to positive within
the crystal, and of electrons from negative
to positive in the external circuit.
T +

The indium atoms which are constantly sec-

stealing from their wealthier germanium IG. 6 . With negative voltages on both the P
neighbors are called acceptors. A crystal tions of the P -N-P transistor, there will not be any
current flow except for an initial surge. (See text.)
doped in this fashion is called a P -type,
for although there is no actual movement
of positive charges, the holes act just as if
they were protons in motion. Current flow
by means of holes in P -type crystals occurs ELECTRONS
at a much slower rate than that by means

i
EMITTER BASE COLLECTOR
of electron movement in N -types, but it P
000
N
o
F
HOLES
does occur nevertheless.
Two -Way Conduction 'ELECTRON
°ó

i o°oi o°o
óó
° é
00
°°
o0
o0
---
ELECTRON
FLOW
If we reverse the polarities of the bat-
FLOW
e MOVEMENT
HOLE
teries in Figs. 2 or 3, current flow will con-
tinue as before, but in opposite direction.
Rate of flow will be essentially unchanged.
Aside from the rather unique behavior -T
of electron flow by hole conduction through
P -type crystals, we haven't as yet accom-
plished anything very useful. The useful-
ness of semiconductors becomes apparent FIG. 7. When the P-N -P transistor is correctly
only when we can also give them rectifying biased, there is a flow of electrons In external
properties (see Experiment No. 4). circuit, but a flow of "holes" within crystal.
[Continued on page 56]

Cristobalite; 4. Potassium dihy-

Crystal structure Models: 1. Zircblende; 2. Caesium chloride; 3. 9. Wurtzite; 10. Copper/
drogen phosphate; 5. Diamond; 6. Pyrites; 7. Arsenic; 8. Sodium chloride;
15. Carbon dioxide; 16. Alpha -quartz.
11. Niccolite; 12. Sptnel; 13. Graphite; 14. Beryllium;
EXPERIMENT 7 Building a Crystal Set

Simplicity of construction is
evident from open rear view
of diode receiver. Note
hearing -aid type phone.

v ANT.
LOOPSTICK
DIODE

aQ
-_J
PHONE

OND.

Set enclosed in case resembles miniature

portable, without volume control or speaker.

54
 WE have now built two radio transmitters, and coupled directly to the tuned circuit, where vary-
it seems time that we begin to experiment with ing the capacitor will tune to the desired signal.
receivers. The one shown here is built from a The output of the tuned circuit is connected by
Superex kit, and uses a single semiconductor means of a tap on the loopstick to the diode.
diode, which serves exactly the same purpose as This diode is a one-way device, very much like
the galena crystal of the early dcys of radio. the rectifier in Experiment No. 4. The diode acts
The Superex kit is unique in that no soldering only as a half-wave rectifier, however, and thus
is required. All interconnections are made using passes only the positive -going signal pulses. At
machine screws, washers and bolts, as the draw- this point the wave is still modulated radio fre-
ing shows. Thus the only absolutely essential tool quencies, while we need audio to drive the
is a small screwdriver. headphones.
The antenna wire has a small alligator clip on In a crystal set, the usual way of doing this was
the end, which may be clipped on the bare metal to connect a capacitor in parallel with the head-
of a bed spring, or the telephone wires will act phones, with the r -f by-passing around the phones
as additional antenna when you clip onto the through the capacitor. In this circuit we depend
nickel -plated finger stop on the phone dial. A upon the distributed capacitance in both the ear-
ground connection is not usually necessary unless phone windings and in the diode to filter out the
stations are more than thirty miles away. Then r -f. This type circuit is essential to any radio
clipping onto a cold water pipe will :make a solid receiver, the more elaborate ones merely having
ground. the addition of amplifiers, r -f preceding and audio
The radio signals striking the antenna are following.

Clear drawings snake

GROUND this ideal beginner set.

vuCeue CuAc1ro0
u
3 rd
WASHER

WIRE 2 nd
WASHER

let
WASHER

CHASSIS
BOARD

55
 Hughes Aimait Cu.

Automation in industry with all -electronically

controlled machine tools, is helped by printed
circuits incorporating transistors and diodes.

HOLES
EMITTER BASE COLLECTOR
N P N
o
i
/ELECTRONS

'ELECTRON
FLOW
00¡ i oo
o 1L oo
o

co
o
óo
o
C. ELECTRON
FLOW
t

T T-
FIG. 8. In the N-P -N transistor, above, internal
conduction takes place by movement of electrons
rather than by holes. See text for details.

[Continued from page 53]

Suppose now that we join together pieces into the N area and the electrons move
of P- and N -type germanium, as shown in toward the P area. When the electrons and
Fig. 4. As a practical matter, such a junc- holes meet, they combine and effectively
tion is obtained in either of two ways. The cancel each other out.
grown junction is a single crystal which But at the same time, an electron bond
begins with only one of the two types of near the positive terminal breaks down,
impurities. During the growth process, and for every combination of an electron
while the material is in a state of melt, and a hole at the junction, there is a free
impurities of the other kind are added, and electron which enters the positive leg of
the remainder of the crystal takes the the external circuit. But this in turn
opposite form. creates a new hole which must then move
The fused junction is formed by impress- toward the junction.
ing small quantities of indium into the In the negative leg, meanwhile, free
surface of an N -type germanium wafer. electrons are arriving from the battery to
The application of heat fuses the indium to enter the N region of the junction. These
the surface of the germanium, producing a replace the electrons lost by combination
P-type film over the N-type base. Thus with the holes at the junction. Again we
there is a P -N junction between this P have an excess of electrons at the negative
layer and the N -type wafer. terminal, and these also tend to move
As we noted in Figs. 2 and 3, the N region toward the junction to combine with new
of the junction will have a supply of free holes arriving there. The result is a fairly
electrons, while the P area will have a large current flow through the junction
number of holes. When a voltage is applied and in the external circuit.
across the junction with the polarity Now consider what happens when we
shown in Fig. 4, the holes are repelled by reverse the polarity of the voltage supply,
the positive potential and the electrons by as shown in Fig. 5. The holes are now
the negative. Thus they both tend to move attracted to the negative terminal and the
toward the junction, where they combine. electrons to the positive terminal, both
This action is responsible for the high away from the junction. Since there is no
forward current indicated by the deflec- effort to break through the barrier and
tion of the meter pointer. complete the circuit, almost no current
flows.
The Junction Diode Thus we have a diode, which conducts
Let's examine this a little more closely, current in only one direction, behaving
to see what is actually occurring within very much like the diode discussed in
the junction. While normally there is a Chapter 3 and demonstrated in Experi-
barrier which prevents the free movement ment No. 4. And semiconductor diodes
of holes and electrons across the junction, have exactly the same applications as
this is effectively broken as long as the as electron -tube diodes, namely, as detec-
voltage is applied. Thus the holes move tors and rectifiers.
56
 EMITTER COLLECTOR
trons and holes to meet at the junctions,

H
EMITTER

1
N
COLLECTOR

'P: N
current flows only momentarily and then
stops completely.
Transistor Bias
BASE Now let's reverse the polarity of just one
of the batteries, to give us the arrangement
of Fig. 7. The voltage on the left P section
EMITTER COLLECTOR EMITTER COLLECTOR is now known as a forward bias, while that
on the right P section is called a reverse
bias. The forward biased section is called
the emitter, while the reverse biased sec-
tion is known as the collector. The center
BASE section is called the base. These designa-
tions hold for all three-element transistors,
whether P -N -P or N -P -N, and whether
FIG. 9. The basic forms and equivalent circuit their construction is of the junction or
symbols of the two three -element transistors. point -contact type.
The N -P -N is at top with the P -N -P shown below. When the voltage is applied as in Fig.
7, the holes in the emitter cross the barrier
into the base territory. But the N section
The Transistor is so thin that the holes find few electrons
And just as the triode tube evolved from to join with, and so they go right on across
the addition of the grid to the diode, it the second junction to the collector. At this
would seem that a semiconductor triode point, electrons from the collector battery
might somehow evolve from its own diode enter the negative terminal of the transis-
counterpart. And this is exactly what tor and cancel out the holes.
happened in 1948, with the invention of the But for each hole that is lost by com-
transistor. The discovery was so momen- bination with an electron in the collector,
tous to the electronic art that it earned for an electron bond is broken in the emitter,
its inventors the Nobel Prize in physics. and a free electron is permitted to flow
The junction transistor is a direct out- toward the positive terminal of the emitter
growth of the junction diode we have just battery. The supply of holes is thus being
studied. It comprises three sections of constantly replenished in the emitter, and
germanium, in either a P -N -P or N -P -N these holes in turn find their way toward
configuration. Transistors are used the collector.
throughout in the radio circuit of Experi- Since the base in effect is hardly more
ment No. 8. All functions normally served than a transparent window between the
by tubes in the usual superheterodyne two junctions, it might seem that the tran-
radio are here handled by transistors, plus sistor is behaving much like an ordinary
a semiconductor diode detector. diode, and is thus useful only for rectifica-
As we see in Fig. 6, the P -N -P transistor tion or detection. But you will see that
is essentially a "sandwich," with a section this is not so, as we observe still another
of N -type germanium surrounded on both phenomenon of transistor operation.
sides by P sections. In actual practice, the Remember that the base is not com-
N layer is very much thinner than the P pletely transparent, for there will always
sections. The double junction may be made be a few electron -hole combinations
by either the grown or fused methods occurring in the base. That is, not all of the
already described for diodes. holes pass through the base in their
Two voltages are applied to the transis- journey from the emitter. This means that
tor, one to either leg. When the polarities the collector current will always be less
are as shown in Fig. 6, both of the P layers than the current in the emitter.
are negative with respect to the N section, Furthermore, no current can flow out of
which also means that N is positive with the collector unless electrons are also flow-
respect to P. Under these conditions, the ing into the emitter. But only a small
free electrons in the N section tend to move voltage is required to develop rather large
away from the junctions and toward the emitter currents. At the same time, rather
positive battery terminals. The "positive" large voltages can be applied to the collec-
holes similarly are attracted away from the tor. This means that for fairly small power
junctions under the influence of the nega- inputs we can have quite large power
tive battery terminals. Since this arrange- outputs. The power gain of transistors can
ment affords no opportunity for the elec- [Continued on page 60]
57
 Building a
EXPERIMENT 8 Transistor Radio
BODY SIZE AND
SHAPE MAY VARY

UUU
O O O COLLECTOR
EMITTER COLLECTOR
BASE
p p
8ase
Collector

Second 2N107 transistor is plugged

into its socket (above) to finish
components installation. Tuning
(above, right) is accomplished by
varying position of slug in coil
since capacitor value is fixed.

58
 THE little transistor receiver here is a direct through C,,, while the desired audio passes on
descendent of the diode set you built in Experi- through C, to the base of TR,,.
ment No. 7. The first stage (TR:,) is a detector - The main job of TR,, is to build up the audio
amplifier, while the second stage (TR,,) is an audio to a level satisfactory for headphone use, and it
amplifier. Note the similarity of this input circuit therefore amplifies the signal many times more.
and method of coupling to that of the diode set. The level of the signal in the headphones is
The only difference is that here we tune by vary- adjusted by the volume control, R,. The head-
ing the inductance instead of the capacitance. phones convert the electrical signals from TRb
The selected signal from the tuned circuit is into audible sound. The way in which headphones
impressed on the base of the first transistor. Since operate will be described in Experiment No. 9.
this component has three elements, rather than Transistors are made 'in various sizes and
only two as in the diode, it has the ability to shapes, as shown in the drawing. Most of them
amplify as well as rectify. This particular circuit
have three elements, and therefore three leads,
is analogous to the grid -leak type of tube detec-
which usually are not equally spaced. In these
tor, in which the incoming modulated signal is
first rectified and then amplified. types the spacing of the leads is the key to
The final process of demodulation or detection identifying the leads. In the equally spaced types,
occurs through capacitor C,,. The capacitance of usually a red dot is used to identify the collector.
this component is such that it offers little opposi- And in nearly all cases the base will be found in
tion to r-f, but effectively blocks audio. Hence the center. In the unequally spaced type the
the radio component of the wave is shorted out emitter is closer to the base.

á
i Eu 0 0 0 0 O 0 0 0 0 O O O G G
0 O O O G O G G O O O O 0; ''
ALI0
0 0 0 0 O 0 0 0 0 G 0
0 J 0 0 0 O 0 0 r O r' 0 0 0 0 0 1 O
G 0 0 0 O G C fl J 0 O O "90
O 0 0 0 G 0 G 0 4 O G 0 O G O G G
0 O 0 0 BUTr O O O O O O O
0 O O O O O O G O O 0 0
O O 0 o O 0 0 0 0 0 0 O O 0 0
G 0 , O O O O O O O G 0

;aero R4 Rz
O 0
0
G
0
0 0
O \i
D

D
O O 0
O'
0
G O
O O
KO
0
o
o
LI
O 0 G O 0IO O O O O,OOQ .

O O O ,I
O Illjlllll
D O sow O O O O Q OLGC1'JO O
o 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 O
i
O O
3
0 G 0 o O O O . O

PHONES V

59
 P -N -P N -P -N
EMITTER COLLECTOR EMITTER COLLECTOR

INPUT OUTPUT

BASE

COMMON -BASE, EMITTER -INPUT

COLLECTOR COLLECTOR
BASE BASE
OUTPUT OUTPUT
INPUT INPUT
EM EMITTER 17
NMI

IT T-
- COMMON -EMITTER, BASE -INPUT

EMITTER EMITTER
BASE BASE
OUTPUT OUTPUT
INPUT
INPUT
COLLECTOR
COLLECTOR
ss
T T+
COMMON -COLLECTOR, BASE -INPUT 7.

FIG. 10. Three modes of connection are possible

FIG. 11. Sharp electrodes of point-contact tran- with each of the two transistor types. Circuit
sistors are reminiscent of "cat's whiskers" in connections are shown above with the P -N-P type
crystal sets. They may soon be equally obsolete. at left and the N -P -N transistor on the right.
[Continued from page 57]
in fact approach 1,000 or more. Transistors
EMITTER COLLECTOR can therefore be used as amplifiers and
oscillators as well, just like tubes.
TUNGSTEN OR We can also make a transistor by revers -
PHOSPHOR ing the sandwich ingredients, to come up
BRONZE with the N -P -N transistor shown in Fig. 8.
P- TYPE ELECTRODES The conduction process is similar to that
AREAS for the P-N -P, except that the internal
GERMANIUM current is carried primarily by electrons
BASE rather than holes.
Under the influence of the emitter bat-
tery, electrons leave the emitter, overcome
60
 counterparts of tetrodes, pentodes,tubes. and
the barrier and enter the base of area. Since
region is very thin, most the elec- more complex types of electron
this P There is, however, a so-called tetrode
trons go right through it into the collector. transistor. This is really a misnomer, how-
At this point they are attracted by the ever, for the unit still has only three active
positive potential of the collector battery Elec- germanium elements.
and thus enter the external circuit. The purpose of the tetrode is to improve
tron flow therefore takes place continu- the rather poor high -frequency response
ously in the direction shown in Fig. 8.
-P -N of transistors. This shortcoming has two
The electron flow within the N
in the causes. One of them is collector capaci-
transistor is very similar to that if this be tance, which acts as a shunt for high
conventional triode tube. ButP -N -P con- frequencies, very much like interelectrode
we realize that the
true, then capacitance in a tube. Furthermore, there
cept, in which the major charge carriers is the problem of transit time, the actual
are positive (for in effect thatnew, is exactly
the holes are), is wholly for the time it requires the charge carriers to move
what
be built in which positive through the crystal and arrive at the col-
tube is yet to lector. When the polarity of the collector
charges flow through it. For this reason, voltage changes so rapidly that the charge
the two types of transistors haveshown separate
in carriers don't have time to move all the
circuit symbol designations, as way across to the collector, then the
Fig. 9. current and the gain will drop consider-
Transistor Circuits ably.
These troubles are partially overcome
In the examples of Figs. 7 and 8, we have the by the tetrode transistor. This is really no
used a common -base connection for this is more than a conventional N -P -N transis-
Using circuit symbols,
transistor.
types transistor at the tor, with a second connecting lead attached
shown for both of
to the opposite side of the base from the
top of Fig. 10. Other connections are also conventional lead. With a common -base
possible, as Fig. 10 shows. To understand to circuit, with the usual base connection
these various types, it is convenienttube grounded, a small negative voltage to is
compare them to their counterpart the applied to the second lead. This tendsnear
circuits. In doing so, we can consider have a repelling effect on electronsin the
emitter of the transistor as roughly the wire, and to concentrate them This
the base
analagous to the cathode of a tube, collector area of the regular base connection. or
similar to the control grid, and the effectively makes the P region smallerThe
as comparable to the plate. thinner, and the base resistance lower.
The common -base connection we have result is a shorter transit time, with a con-
been studying is thus generally similar toit sequent raising of the upper frequency
the grounded -grid triode circuit. While limit.
was convenient for examining transistor
physics, it is not the most commonlyhigh used The Point -Contact Transistor
circuit. It is useful, however, as a cir-- All of the junction transistors were pre-
frequency amplifier, where ordinary ceded by an earlier type, known as the
cuits might tend to go into spurious oscilla- point -contact transistor. This is illustrated
tion. in Fig. 11. While your crystal radio in
The common -emitter circuit is compar- Experiment No. 7 had a "cat's whisker,"
able to the conventional grounded -cathode you will note that this transistor has two.
tube circuit. It has the greatest flexibility
also The transistor is formed in manufacture
and efficiency of the three types, and And by passing a current through these elec-
the highest voltage and power gain. the trodes. This results in two small areas at
like the grounded-cathode, it is also their tips acquiring essentially we P -type
most used. behavior. The consequence is that now
The common-collector is roughly anala- have effectively a P -N -P transistor.
gous to the grounded -plate circuit, better Because of the small barrier areas, along
known as the cathode follower. It is not
with low self -capacitance of the collector,
an amplifier, for like the cathode follower, the point-contact transistor has somewhat
it actually has a gain of less than one.is As
in
than the
better high -frequency response types
a loss device, its greatest application are
junction type. But the junction because
impedance matching or isolation between and
constantly being improved,
two stages or devices. they are simpler and cheaper to manu-
The Tetrode Transistor facture, they will probably eventually
Transistor technology has not yet pro- supplant altogether the earlier junction
types.
gressed to the point where we have the
61
 Chapter 5

ELECTRONS AT PLAY
Radio - - Hi-Fi
TV
Photo right. "Electrons at play" in the home are typified
here is a complete stereo component installation, including by today's modern hi-fi equipment. Shown
tape recorder, speakers and a television set.

By far the most popular form of electronic entertainment

phones plus miles of cables are involved in the prodactlonis the television show. Many cameras, micro-
of the average network telecast, see below.

NBC Tel eclº1on

 THE first widespread use of electronics phones is their low output. Although they
was in the opening up of whole new generate their own voltages, these signals
worlds of entertainment. First came radio are rather feeble and must immediately be
broadcasting, then phonograph recording, boosted to a usable level. And this is where
followed by soundfilm recording and, most the audio amplifier comes into the picture.
recently, television. Except for phonograph A simple type of such amplifier is your
records, which earlier were recorded and construction project in Experiment No. 9.
reproduced by rather crude methods, each The audio amplifier has one primary
of these arts was wholly new and unique. purpose. It must reinforce the feeble
Instantaneous transmission of sound over signals fed to its input without altering
great distances was wholly unknown be- them in any other way. Any alteration of
fore radio (except for the telephone, which these signals is recognizable as distortion.
was limited to private communications). The high-level output signals from the
The motion picture was strictly a panto- audio amplifiers may be fed to any of a
mime art until electronics gave it a voice. variety of devices, depending upon specific
And while a television presentation is requirements. If they are required for a
somewhat like sound movies, the factors of broadcast network, they will now be fed
instantaneous transmission and simul- into high-fidelity telephone lines and sent
taneous reception were wholly without on their way to distant stations. If they are
precedent. to be stored for future use, they will go
into another transducer, in the form of a
Microphones disc recording cutter, a film recording
In each of these arts, at the beginning of head, or a tape recorder. And if they are
the sound chain there must be a transducer to be broadcast immediately, they will be
for converting sound waves into electronic fed into a radio or television transmitter.
signals. This transducer is the microphone. But if they are to be heard directly, they
The earliest microphones were essentially will be immediately reconverted to sound
sound -sensitive variable resistors, and by means of a loudspeaker or headphones.
were derived from telephone practice. This Recording Systems
is the type microphone used in Experiment
No. 5, and again in Experiment No. 9. The cutter used to engrave a groove on
Although the carbon microphone is still an original phonograph disc is a vibrating
used in telephones, for hi-fi entertainment motor, something like that in an electric
use there are many other preferable types. shaver. But instead of driving a pair of
One distinguishing characteristic of all of shears, it moves a plow -shaped sapphire
these is that they generate their own volt- stylus through a soft lacquer surface on an
ages, rather than varying an externally aluminum disc. Film recorders today may
supplied current. These newer micro- be either magnetic or optical. In the older
phones have a number of advantages, but optical system, a light beam varies with
probably the primary reason for their use the audio signals along the edge of photo-
is the fact that they perform with much graphically sensitized movie film, to ex-
higher fidelity. pose the sound track. Magnetic recorders,
[Continued on page 66]
Another characteristic of hi-fi micro-
63
 Building an
EXPERIMENT 9 Audio Amplifier

So

POWER
SUPPLY
CR
IpOEi RELAY
WIMOING
R-I R -t

CARSON
YiCROPNON VOLUME
CWN
CCW ® O
C HEADPHONE

C -E

POW R NEATER FOR

NANSFORAER 12 RS
GROUND

-r-CLECTRONASGNET
NG MIN01

NEAONONE
LEADS 1 1

SOINO WAVES
IN AIR

PERNANENT DIAPHRAGM'
NAANET PULLS IN OR IPRINGS OUT 1
AS MAGNETIC EFFECT VARIES/

Final steps in construction

comprise insertion of mi-
crophone and headphone
tips in the Fahnstock clips.

One -tube amplifier isn't

strong enough to power a
loudspeaker, but is loud
enough for phones (right).

64
 THIS little audio amplifier will build up signals microphone, and connect one wire from the car-
from a microphone or phono cartridge to ade- tridge to MICROPHONE A, and the other wire to
quate level for headphone operation. Unlike the either of the GROUND clips. Do not use the B
tetrodes discussed in Chapter 3, the 12K5
tube microphone clip, for this would put plate voltage
is here connected with the first grid acting like across the cartridge and possibly cause serious
the conventional screen accelerator, while the damage.
second grid acts as the control grid. This rather The output from the plate circuit, the amplified
unconventional circuitry is used so that the operat- signal, goes to the headphones through C, and
ing voltages may be kept low, with all exposed R,. Headphones and loudspeakers are known as
parts at a safe potential. electro -acoustic transducers, because they convert
The audio signals are actually applied to both electrical signals into sound, just the opposite of
grids, but only grid 1 has a positive bias as well. what the microphone does. Most headphones
The B+ voltage is blocked off from grid 2 by operate on electromagnetic principles and, as
capacitor Ce, while the audio readily passes right shown in the drawing, contain a permanent mag-
through it. The plate current stream is therefore net which is wound with electromagnetic coils.
caused to vary exactly as the voltage on the two Current through the coils causes them to generate
grids varies. a magnetic field which will alternately add to and
The microphone develops the audio signal as subtract from that of the permanent magnet. The
was explained in Experiment No. 5. If a phono
diaphragm will therefore set up sound waves in
cartridge is to be used instead, it should be of
air as it vibrates back and forth in following
the piezo type (either crystal or ceramic), with
these magnetic variations.
an output of at least 0.25 volt. Disconnect the

BUSBAR (BARE WIRE)

ra,,
11 ' itIlf'1
VENTILATED AREA
OF COVER

INOM.ATOR LAMP

65
 i

unmoduloted radio -frequency

carrier wave
PLUS

audio -frequency modulating signal Major Edwin H. Armstrong, a prolific radio in-
ventor, is best known for his discovery of FM.

[Continued from page 63]

which may have either tape or film as the
recording medium, have electromagnetic
recording heads which magnetize the
metallic material on the surface of the tape
or film.
Radio transmitters for the broadcasting
of sound have three basic elements: a
generator or radio waves, a modulator for
combining sound signals with radio waves,
and a radiating system, or antenna. The
generator is an oscillator, as was discussed
in Chapter 3, and the antenna is a tower,
or a set of long wires, or some other con-
figuration depending upon the frequency
and other factors.
But the radio transmitter alone is of
r" little use without some means of applying
it to the transmission of information. The
simplest way of doing this is to turn the
transmitter on and off according to a pre-
determined code. This is analogous to the
Indian smoke signals, where a blanket
over a fire is used to release puffs of smoke
at stated intervals. As the electronic
counterpart of this, in Experiment No. 1,
resultant AM radio wave your transmitter may be likened to the
fire, and the key takes the place of the
blanket.
This arrangement will convey informa-
tion all right, and as such it is widely used
even today. But for the transmission of
electronic likenesses of sound waves, a
more subtle variation of the radio wave is
required. This procedure is called mod-
ulation.
Audio Modulation
Any means of varying the radio wave
so that it follows exactly all of the com-
plexities of a sound wave will be a modu-

resultant rein radio wave

The New York Times Ii A Victor

New York radio station WQXR has complete stereo Color television is the latest advance in this
broadcasting facilities, is well known for its field, is steadily gaining in popularity. Here,
programs of recorded and live classical music. cameras are being readied for final testing.

Above is an Eico AM tuner, available as a kit

or in assembled form. The kit, photo right, is
being assembled, following manufacturer's in-
structions. Kit building is becoming more and
more popular, gives builder good experience in the
theory and practice of various electronic circuits.

Fred Honig
lation. Many methods of modulation have radio receiver. FM radio is the newer type,
been used, but in broadcasting today and it is superior to AM in reduction of
either of two characteristics of the radio extraneous noise and in fidelity of repro-
wave are varied. One of these is the am- duction. But FM has had to buck the
plitude, and the other is the frequency. long head start and solid entrenchment
In the system of amplitude modulation of AM, plus some measure of public in-
(AM), the frequency of the signal stays difference. As a consequence, it will still
right at its assigned spot on the dial, while be some time away, if ever, that FM fully
the power radiated from the antenna supplants AM.
varies, all the way from zero to twice the Now exactly half the job is done: the
unmodulated power. In frequency modu- sound wave has modulated a radio carrier,
lation (FM), just the converse is true. The or it has been recorded in the form of a
power output of the system remains con- groove, or an optical or magnetic track.
stant while the frequency is varied above At this point we must reconvert these sig-
and below its center assignment as dictated nals or recordings back to sound.
by the form of the modulating sound In the case of radio, the instrument
wave. which does the job is called a tuner. Of
The transmitter you build in Experi- all the many waves striking the receiving
ment No. 5 is the AM type, and as such antenna, the desired one is selected by a
can be heard on any standard home AM [Continued on page 70]
67
 Converting a
EXPERIMENT 10 TV Set for Hi-Fi

Rear view of TV -Audio switch before conversion. Rear view of TV -Audio switch after conversion.
Compare with lower left drawing on next page. Compare with lower right drawing on next page.

Circuit diagram (below) of typical TV sound. Simplified conversion diagrams (below, right).

SOUND I RATIO OET, IST AUDIO AUDIO OUTPUT

RATIO 0E1 TRANS
AUDIO OUTPUT
TRANS

%%%%%
1 -TO 41.1

68
 HERE is a way for you to get some practical use amplifieris in fact pretty junky, the idea is absurd.
out of the audio jack and switch on the back of But we can take the idea and turn it around,
most TV sets, a circuit which in its present form to come up with a system which is truly useful.
is about as useful as a fifth wheel. This circuit is The idea is that, instead of running other signal
reminiscent of the old "television adapter" jack sources into the TV set, we will instead take the
on pre -World War II radio sets. FM detector output from the set and feed it into
You may recall that in those dear dead days, an external hi-fi system. This will give you TV
when the public thought that television was just sound like you've never heard before.
around the corner, this jack was concocted to The simple changes are shown in the accom-
prevent obsolescence of the radios which just panying drawings. The double-pole, double -
then weren't selling too well. The idea was that, throw switch shown in the typical circuit diagram
when television came in, you could buy a set now performs two functions: It selects the input
without an audio system, and just plug it in and to the little one -tube audio amplifier from either
use the audio in the radio set. Nobody ever did
the TV detector or an external source; and it
this, of course, because no such TV set was ever
disables the picture tube when the external
built.
But the gimmick, has now been dusted off and
source is in use. The change involves simply
used again to ride in on the hi-fi craze. The idea flopping the selector function over to the detector
now is that you can plug in a phono cartridge, output, and shorting out the picture tube switch
tuner, or tape recorder into the jack, so that the so it is continuously operative. Finally, if hum is
signal will be reproduced through the "superb" incurred, short out the capacitor between the jack
audio system in the TV set. Since this audio shell and ground.

MI DIST. LOC.

Switch labelling remains same. To bear

set's sound, use TV: for hi-fi, use Audio.
TV.

AUDIO
88

TO TO OUTPUT
PICTURE TUBE OF
CONTROLS DETECTOR
INTERCHANGE THESE
TWO CONNECTIONS
T.V CONNECT
SHORT
HERE

VOLUME
o AUDIO
CONTROL o
TO FIRST
AUDIO
PHONO STAGE
JACK CONNECT SHORT
ACROSS
CONDENSER
IF HUM IS
ENCOUNTERED
 Mike Morino
One ofthe countless uses electronics can be
adapted for is radio control. Above Is a garage
door being opened from a car by this method.
Robert ltertzbere
There were about 185,000 licensed radio hams in [Continued from page 67]
the United States in 1959, accounting for a large tuned. circuit. Then it is amplified elec-
and honorable slice of the "Electron at play" field. tronically. Finally, the audio is separated
from the radio wave by the process of de-
tection or demodulation. Now we have an
electronic signal representing the audio
alone, and it should be almost exactly like
that at the output of the microphone.
Reproducers
For recordings, we must go to another
transducer. The disc recording transducer
is usually called a pickup or cartridge. It
is actually a small electric generator which
develops a voltage as a result of the side -
to -side movement of its stylus in the
groove.
The millions of tiny magnets drawn past
the head of a tape reproducer similarly
develop a voltage at its output terminals.
An optical film track is reproduced by
Itadlo Corp. of America
moving it between a fixed light source and
a photocell. The amount of light striking
Over 46 million TV sets are found in U. S. homes, the cell at any instant will be determined
with about 5 million new sets produced annually,
a growing number of which are color receivers.
by the area or density of the track. The
voltage generated by the cell will there-
fore be an electronic replica of the origi-
TV tape recorder handles up to 96 minutes of
black -and -white or color material, records and
nal sound.
plays back through a 14 -inch magnetic tape reel. The audio signals must now be amplified
Radio Corp. uf :Anü'rifx
further in an audio amplifier, to make them
powerful enough to operate a loudspeaker.
The speaker is the final transducer, the
end of the chain. It is an electromagnetic
device, which converts electronic signals
back into vibrations in air, that is, into
sound.
The television system operates on the
same principles as radio, but it is more
complex because it must transmit picture
information as well as sound. The tele-
vision transmitter is really two transmit-
ters in one, sending out both audio and
video signals. In the present system in the
United States, the sound transmitter uses
 Radio Corp. of Amer-Ira

Radio Corp. of America

Magnetic 7 -channel recorder, designed for the Transistorized multichannel mixer for motion
motion picture industry, runs at variable speed, picture sound recorder (shown at left) contains
records and plays back over seven separate tracks. 23 amplifiers, plus one oscillator, is portable.

FM, while the picture transmitter uses elements. And this is exactly what you
AM. The sound transmitter is generally have seen happen when something has
the same as any FM radio transmitter, and gone wrong in the scanning or synchroniz-
the video transmitter operates on conven- ing circuits in your TV set.
tional AM principles, but the modulating Another piece of information which the
signal itself deserves somewhat more video signal must carry is the blanking.
careful scrutiny. When the end of a line is reached in typing,
the line space lever-which returns the
Video Synchronizing carriage over the left side for the begin-
The transducer in this case is the video ning of the next line, and also turns the
camera, which was described in Chapter 3. cylinder-is touched so that type does not
But the video signal must have some addi- go directly over the line just finished.
tional information for the receiver to syn- During this carriage return and line
chronize with the transmitter. Perhaps spacing no keys are depressed, as they
this would be more clear if we likened it to would only make meaningless marks on
a teletypewriter system. the paper. Similarly, the electron beam
As this chapter is being written, the in the cathode ray tube in your receiver
original manuscript is prepared on a type- must refrain from making a glowing line
writer, one character at a time. If a tele- on the face of the tube during the retrace.
typewriter were used, with a slave ma- And it is the blanking signal from the
chine at some remote point, that machine transmitter which tells the beam to shut
would have to follow the original type- down during this time.
writer movements exactly. It would have
put the same characters in the same places. Composite Signal
It would have to capitalize, indent, return All of these additional pieces of in-
the carriage to the beginning, put the same formation are included as a part of the
space between words and lines, and at the composite video signal. The audio and
end of this sentence put a period, just as video transmitters are separate, as we have
the original typewriter. noted, and the two types of signals are
Just as the words and thoughts in the again separated in the receiver.
writer's brain are translated into type- Following the audio detector is the
writing, and dissected so that they hit the audio amplifier and loudspeaker. The only
paper one letter at a time, so is the tele- difference between this audio system and
vision picture translated into electronic a hi-fi audio system is that the hi-fi is of
signals, bit by bit. But in television this much better quality. If you have a hi-fi
happens so fast, the dissection in the system, therefore, it is much better to use
camera, and the reconstruction in the pic- it for your television audio. This can be
ture tube on the TV set, that we never done with the Experiment 10 conversion.
see the picture as a series of dots or lines. Although electronics has played an im-
If the picture tube, however, failed to portant role in entertainment for years, it
keep right in step with the scanning in has gone on to perform more serious and
the camera tube, the picture would be- important jobs. Some of those are described
come a hopeless jumble of disconnected in the following chapters.

71
Chapter 6

ELECTRONIC BRAINS
Computer systems

rrHE AGE of the electronic computer is

often referred to as the Second Indus-
trial Revolution. The first one, which oc-
curred between 1800 and 1850, replaced
human brawn with mechanical power.
Now some people are wondering if the
human brain is about to be put out of busi-
ness by an electronic intruder.
To understand whether man is really
on the way to making himself obsolete, we
must consider what computers do today,
how they work, and what they may accom-
plish in the future. The major role played
by computers today is in the large busi-
ness office, where mountains of paper work
can be processed within hours rather than
weeks or months. No longer must the
lonely bookkeeper sit on his high stool,
green visor on his head and quill pen in
hand, slaving over his journals and ledgers
far into the night.
High-speed digital computer is distinguished by
its small else and low power, can be used as
a test model for research on other computers.
Bell Telenhone Laboratories

Console of IBM 705 machine is installed here

at one of the nation's leading airplane makers.
Boeing Airplane Co.
 Computers Today There are two main families of com-
In the factory we already have the be- puters today, one called digital and the
ginnings of automation, as we will note other referred to as analog. In the analog
further in the next chapter. Machines of computer, a number is represented by the
many types have their operations con- size of a physical quantity, such as a volt-
trolled by a computer. Some controlled age. In a digital computer the number is
machines can even be connected to an elec- coded as a succession of signals. In every-
tric typewriter to "discuss" with an opera- day life we have examples of both types
tor the progress of the work being per- of computers in nonelectronic form. The
formed. The fully automated factory is still ordinary slide rule, which represents num-
a thing of the future, but scientists know bers in terms of lengths on a stick, is a sim-
how it can be done. As soon as someone ple analog computer. The dial telephone
comes along who wants to pay the price, system, which converts a telephone num-
he shall have it. ber into a sequence of signal pulses, is ac-
Military demands during World War II tually a digital computer. The seven spins
caused computers to take great strides given to a telephone dial result in seven
ahead. Special types were devised to per- groups of up to ten pulses each. From this
form the ballistics calculations necessary information the central -office equipment
for aiming guns, bombs and other projec- is able to select any one of over five mil-
tiles. Extensions of these techniques are lion different telephone numbers. This
used today in the guidance systems of mis- very principle is employed in the computer
siles and rockets. you build in Experiment No. 11.
Computers are also used widely in re- Computer Functions
search, in such fields as astronomy, elec-
tron optics and weather forecasting. An Every computer actually comprises sev-
especially valuable application of com- eral operational "departments." One of
puters is as simulators, which will give these handles the arithmetic operations:
results otherwise obtainable only after addition, subtraction, multiplication and
elaborate tests and experiments. This division. Not all of these are essential, how-
solves design problems in aircraft and mis- ever, for even the most complex mathe-
siles, without the building of models or mátical operations are simply repetitions
prototypes. There is even a nuclear simu- of simpler ones. Squaring or raising to
lator reactor, which recreates inexpen- higher powers, for example, is simply re-
sively the operational characteristics of a peated multiplication, just as multiplica-
multimillion -dollar reactor. tion is repeated addition.
Many leading universities here and abroad design and build their own computers which they use in
a great number of research problems. The unit shown here is located at New York University.
New York University
 Radio Corp. of America
All -transistor data processing sys-
tem, designed for business, industry
and government, can also handle any
paper work for smaller business firm.

Below are two examples of some of

the earliest types of "computers."
Not shown is what is probably the
very first computer, the abacus.
International Business Machines

wreevire.-
Ise
- vr++.na!
44- ri -1
R.

f1 _---
"` /v -.It

WV;,.
!

.Jt !< ;!

Also we have the memory or informa- complete instructions, the computer can
tion-storage department. The memory may then proceed on its own to perform the
be either temporary or permanent, de- endless drudgery of involved calculations.
pending upon the service it must perform. In a rudimentary way it might be said to
Permanent storage is used for whatever "think," but it is still beholden to a human
information the computer needs to solve master, who does much of its thinking for
the problems it regularly encounters. This it.
could include such facts as multiplication
tables, the number of seconds in a minute, Number Systems
or metric equivalents of English units. In the decimal system of numbers we
Temporary stores, on the other hand, are normally use, the basis is the number 10,
used as parking places for sub -totals and and there are ten digits, ranging from 0
other partial results. through 9. A certain combination of these
There also must be some prior planning digits would be used to represent a specific
of the computer's job, so that it will carry number, such as 32,894. Reading such a
out the computation in proper sequence. number is so familiar to us that we never
Before attempting to solve any complex stop to consider that these five digits indi-
mathematical problem, one first must cate that the number comprises 3 tens of
analyze it to determine where to begin, thousands, plus 2 thousands, plus 8 hun-
and then what to do next. This part of the dreds, plus 9 tens, plus 4 ones.
operation must still be accomplished by Electronic counting of numbers such as
the human mind. The computer must be this might be done with signal pulses feed-
told what to do and how to do it, by a pro- ing into a capacitor and an electronic
cedure known as programming. Havink switch. As shown in Fig. 1, each incoming
74
One of the latest IBM machines has
a cathode-ray screen, extreme right.
which shows the operator graphical
ly the performance of the computer.

International Business Machines

international Business Machines

Technicians, photo left, are seen inserting some

of the standard component cards into the "works"
of computer. Cards contain the circuit sections, are
replaced or changed in case of any malfunction.

square wave pulse (A), raises the voltage on or off. Such an arrangement would be
across a capacitor in staircase fashion (B). practically foolproof, since it would be
On the tenth incoming pulse, the critical virtually impossible not to distinguish be-
firing voltage of an electronic switch is tween those two conditions. The only
reached, and one pulse appears at the out- trouble is, it requires a new system of
put (C) . At the same time, the capacitor numbers.
voltage drops back to zero to start the All numerical information fed into a
whole cycle over again. digital computer must first be translated
Now suppose that the output pulses (C) from our conventional decimal system into
are fed into a succeeding counter which this new system, known as the binary code.
also fires only on every tenth shot. Then Decimal vs. Binary
the output of the second counter would fire
only after one hundred pulses had hit the The left half of the chart of Fig. 2 shows
preceding counter. Similarly, still another the arrangement of whole numbers in the
decade counter following that would indi- decimal system. The chart could, of course,
cate thousands, and another one would be extended at both top and bottom to in-
read tens of thousands. clude decimal fractions of less than one, as
But when we get up into these big num- well as numbers greater than one million.
bers we are putting a lot of faith in the But for purposes of simplicity, we'll con-
characteristics of a capacitor end a diode. fine our analysis to the limits shown.
If it occasionally takes eleven shots to fire Note that whenever a number is shifted
the tube instead of ten, the count is off by one place to the left in the decimal system,
ten thousand. Much more reliable would it is in effect multiplied by ten. Thus in
be a system having only two states, either [Continued on page 78]
75
 Building a
EXPERIMENT 11 Simple Computer

- DIAL -
SECONDARY
u__ SW6 f---------U
DPST
MULTIPLY
OUT
SECONDARY
CONTACTS PRIMARY

4. PRIMARY
CONTACTS

-- SWr
I
O NORMAL
OUT

SWITCH IN
GND
POS PULSE IN

Schematic of telephone dial and input and

output connections, above. Flip-flop circuit,
above right, is same for all six.

Problem is fed to computer by telephone dial.

To add 7 + 7, dial number 7 twice in succes-
sion. Jack colors simplify programming.
 ONE thing we may as well face at the outset The heart of this computer is a counter, oper-
is the fact that the electronic computer is a ating on binary principles described in this
highly complex device which simply doesn't lend chapter. The counter comprises a number of
itself to any basic little experiments. But if you stages of flip-flops connected in cascade. The
would like to build your own complete computer, flip-flop has the two states we have noted as
here is one you can have for around $35 and a necessary for binary counting. But instead of
few evenings of your time. an on-off display, this computer uses an either-or
As we have pointed out in this chapter, all system. That is, each flip-flop has two lights con-
mathematics, including the so-called higher nected to its output, and either one or the other
is on at all times the computer is in operation.
type such as calculus and differential equations,
To perform a problem in addition, one simply
ultimately boils down to many, many repeated
dials the digits involved on the telephone dial.
operations of addition and subtraction. The
The contacts of the dial generate positive pulses
more complex operations, from multiplication which actuate the six flip-flop stages, permitting
and division right on up, are simply short-cuts direct reading in binary notation of totals up
devised to circumvent the tedium of these many to 63. This is arrived at through the sum of
repetitions. six columns:
But if addition and subtraction were all we 2' +
knew how to do, and if we could perform re-
2° + 2' + 2` + 2' 2z.

peated operations quickly enough, and without Higher numbers can be handled with more flip-
ever tiring, then this would be adequate for flops. Full construction details on this project
arriving at the desired solution. And this in are to be found in the January, 1960 issue of Elec-
effect is what the digital computer does. tronics Illustrated.

5----
-
LAMTOPP(12-)-

BOTTOM
LAMP
R8 R9 RIO RII

R20

FF -B C FF -C
D B {
B -
E A A
BINDING
POSTS
-- RESET I-3'1)
SW2

RESET 4-6
STANDBY-OPERATE
SW4 FSWI

82
-
_s BI

POWER SUPPLY

Compact cabinet with sloping panel houses A pair of indicator lamps is used with each
computer, left. When telephone dial feeds prob- flip-flop. Six identical circuits shown in block
lem, answer is In binary form. form above are detailed on preceding page.

77
 [Continued from page 75]
the number 43, the figure 4 means that
there are four tens. But shifting one place
to the left, in the number 430 it indicates
now that there are four hundreds.
Since the base of the system is ten, we
are in effect talking about ten multiplied
by itself. Thus 100 is ten times ten, or ten
squared (102). And 1,000 is ten times ten
times ten, or ten to the third power (10').
There is no reason, however, why the base
of a numerical system couldn't as well be
two instead. This in fact is the basis of the
binary system. Instead of ten digits, 0
through 9, we use only two, 0 and 1.
In the decimal system, when we get
above 9, we shift left to a second column
starting with 10. Then we stay in two col-
umns until 99, and then move to three
columns for 100, and so forth. In the binary
system, since we have only two digits, we
International Business Machines must shift left one column as soon as we
Above is one of the main "memory" units of a go above 1. Thus while in the decimal sys-
computer: the tape machine. To its right is shown tem the symbol 11 means a ten plus a one,
a piece of magnetic tape with imprinted signals.
or eleven, in the binary system it means a
two plus a one, or three.
Referring again to Fig. 2, let's see if we
can work out a binary number, using the
same approach as we did with the decimal

International Business Machines

Intonational Business Machines

Another memory unit is the IBM's 650 magnetic
drum. It turns at the rate of 12,500 rpm and
has magnetized spots on its surface. The drum
holds up to 20,000 digits at 2,000 "addresses."
 number. Since there are only two digits while in the binary system each column
available, a binary number might look like has only two, either 0 or 1. And general de-
this: 1011001. Thus for each of the columns sign practice today says that the job can
shown in Fig. 2, the digits indicate the be done easier and more accurately with
presence or absence of the number as- twenty-four on -off (binary) switches than
signed to that column. You might there- with seven ten -way (decade) switches.
fore think of it as a yes -no system. With an understanding of binary num-
The first digit of the number 1011001 bers you have the essence of the way in
tells us yes, there is a 64 (or 2"). There is no which the majority of computers do their
25. Yes, there is a 16 (2') and an 8 (2"). jobs. What these jobs may be in the future,
There is neither 2' or 2'. There is, yes, a 2" not even the most imaginative can begin
or one. The final number then comprises to guess. In medicine the computer will
a 64 plus a 16 plus an 8 plus a 1-convert- soon become an auxiliary diagnostician.
ing it to decimal figures-or 89. All symptoms and the patient's history will
be fed into the machine, and out will come
Binary Disadvantage the diagnosis, prognosis and suggested
This, of course, points up the big disad- treatment.
vantage of binary numbers for ordinary In military electronics, the Army is now
work. It took a string of seven digits to ex- working on a mobile computer that will
press a number which in the decimal sys- give battle commanders the facts they need
em is stated in two. And more places in to determine a course of action in a con-
the number means more tubes or diodes in stantly changing tactical situation. As
the computer. manned space travel becomes more and
If numbers up to 9,999,999 are to be han- more nearly a reality, computers are being
dled, for example, those seven columns used every step of the way. No matter in
in the decimal system stretch out to what area of the future of mankind you
twenty-four columns in the binary code. look, just name it, and somewhere in the
But remember that each of those seven background you will find a computer, the
columns has ten different possibilities, electronic brain.

FIG. 1. Below. In the serial counter the voltage

of a capacitor rises in steps until it reaches DECIMAL BINARY
a critical point where it drops back to zero.
8421
Zero (0) 0000
INPUT ELECTRONIC OUTPUT
One (1) 0001
PULSES SWITCH PULSES
Two (2) 001 0
-( 1--
Three (3) 0 0 1 1

(A) _r
INPUT PULSES Four (4) 0 1 0 0
AGE OF
TRONIC Five (5) 0 1 0 1

(B) CAPACITOR VOLTAGE TICAL

TCH

Six (6) 0 1 1 0
(C) OUTPUT PULSE
Seven (7) 0 1 1 1

FIG. 2. Right. See text for explanation. The Nos. Eight (8) 1 0 0 0
8,4,2,1. at top of Binary column designate the
respective values of each figure found under it. Nine (9) 1 001
A zero under the 4, for instance, means there is
no 4. A 1 under the 4 means that there is a 4. Ten (10) 1 01 0

Left. Magnetic core memory unit of the IBM 704 Eleven (11) 1 01 1

processing unit. Insert shows one memory grid

which stores data as pattern of magnetic field. Twelve (12) 1 1 0 0
79
Chapter 7

ELECTRONIC WORKMEN
Automation in industry

WITH the possible exception of mar- Automation

keting, the primary concern of mod- Perhaps the most important factor in
ern industry today is, simply, turning out mass production techniques is the use of
the product. This product must, of course, automatic machinery. As we noted in the
be something that buyers want, which preceding chapter, this trend began with
means that it must be uniformly high in the Industrial Revolution near the begin-
quality and as low as possible in price. ning of the nineteenth century. Today elec-
For these conditions to exist, the produc- tronics plays a vital part in the control and
tion process involved must be carried out monitoring of automatic machinery, and in
accurately and with a minimum of human some cases is an integral part of the proc-
effort. In other words, ideally the produc- ess itself. Examples of the latter case in-
tion should be entirely automatic. clude R -F heating equipment, and various

Tape control cabinets for all -electronically controlled line of machine tools. At right is master panel,
next are four tape readers with punched metallic tapes. At left Is the boring machine control cabinet.
Hughes Aircraft Co.
Ultrasonic 2,500 -watt impact grinder cuts areas Master totaliser of transistorized newspaper
up to 31/2 inches in diameter, is said to operate counting system records number of papers printed,
within tolerances of plus or minus .0003 Inches. can automatically stop presses when desired.
Raytheon Electric Co. Radio Corp. of America

types of ultrasonic generators for heating, quite definite four-part cycle, as follows:
drilling, cutting and cleaning.
One of the most important applications 1. Squeeze time, during which mechani-
in monitoring and control is in timing. cal pressure is applied;
Principles of electronic timers follow those 2. Weld time, during which current is
of the unit you build in Experiment No. 12. passed through the joint;
They depend upon the time-constant char- 3. Hold time, when current is off but the
acteristics of a resistance -capacitance com- joint is still under pressure;
bination, and a relay is normally used to 4. Off time, while the equipment re-
control an external electrical circuit. cycles.
Electronic timers are used to fix the se-
quence and time of the manufacturing Each part of this cycle is controlled by an
process, these two items together forming electronic timer, both as to sequence and
the process cycle. Sequence control sys- length.
tems generally comprise a chain of timers, Some welding equipment has a further
the output of each being used to start or refinement, in that the welding current is
stop some operation, and also to start the held constant, regardless of variations in
timer which controls the succeeding step the supply voltage or the materials being
in the cycle. welded. This, too, is accomplished elec-
One of the first widespread applications tronically through voltage regulators or
of electronics in industry was in welding through the timing circuits. The most im-
control, particularly in the system known portant contribution of electronics to arc
as resistance welding. In this method the welding is in maintaining a constant gap
two pieces of metal to be joined are held dimension, by repositioning the electrodes
together under pressure, while a suffi- as they burn away.
ciently heavy current is passed through
them to cause them to fuse together. The Temperature Control
amount of heat produced is dependent Often it is necessary to maintain accu-
upon the resistance of the path, the cur- rate control of operating conditions, such
rent, and the weld time. These and other as light or temperature. Regulation is gen-
factors must be under precise automatic erally accomplished by feedback systems,
control for uniformly good results. or servomechanisms, which employ some
Spot welding, for example, involves a [Continued on page 84]
81
 Building an
EXPERIMENT 12 Electronic Timer

.JOOO
"ö'0000
O 0 v 0 J 0 0 0 0 0
O 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 r
O 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 O_ I

O
O
0
o
0 0 0 0
0 0 0 AO
0
O
0 0 0 --
O 0 0 0 0T1 0 0 C
r-
0
ORO
O O l\ TRO

0 0 0 0 O O 0 0 0 O
\ -' t!'
1 C

O O C O /\E ".."177°0 C O O O O
O 0 _ __ O O ) O O o O CS O O
0 0 7T' O11

^ íri`
Ko

O.
O O O O O O Ce O O O
O O
:Q44a') O "
OO
Ir v v v v 0 O

000 ;0 Am?
Li R
oOOOO1OOOOoo 00
Rz

--OOodOdO
O

000oo
o Oo
O O O

tm O
C o o o o o o o O O O O o O o o o o O O , o

CAPACITOR
NO ELECTRON FLOW
INSULATING
O MATERIAL

NOVOLTAGE
APPLIED

CAPACITOR CHARGING
ELECTRON FLOW
 THIS simple timer, in common with many In a resistance -capacitance series network,
electronic circuits, operates on the principle of the time in seconds equals the product of the re-
the time constant of a resistor -capacitor combi- sistance and the capacitance. In this timer cir-
nation. In the drawings we see what happens cuit, the resistance comprises R, and R,, and the
when a capacitor, which comprises two conduct- capacitance is C,. The maximum charging time
ing plates separated by an insulating material, is therefore (56,800 x 0.000050), or 2.84 seconds.
is connected to a voltage source. In operation, transistor TR, is conducting
The plate connected to the positive side of the through R, and R,, thereby charging C, from the
power supply loses electrons, which pass through battery. During this time TR, has no voltage on
the power supply and pile up on the negative its base and is therefore not conducting. But
plate. This difference in electron charge between when C, becomes fully charged, TR. will stop
the plates is equal to the voltage of the power conducting and the battery potential will appear
supply. across its collector and emitter. Since these two
When the capacitor reaches this point it is elements are connected respectively to the base
fully charged, and the electron flow ceases. and emitter of TR,,, that transistor will begin
A definite period of time is required for the ca- conducting and thereby energize the relay, whose
pacitor to reach this state, and this depends upon winding is in series with the emitter.
its capacitance. If a resistor is connected in A pilot light and battery, or some other suit-
series, the time will be even greater. With a able indicator, can be connected across the relay
higher resistance, less current will flow and the contacts. Depressing the key will discharge Ci
charging time will be greater. and prepare the circuit for another cycle.

The three RC time -constant components Include

fixed and variable resistors plus capacitor.

Cycle is timed with stopwatch, beginning with

closing of key and ending with click of relay.
 [Continued from page 81]
sort of sensitive transducer along with a in the reeling and unreeling of materials.
high -gain amplifier, to obtain a voltage for Printed labels and wrappers, for example,
the operation of a control circuit. are usually printed first on long rolls of raw
In controlling the temperature of an stock, and then cut to size. But in the cut-
oven, for example, the magnitude and the ting process it is most important that the
polarity of the voltage will indicate the cutter always remain correctly in register
amount of divergence from normal, and with the printed pattern. Without some
also its direction, whether above or below method of control, however, this can often
the norm. If the oven is heated electrically, go askew, because of slippage, shrinkage
the control signal could be fed to an elec- or stretching.
tronic circuit directly in series with the This problem is also overcome electroni-
power supply line to the oven. With other cally with the help of registration marks,
types of heating some sort of electrome- such as black bars, printed at appropriate
chanical device would be required, such intervals along the edge of the stock. A
as a solenoid coupled to a gas valve. photocell system "reads" these marks, and
Electronics is also frequently employed develops a signal which either controls the
as a method of feed control. Many continu- feed motors on the reels, or tells the cutter
ous processes require the repetitive filling itself when to slice. Next time you finish a
of a container with powders, chemicals, ink, loaf of bread, open out the waxed paper
paint, or in the case of packaging, the prod- wrapper into a flat sheet. Chances are you
uct itself. The level of the container is will find registration marks just such as we
measured by throwing a light beam across have been discussing.
it onto a photocell at the proper level. The
photocell signal goes to an amplifier, which Test and Inspection
may operate a relay to control the feeding Electronics is a very useful tool in
device. When the container level is too quality control, for testing and inspection
low, light falls on the photocell and the sys- of products. A good example is in the
tem calls for more material. But when the checking of the lacquer coating of so-called
proper level is restored, the material will tin cans used for food containers. Since the
cut off the light from the cell, the photocell lacquer prevents spoiling of the food by
output will drop, and the feed mechanism contact with metal, it is important that the
will be shut off. coating be continuous. One way of check-
Another method of feed control is used ing this employs a principle similar to that

Drawing shows workings of electric eye movie FIG. 1. Schematic of Wheatstone bridge circuit.
camera. Light reaches photocell, generates elec- A pair photo -conductive cells are used in the
of
tric current which activates meter to adjust lens. circuit below for highly accurate color matching.
Iirll \ Howell l'u.

/TOormisror onA rasl ror ©

IDENTICAL 1

PHOTO -CONDUCTIVE IDENTICAL OUTPUT

CELLS 1
RESISTORS SIGNAL

D.
SUPPCLY
VOLTAGE

84
 is this centralized console. Single guard
Nerve center of building protection and security system and visitors. Board has closed-circuit TV.
supervises entire building security, checks for fires, intruders
Minneapolis -Honeywell

Magnetic numbers printed on checks, etc., make

in Experiment No. 13. The can is filled with sorting and accounting automatic when they pass
salt water, an electrode dipped into the under the magnetic heads of special machines.
water, and a voltage applied between the
electrode and the outside of the can. If the
lacquer coating is not perfect, conductivity
will go up and the resulting voltage will
operate a control circuit to kick the can
into the reject pile.
Our old friend the photocell has innu-
merable applications in testing and inspec-
tion. It can determine that a hole has been
drilled correctly, or find imperfections on
the surface of a machined part by gauging
the reflected light off its surface. Another
application is found in the paint industry.
Varnish is prepared by mixing the proper
amount of pigment stain with a clear var-
nish base to produce the desired varnish
tone. But since the strength of the stain
varies from batch to batch, it was once nec-
essary for the proportions to be determined
by a human expert matcher.
With the advent of the photocell, the
process became entirely automatic. The
[Continued on page 88]
85
EXPERIMENT 13 Building a Rain Alarm

Sensing element being connected above is

etched, with adjacent conductors separated.
s
TRo

2-1(
Sensitivity can be adjusted indoors, using r== 1
water from a medicine dropper, as below.
3
R4

--
BATT IM

B .TK

Re

Sensing plate is mounted outside, in path

of raindrops (right). Red lamp is signal.

86
 base of TR, this voltage drop appears at
the
THIS rain alarm will detect anything from a
light drizzle to a downpour, depending upon base of the second transistor as well. The result
a lowering of the conduction of TR,,, a
de-
the sensitivity adjustment. The sensing plate in-
is
the
cluded with the Lafayette kit shown here is made crease in its collector current, and hence
de -energizing of the relay. An indicator lamp
by the etched -circuit process, with the interlock-
ing conductors separated by the insulating cir- or audible alarm connected to the relay con-
tacts will then operate to indicate the presence
cuit board.
As long as the sensing plate is dry, its ele- of rain.
This experiment once again brings into play
ments are not conducting, and no current can
the idea of relative voltages discussed in Experi-
flow between points A and B on the circuit dia-
gram. Transistor TR, is therefore not conducting. ment No. 2. As long as TR, is not conducting,
The sensitivity control R, is then set so that TR,.
the voltage on its base relative to its emitter
does conduct. This will energize the relay, whose
will be zero.
The emitter-collector relative voltage will de-
response will be noted by a clicking sound and
pend on the voltage drop across R:, and R,, and
the movement of the contacts.
this in turn will depend on the current flowing
When rain wets the sensing plate, it becomes
partially conductive, at least to the point where through TR,,.
When TR:, conducts, all relationships change.
some voltage appears at the base of TR:,. This flow
Its base voltage is limited by the current
transistor then starts to conduct, with the result
through R.;, and the TR,, base voltage drops be-
that the potential on its collector drops.
cause of the additional current through R:, and
R,.
Since the collector of TR:, is connected to the

O 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 O 0 0 0 0 O
O O O O 0 0 0 0 0 0 O 0 0 0 0(C
\J'
Rll -
¡O
O O O O 0 0 0 0 0 O O O'
O O O O O ,O O
O O O C)

O O O C)

0TRA 0 0 0 0T R B 0 O
O O
c1
O
O

LI R° O
z
O O
O O
O
O
O
U U
O O
l(f O O O
OOOOO
O
O
) 0
O
C)

O O O O O O

g7
 er-
;1

ri ep

Magnetic drum, above, for automation computer

stores all necessary mathematical information
and operational data for control of machinery.
Riverside Cement Co.

Top right and right, electronic pinspotter has

"brain" which guides the machine through each
game, leaves correct number of pins standing
after clearing off deadwood. It reloads, returns
the ball, etc., operates everything automatically.
American Maehlne & Foundry Co.

[Continued from page 85]

varnish comes out of the mixing vat into rent in the output, the polarity of which
a transparent pipe or trough. Light is will indicate which cell is more brightly
passed through it onto a photocell, whose illuminated.
output signal controls the valve between In color matching the bridge is used with
the stain supply and the mixing tank. Thus a set of primary color filters on the light
the color of the mixture is maintained to source. A standard color plate is fixed to
a fixed standard, accurately and automati- reflect light on one of the cells, while the
cally. color to be matched is caused to reflect on
Three -Color Matching the other. Then red pigment is added to
the sample color until the output signal
An even more elaborate photoelectric drops to zero, indicating a balance of the
color matching system is used in the print- bridge, and also indicating that both the
ing and textile industries. This uses two sample and the standard have equal
photoconductive cells in a Wheatstone amounts of red. The same process is re-
bridge circuit, as shown in Fig. 1. With peated with filters and pigments of the
equal illumination on the two cells the other two primary colors. Finally, the fil-
bridge is "balanced" and no current flows ters are removed and a pure white light
in the output. But when one cell receives used as the source. Then black or white
an excess of illumination, there will be cur- pigment is added to the sample to produce
88
 Hughes Aircraft Co.
Hughes Aircraft Co.
Automated line of machine tools is controlled These are the machine tools-milling, drilling,
by means of these punched tapes. Objects shown boring machines-that are electronically con-
on top of tapes were produced by this process. trolled by the tapes shown in the photo at left.

Automatically operated profiler for cutting air-

craft parts, below, is operated by metallic punched
tapes containing all the pertinent blue print data.
Republic Aviation Corp.
pacitor, while the material itself acts as the
dielectric.
R -F Heating Applications
Electronic heating of either type is
quicker, cleaner, more uniform, and can be
accurately controlled as to amount and
duration Dielectric heating, which usually
operates in the vicinity of 200 megacycles,
is often employed in the heat treatment of
wood, textiles and plastics. Induction heat-
ing operates at lower frequencies, between
250 kc and 2 mc, and is especially useful in
various forms of metallurgical treatment,
such as hardening, tempering, melting,
soldering and brazing.
Going further down in frequency we
come to the many ultrasonic devices, which
usually operate in the range from 15 to 25
the same intensity as the standard. Thus kc. Their job is to impart a vibration to a
the sample becomes an identical match to material for some specific purpose. One
the standard, both in color and intensity. application is the ultrasonic soldering iron,
This type of photoelectric matching is whose vibration prevents the formation of
much more accurate than can be done with difficult oxides on some materials, espe-
the human eye, and it will be accurate cially aluminum, which otherwise prevent
under all types of light, both artificial light the molten solder from alloying with the
and sunlight. metal. The ultrasonic drill is very useful
An extensive use of electronics in indus- in cutting holes in hard, brittle materials,
try is in the heating of objects by radio - such as glass, ceramics and crystals. When
frequency energy. Two methods are used, the drill, which is of a relatively soft ma-
depending upon the electrical conductivity terial, is given a reciprocating motion by
of the material to be worked. If the mate- ultrasonics, it can agitate an abrasive
rial is a good conductor, it is placed inside slurry and so work its way right through
a coil carrying R -F current, and heat is the most brittle materials. The fieldhas of
generated by the eddy currents thereby in- ultrasonics is one in which the surface
duced. If the material is a poor conductor, hardly been scratched, and it Bolds promise
however, it is placed between two elec- of becoming one of the most important fac-
trodes which then act as the plates of a ca - tors in industrial electronics.
89
 Chapter 8

LISTENING TO THE STARS

Rodio oshon y

OR a half -million years or so, earth- The radio telescope has several advan-
bound man has been trying desperately tages over the older optical type: (1) it
to unlock the secrets of the universe in can tune in on stars which give off only
which we live. How big is it? What is its faint light, or even no light at all, and are
shape? Just what is going on out there? thus invisible to optical telescopes; (2) it
Are there other unknown creatures who can penetrate right through the clouds of
speculate about the possibility of our exist- "cosmic dust" and gases that fill vast areas
ence? Or do they already know all about of outer space and prevent optical tele-
us? And for the more philosophically in- scopes from seeing what is beyond them;
clined, just how important are we mere (3) it can be used in any kind of weather,
mortals to the overall scheme of things? 'either day or night; (4) it is much less ex-
The answer to the first question, in an- pensive to build than an optical telescope.
cient times, would have been that the uni- The radio telescope is a radically differ-
verse was confined to the 5,000 -odd stars ent astronomical instrument, but it still has
visible to the naked eye on a perfectly some similarity to the older optical type.
clear night. But with the invention of the It uses a receiving antenna, whose "mir-
telescope, even Galileo's little pocket -sized ror" is often a parabolic dish reflector,
one, 500,000 new stars were brought into with its elevation and bearing variable just
view. When the 100 -inch reflecting tele- as with an optical telescope mirror. Using
scope went into service on Mount Wilson, a sensitive and selective receiver, the radio
the known size of our universe was multi- astronomer may thereby detect and track
plied by a factor of 125,000! electromagnetic signals arriving from outer
It continues to expand at a fantastic rate space.
as we learn still more from the 200-inch Radiomen have long experienced the ef-
mirror of the Hale telescope at the Mount fects of extraterrestial phenomena on com-
Palomar observatory, the world's largest. munications. So-called static noise has
Still, we seem to be reaching a point of always been with us. Changes in the iono-
greatly diminishing returns with these gi- sphere cause the choice of a radio fre-
gantic optical devices. They are fantas- quency for transmission over a given
tically expensive, and they still leave many distance to vary considerably between day
questions unanswered. Perhaps the biggest and night. The rapidly changing conditions
question of all is, where do we go from here occurring during the sunrise and sunset
in our endless quest for knowledge of the hours often require quite a bit of fancy
universe surrounding us? frequency shifting.
Most of us can recall hearing news of Another phenomenon which has been
Palomar for the greater part of our lives. noted, particularly around 30 megacycles,
Having been twenty years in the planning, is reflections from meteor trails. The effect
testing, and construction stages, it finally is a sudden burst of intensity in received
went into service in 1948. And in the same signal, and is explained by the reinforce-
year that Palomar_ began unlocking still ment of a reflection from the ionized trail
more mysteries of the universe, by strange from a meteor. When the meteor enters the
coincidence it was joined by a wholly new earth's atmosphere at high velocity, it heats
and quite different instrument, the radio by friction and leaves behind it a trail of
telescope. ionized particles. Usually only a second or
Within five years, in 1953, a radio tele- less is required for the particles to recom-
scope had penetrated six billion light years bine, but while they are in the ionized state
into space, much further than man had they act as excellent reflectors' of radio
ever been able to go with optical telescopes. waves.
Now scientists believe it will be possible to Meteor trails are not normally very use-
build a radio telescope large enough to ful for improving communications, of
measure exactly the full outer limits of the course, except in the rare cases of "meteor
universe! showers," when repeated reflections can
90
 Brltlah Information Services

Jodrell Bank radio telescope is the British Information Services

largest steerable in the world. Built in
the countryside to avoid electrical in-
terference, it boasts a 250 -ft. dicmeter
reflecting bowl mounted on two 175-ft.
high towers. Revolving on a circular
railroad track, the huge bowl can be
rotated and turned in any direction to
collect radio echoes from planets. stars
and galaxies for a distance of up to
one thousand million light years away.

British and American scientists often

work together at the Jodrell Bark Ex-
perimental Station, a part of the Uni-
versity of Manchester. Much cf the
space -vehicle, rocket and satellite track-
ing is done right here from this room.
In the radio -telescope receiving hut of the Jodrell Bank telescope, recordings of radio "noise" received
during the past 24 hours are checked and analyzed daily, incidental noise is eliminated, and results
compared to those received on previous days. The star signals are approximately the same day by day.

make possible some long-distance work.

Reflections are used consistently, however,
in the system of tropo scatter, a brute -force
method of communication in which very
powerful signals are thrown against the
troposphere, and while only a fractional
part of them are reflected, they do prove
useful for consistent communications. Re-
flections also were indispensable in the
famous Signal Corps experiment, in which
a radar system received its own signals
which had bounced off the Moon.
That there are many such cause -and -
effect relationships between electromag-
netic radiations and outer space has been
known for years, but it has only been com-
paratively recently that any effort was
made to correlate or utilize these facts. In
1931, a Bell Telephone Laboratories engi-
neer noted that radio waves were being
radiated from the far reaches of the Milky
Way. These were not intelligible signals,
of course, but rather radiations from the
stars themselves. Since they simply ap-
peared to be random noises, nobody paid
much attention to them at the time.
Harvard College Observatory While at first it might seem hard to
In the United States, radio telescopes such as imagine a star or planet acting as its own
this one at Harvard University are used for space broadcasting station, on further reflection
research. The unit has a 60 -ft. diameter bowl. it seems quite reasonable. For if these
 Mt . Wilson and Palomar Observatories Mt. Wilson and Palomar Observatories

Strong radio signal source is shown in this Catalogued as NGC 5128, this object may be two
photograph taken through 200 -inch telescope. It gigantic galaxies in collision and is a probable
is NGC 1275 in the Perseus Cluster of galaxies. source of radio signals. 200 -inch photograph.

bodies are able to radiate light waves and some of the questions which radio as-
cosmic rays, doesn't it seem likely that tronomy tries to answer.
they might also operate at longer wave- Even the stars themselves have dark
lengths, down in the radio region? But spots on or near them which have mysti-
even granting that premise, we still must fied astronomers. They have named these
find some use for the information. spots "dark nebulosities," but they haven't
Remember that the thousands of tiny yet agreed what they are. But we do know
twinkles we see in the sky on a clear night that they generate radio signals, and in
don't really disappear in the morning. But time the radio telescope will enable us
while the optical astronomer has to close more accurately to determine their charac-
up shop with the rising of the sun, the ter.
radio astronomer can "see" right around Radio astronomers also discovered that
the clock. there are indeed dark stars: While there
Furthermore, the light we see from these had been no reason to rule out such a pos-
heavenly bodies is of two types, reflected sibility, neither had there been any reason
and transmitted. In our own solar system, to suspect it. When the optical telescope
for example, sunlight comes to us directly was our only astronomical tool, such ob-
from the huge ball of fire which the sun jects were invisible to us, and that was that.
is. Moonlight, on the other hand, is simply We have learned that the sun and some
reflected sunlight bouncing off the cold of the planets of our own solar system are
moon. The same is true of the "starlight" also generators of radio energy. This has
of other planets. revealed a great many things about the
But what of the many thousands of other sun in particular. Because its outer atmos-
twinkling lights in the heavens? How many phere is invisible, only the radio telescope
of them are suns in their own right, and could discover that the total diameter of
how many are simply reflectors of light the sun is approximately a quarter -million
from suns? And how many other bodies miles greater than that indicated by optical
might there be, too cold to generate light measurements.
on their own, or eclipsed in shadow, Radio astronomy is also used to deter -
shielded from our prying eyes? These are [Continued on page 96]
93
EXPERIMENT 14 Tuning in on the Stars

Electronics Illuºtreted
No basement pastime, radio astronomy requires group with like interests. Group of school boys here
direct homemade radio telescope antenna by hand, while telephone contact is maintained with receiver.

Master control room is former closet, now houses Dish reflector under construction.Metal frame
radio telescope receiver converted from old TV supports netting covered with plastic, which
set, plus oscilloscope for analysis of signals. reflects radio signals from space to antenna.

4
 RADIO astronomy is such a complex subject, directional one and with as high gain as you can
usually requiring such elaborate equipment, that afford. A corner reflector is probably simplest.
it presents a real challenge to the experimenter - You can build this yourself of discarded window
hobbyist. screening or use a commercial TV antenna of this
That this challenge can be met, however, is type, similar to the one shown here.
amply proven by some of the pictures on these The antenna is best aimed by eye; for with
pages. the comparatively primitive equipment you are
A group of schoolboys at Dartford Grammar using, if you can't see it, you certainly can't hear
School, near London, have built a radio telescope it. You may use an optical telescope to aid in
for the equivalent of about $40. The antenna, aiming but never aim the telescope at the sun
which is manually directed, has a dish reflector unless you cover the optics with welder's glass
12 feet in diameter. No flash -in -the -pan, this at both ends. Otherwise you will severely dam-
antenna is a permanent fixture on the roof of age or even destroy your eyes.
the school. The sun is your best bet, however, for your
The receiver is essentially a converted TV set. first radio astronomical observation. Its emissions
Since analysis of the signal is an important part are strongest and cover the widest range. The
of any serious radio -astronomical effort, the boys planet Jupiter is quite good at a number of
have an oscilloscope on the receiver output and points between 18 and 30 megacycles. Venus is
hope soon to add a recorder. They have so far a good emitter too. Strong signals are emitted
succeeded in pulling in signals from the Milky from the "fuzzy" area of the constellation of
Way, our Sun and the constellation Sagittarius. Orion, and many signals, including the Crab
What equipment do you need for experiment- Nebula, are to be found in the vicinity of 1,200
ing in radio astronomy? Well, first ycu must have megacycles.
an excellent receiving system. A communications But when we speak of strong signals remember
receiver is best. Lacking that, you can use a that this is only a relative term. As compared
discarded TV set. This will cover a band of fre- to man-made transmission, all space signals are
quencies roughly from 50 to 250 megacycles. exceedingly weak. It is difficult to distinguish
The set should be modified for continuous tuning, them from ordinary noise. But it can be done,
however, rather than the step tuners in most re- as proven by this group of schoolboys. Keep
ceivers. Your antenna system must also be a trying!

British Information Servfreº

Oscilloscope is indispensable for analysis of
signals. Huge screen here is at Jodrell Bank,
England. Signals are from Andromeda nebula.

In the absence of adequate dish, even a corner

reflector will suffice for some astral signals.
Make it yourself or use commercial TV antenna.

JFD

95
 Convair, General Dynamics Corp. Mt. Wilson and Palomar Observatories
Inked graph record of radio "noise" collected by One of most spectacular radio sources is the
radio telescope is examined. Peaks on paper mark Crab Nebula in Taurus. The star exploded in
Cygnus A. second brightest radio object in sky. 1054 A.D., has been expanding since that time.

[Continued from page 93]

mine the speed and direction of radiating in any sort of wave motion, whether it be
bodies in the far reaches of outer space. sound, radio or light, is between the wave
The principle employed here is the Doppler length, frequency and speed. The velocity
effect, also used in optical astronomy and of any wave is equal to the product of the
some types of radar. The phenomenon was frequency and wave length.
first discovered in connection with sound, Knowing this, let's see what happens to
and that is still the easiest way in which to that moving train whistle. With a typical
explain it. sound velocity of 1,140 feet per second, a
Every one is familiar with the apparent train whistle sounding at 300 cycles per
change in pitch of a train whistle as the second would have a wave length of 3.8
engine roars by. But to the crew and pas- feet. Now suppose that the train is moving
sengers riding that train, the pitch of the at 45 miles an hour, or 66 feet per second.
sound remains constant. Only when there Since the approaching waves have less
is a varying distance between the source distance to cover, the velocity of the sound
and the observer does the frequency ap- will be less by the velocity of the train, or
pear to change. now 1,074 feet per second. The observed
The change will appear whether the ob- wave length then decreases to 3.58 and the
server or the source is in motion. If you are pitch goes up to 318.4 cps. Similarly, as the
standing at a country railroad crossing, for train recedes, the wave length goes up to
example, the warning bell will sound con- 4.02 feet, and the pitch drops to 283.5 cps.
stant in pitch to you, but to those aboard Now if we know the actual frequency of
the train it will change abruptly as they the whistle sound, and were we to measure
pass. Furthermore, unless the train stops the observed frequencies, we could accu-
right there, they never will hear the bell rately calculate the speed of the train. This
at its correct pitch, nor will you ever hear is the principle employed with light and
the whistle correctly. radio waves in astronomy. Thus we can
If the distance between the source and tell whether a star is approaching or leav-
the observer is closing rapidly, more vibra- ing the earth by the way its color (light
tions will reach the ear in a given time than frequency) changes.
are actually being produced. If the distance Similarly, the speed and direction of
is increasing, less vibrations will be heard. radio -emitting bodies can be determined
Thus a moving sound source seems to make by the Doppler shift of their signals. Hy-
an abrupt drop in pitch as it passes. drogen, for example, is the most abundant
One of the most important relationships radio generator in space. Its frequency is
96
 Electronics Illustrated
British Information Services
Radio telescopes take many strange shapes, as Ohio State University and National Science Foun-
shown in this photo of the Mullard Radio Astrono- dation built this unusual looking radio telescope.
my Observatory at Cambridge University, England. The flat reflector features ninety-six coil antennas.

The National Bureau of Standards' telescope is

1,420 megacycles. The hydrogen signal of part of two -dish setup which is used to record time
a body in space can therefore be compared difference of signals received by the two units.
with a laboratory standard hydrogen sig- International News Photos
nal. If the space signal is higher in fre-
quency than the lab standard, then the
body is moving toward us, and if the fre-
quency is below standard the body is
moving away.
Radio astronomy has also been used to
determine the precise way in which these
signals from space are affected by the mag-
netic characteristics of the Sun's corona.
When the sun passes between Taurus-a
radio -generating constellation-and earth,
a direct comparison can be made between
the normal signal from Taurus and that
deflected by the coronal magnetism of the
sun.
Radio astronomy has also enabled us to
determine the precise location of the solar
system in the Milky Way, to determine the
shape of our own galaxy, and to know that
the vast areas in space between stars
and nebulae consist of much more than
just a vacuum.
And yet with all this we have barely
scratched the surface. Even the most ardent
researcher will agree that radio astronomy
is still in a primitive state. But we are
learning fast, and in another decade radio
astronomy will have given us more new
information than mankind had obtained
throughout all of his previous recorded
history.
Chapter 9

ELECTRONIC MUSIC
Creating new sounds
Taffinity
present close between the
art of music and some of the physical
It is true that Helmholtz and Lord Ray-
leigh made some notable contributions to
sciences is a development of fairly recent our knowledge of acoustics during the
origin. Although there is evidence to sug- nineteenth century, but for the most part
gest that even the very early civilizations when scientists toyed with the arts they
in Babylon, Chaldea, China, Egypt and behaved like fools. As recently as the Vic-
India, as well as those of ancient Greece torian era, for example, somebody tried to
and Rome, were well acquainted with basic establish the theory of harmony on a
acoustic phenomena, physicists and math- purely physical basis. He argued that
ematicians have been held in rather com- consonance and dissonance in chords de-
plete disdain by musicians, even up to the pended solely on the degree of complexity
turn of this century. And the reputation of the vibration ratios of the tones. This
was not undeserved. fellow was on the right track, but since he
Radio Corp. of America
 didn't take the human ear into account in became a staple item on radio, recordings,
his calculations, the musical results were television and motion pictures, then, like
absurd. it or not, the musicians and the scientists
just had to get together to work out mutual
Scientific Ignorance problems.
Another scientist who put his foot in his There is one great scientist whose name
mouth as far as musicians were concerned is well known to nearly every popular
was one Dr. Whewell, at one time the musician. Ask any one what the name
Master of Trinity College at Cambridge, Schillinger means, and you will almost cer-
England, and the author of a scholarly tainly be told that it is a system of harmony
tome, The History of the Inductive and arranging for dance bands. But this
Sciences. The good doctor is reported to tells only a very small part of the story.
have said that he simply couldn't under- Actually, the late Joseph Schillinger de-
stand how a violinist could produce har- veloped a wholly new theory of the rela-
monics on his instrument, without using a tionship between the arts-all arts-and
ruler to measure off the vibrating seg- science. In his very erudite, The Mathe-
ments of his strings! matical Basis of the Arts, he said, "Origi-
With attitudes such as this prevalent in nality is the product of knowledge, not
the scientific community, it is no wonder guesswork. Scientific method in the arts
that for a long time it appeared, as far as provides an inconceivable number of ideas,
music was concerned, ne'er the twain shall technical ease, perfection, and, ultimately,
meet. It was really the advent of elec- a feeling of real freedom, satisfaction and
tronics that acted as the catalyst. As music accomplishment." When jazzmen can ac -
Radio Corp. of America

Radio Corp. of America

Electronic music synthesizer, above and at left.

is capable of generating electronically any musi-
cal sound, including sounds of existing instruments
or of instruments that have never existed. It has
also a capacity for originating endless varieties
of rhythms. Unit is operated by a synthesist (photo,
left) who feeds the system information through
coded paper punched at a keyboard. Output of
synthesizer is recorded, a single series of tones at
a time (photo, right), then mixed with other tones.
 STRING

CAPACITOR
SPEAKER

AMPLIFIER

(A) 1 6L7
OR
12 AX 7

STRING SPEAKER

_-r Cl, C2, C3, C4 DEPENDENT

ON FREQUENCY

-\
AMPLIFIER

FIG. 4. Schematic of a phase shift oscillator

PERMANENT
MAGNET
(B)
cept such a profound idea as that, there
must be something to it.
FIG. 1. Electrostatic (A) and electromagnetic (B)
transducers in electric pianos. Similar tone systems Electronic Sound
are commonly used in the electric carillons, except The part played by elecronics in the
for a difference in the type of vibrating bodies. transmission, storage, and reproduction of
musical sounds was discussed in Chapter 5.
Now we are concerned with the original
production of these sounds through elec-
tronics, both with and without the con-
ventional types of musical instruments.
When used with conventional type in-
struments, the electronic contribution is
confined primarily to audio amplification.
The so-called electric guitar is a good
example .of this type. In its simplest form
it is a conventional guitar with a contact
microphone attached to its sounding board.
Then the vibrations of the board are con-
FIG. 2. Details of Hammond organ tone wheels. verted to electrical voltages by the micro-
phone, amplified, and reconverted to sound
by the loudspeaker. In guitars which are
specifically designed for electronic ampli-
fication, a transducer is coupled directly to
the bridge over which the vibrating strings
FLUTE are stretched. In this case the sounding
board is much smaller, and usually con-
tributes little to the actual production of
the tone.
In other instruments, such as the electric
/"\STRING piano or carillon, the vibrating element
itself acts as part of the transducer. The
mechanism of the electric piano is basically
the same as in a conventional instrument,
but the sounding board is replaced by an
DIAPASON electrical counterpart. Conversion of the
mechanical vibration of the string to elec-
trical vibrations may be either by electro-
static or electromagnetic means.
FIG. 3. Goodell and Swedien tone wheel and poles. As we see in Fig. 1(A), the string is one
100
plate of a capacitor. When the string is at Magnetic Pickup
rest, it will have a deficiency of electrons, In the electromagnetic system of Fig.
because the battery has caused an excess 1(B), a permanent magnet has surround-
of electrons to pile up on the fixed negative ing magnetic lines of force which extend
plate. But the actual amount off the charge into the area of the string. When the string
(number of electrons displaced) will de- vibrates, it cuts these lines of force and
pend not only on the voltage, but also on thereby induces a voltage in the coil. This
the capacitance. And the capacitance is in voltage is then impressed across the am-
part determined by the thickness of the plifier input and finally reproduced by the
dielectric, in this case the air space between loudspeaker.
the string and the fixed plate. More interesting, from a technical stand-
When the string is struck by its hammer point at least, are the various forms of tone
and is set into vibration, the distance be- generators, which by electronic means
tween the string and the plate will vary as either imitate the sounds of existing in-
long as the vibration continues. During struments, or create entirely new sounds.
this period the string and plate act as a In either case it should be understood that
variable capacitor, whose charge will vary there are some types of generators which
with the vibration. This varying charge in produce only the fundamental frequency,
effect acts as a varying voltage across re- while others produce a fully shaped tone.
sistor R and the input of the amplifier. The Bear in mind that any musical tone is
amplifier is then in effect transmitting the not "pure," but contains not only a funda-
actual tone produced by the string. mental tone, but also a number of har -

The 'Theater" two -manual organ is

Electronic Oran Arta, Inc. the most popular of 23 models pro-
duced by Artisan. They are sold in
do-it-yourself kit form.

Electronic Organ Arta, Inc.

et
Top right. Each "stop" of
the organ consists of a
wave-shaping circuit with
its preamp. Tone changer
chassis has eight stops
plus vibrato oscillator.
Right. Artisan tone gen- Electronic Organ Arta, Inc.
erator octave consists of
12 Hartley oscillators
which produce all the
harmonics.
101
 Orga-sonic by Baldwin has two manuals with a Above is an electric guitar made by the Gibson
total of 93 keys, including 18 independent stops. Co., part of a series of electronic string instruments.

TO KEYING TERMINALS
FIG. 5. The free -running multivibrator produces
R2 R2 a wide range of frequencies in a single circuit,
C3 C3
simply by varying the value of one component.
green C2* #C2 green

COIL
COIL

STRING OUTPUT ro
TONE CHANGER PREAMP
FLUTE OUTPUT
ONE CHANGER PREAMP
GRID BIAS TO VIBRATO
TERMINAL ON
TONE CHANGER
(FOR VALUES OF ALL C4 STRING VOLUME CONTROL
COMPONENTS SEE (/N TONE
ASSEMBLING INSTRUCTIONS) CHANGER)

Elect run Organ Arts. Inc.

Two -note tone generator schematic is shown above.

CONTACTS -1 !
ROCKER BAR JUNCTION

I NOTE OSCILLATOR
TONE
CHANGER

i
KEY r`m
1sY AMPLIFIER SPKR.
'FLUTES
+75
PWR. SUPPLY
+290 "STRINGS"
VOLUM E
CONTROL

102 1 STOPS
Electronic Organ Arts, Ira..
Simplified One -Note Diagram
 monies or multiples of this fundamental. components to negligible value. Ninety-
The number and relative loudness of these one tone wheels are used in the complete
harmonics determine the difference in organ to provide a range of seven and a
tonal characteristics of various instru- half octaves.
ments. In the case of electronic tone gene- Another electromagnetic tone generator
rators which deliver only the fundamental, is shown in Fig. 3. This is similar to that in
the harmonics must somehow be added the Hammond, except that the rotating
elsewhere. And in those cases where the wheels are rather sharply toothed, like
tone is completely formed, there is no way gears. This fact, coupled with variations in
of changing it. That is, the instrument will the shape of the permanent magnet tips,
have one characteristic sound, and no permits the generation of fully shaped
others. tones, like those shown in the drawing.
The tone generators in the Hammond The principle of the electromagnetic
organ are of the pure -tone type, and while piano pickup of Fig. 1(B) is also applied
this instrument first made its appearance directly in tone generation. The strings
around 1934, its method of tone genera- may be plucked or struck, or they may be
tion is based on a system discovered in the maintained in a constant state of vibra-
pre -electronic era of a century before. The tion. These variations in sounding tech-
principle is illustrated in Fig. 2, where we niques, along with the placement of pick-
see that it is not unlike the electromagnetic ups at a number of positions along the
piano system of Fig. 1(B). length of the string, will result in tones
quite unlike those of the piano.
Tone Wheel These same principles apply to the
Instead of a vibrating string, however, electrostatic vibrating string generator
we have a rotating tone wheel with a scal- shown in Fig. 1(A). There are other mem-
loped edge. As these scallops fly past the bers of the electrostatic tone generator
tip of a permanent magnet, they cut lines family, and they all have certain advan-
of force in such a way as to produce a tages common to the group.
nearly sine -wave tone. Since the tone ac- When the capacitor is constantly in
tually has some distortion, filters are fitted vibration, for example, the tone can be
to most generators to reduce the unwanted easily started or stopped simply by keying
in or out the polarizing voltage. Further-
more, this switching can be done by means
FIG. 6. A ten -cent neon tube plus a single re- of a filter network which will provide a
sistor and capacitor (A) provide excellent saw - variety of attacks and stops. Also, by vary-
tooth generator. Waveform and principle at (li).
ing the voltage, we have a simple and
convenient means of changing the dy-
R
namics of the tone.
Among the disadvantages of the electro-
static generator is the fact that the
capacitance will always be quite low, and
the input resistor R must be quite high.
This means that the amplifier input will
be high in impedance, and therefore quite
susceptible to hum and noise pickup.
One electrostatic tone generator uses
rotating capacitors, similar in principle to
the variable capacitors used in radio tuners.
Only two plates are used, however, one
fixed and one rotating at a high rate of
speed. One of the plates has a variety of
waveforms engraved on its surface to pro-
8+ VOLTAGE vide a number of tonal colors.
Vibrating reeds may also be used with
FIRING POTENTIAL both electromagnetic and electrostatic
pickup systems. In modern organs of this
7,,,OUTPUT
VOLTAGE type, the reeds are kept in constant vibra-
AVEFORM tion by a low-pressure stream of air, and
l,s-
OEIONIZING POTENTIAL
the depressing of the keys simply connects
i
i (

the electrical pickup to the amplifier. Be-

i cause the electrostatic reed organ has a
v
i
TIME [Continued on page 107]
O
(B)
103
 Building a Tuneable
EXPERIMENT 15
Audio Oscillator

Light is aimed at end of photo-

cell (left) to produce a tone in
the middle range. Moving the
lamp from this position, in and
out. right and left, will vary
the pitch from I to 5,000 cps,
about the top note on the piano.

Interesting warble effects are produced

by wig -wagging the fingers before the
light source, thus rapidly varying the
cell illumination and the tone fre-
quency. Try this at several speeds
and note differences.

Photocells are not equally sensitive to

all colors (frequencies) of visible light.
Other effects can be achieved by chang-
ing colors of light source. Here the
author uses a filtered light which is
rich in infrared radiation.

104
 THIS experiment provides an excellent demon- cps. The exact frequency will depend upon the
stration of the principles of electronic tone gen- resistance of the cell, which in turn depends
eration, and one type of commercial organ upon the amount of light striking it.
actually uses such a system as this.. The genera- Commercial forms of such generators use tone
tor circuit here is of the blocking -oscillator type. wheels, with the desired waveform either etched
The tube generates pulses of plate current which or printed on some transparent material. A
are interrupted by the control grid going so constant light source is then mounted on one
negative periodically as to cut off the plate cur- side of the wheel, and a photocell on the other.
rent. This circuit has been particularly popular The amount of light striking the cell will there-
for use in synchronizing sections of television sets. fore vary with the pattern on the wheel. The
The fundamental principle of the blocking os- system is thus similar in principle to optical
cillator is the time constant of a combination of recording on motion picture film.
resistance and capacitance, as discussed in You can experiment for various tonal effects
Experiment No. 12. In this cast the R is the with this generator, changing the light intensity
photocell, while the capacitance is Cs. But the in various ways. Try turning the exciter lamp
resistance of this cell, as explained in Experi-
on and off, move it from side to side, closer and
ment No. 6, varies all the way from 100,000
megohms in darkness to 10,000 ohms in intense
further away. Use various colored lamps or
light. filtered lights to demonstrate the color sensitivity
Since the resistance is of such a high value, of the cell. And notice the interesting effects
the capacitance is small. With this combination, when you wave your spread fingers in front of
the tone frequency will vary from 1 to 5,000 the light.

4/9 u 111/ 0 v

VENTILATED AREA
OP COVER

R-7 MEG.

INDICATOR LAMP

105
a9p Electronic Organ Arts, Inc.
00K
to,lw S"1''1, 100K
I
0
F Kn17toDK
70 WO GRN
+75 150v ENGLISH
HORN KINLKtA TIBIA
TO VIBRATO MAJOR
RED NOT
CONNECTED
HIR

HjR
TO ALL HEATERS
PINS 415 S- xx
1
91
GRN
sl '.: BLg 1e0K )IOK 170K
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DInPHONE oo/ S VIOLIN CONCERT S6K
TRUMPET D'ORCHESTRA FLUTE
RED-'"
GND
7V IRA rtPon
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TAP
+se

PUT

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1-
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01

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70K 170K
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1 X

17 1711

FL TE
-7 EMS dv BAsI I -i BUS -7V BIAS -7V Bus -7V BIASI -1V BAS
O47 -vv CPAs
TO STOP TABLETS ENGLISH BRASS Q
D APHONE VI
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CONCERT
HV4-4
FLUTE MAJOR
¡
IQYHORN
KINURA

NOTE Unless otherwise stated

¡
all resistors ore ft watt.

SOLO TONE CHANGER SCHEMATIC

CLASS III
SINGLE AMPLIFIER
SYSTEM

SWELL ISOLATION RESISTORS

CHANGER R= 25,000 TO 50,000 OHMS

9'INPUT
GREAT NO.1
CHANGER
INPUT
NO.2

PEDAL
CHANGER

Electronic Organ Arta, Inc.

VOLUME CONTROL PEDALS

106
 [Continued from page 103]
cleaner waveform than the electromagnetic Conventional oscillator circuits, such as
type, and it is possible to vary the signal the Hartley and the Colpitts, are essentially
strength simply by changing the polarizing sine -wave oscillators, and their principle of
voltage, the electrostatic type is the only operation at audio frequencies is the same
electric reed organ presently produced as for radio frequencies. In all such oscil-
commercially. lators, some part of the output of an ampli-
fying electron tube is fed back into its input
Tube Generators to be re -amplified.
By far the commonest type of tone gene- The electron tube itself is not an oscil-
rator today, however, is the vacuum tube lator, however. Oscillations actually take
oscillator, such as the one you built in Ex- place in a tuned circuit comprising suitable
periment No. 15. This type has the advan- amounts of capacitance and inductance.
tages of versatility, small size, low cost, The tube then in effect acts as an electrical
and compactness. Waveforms of almost any valve, which amplifies and automatically
desired shape can be produced economi- releases to the grid circuit the amount of
cally, and the characteristics of the attack, energy needed to sustain oscillation.
decay, and reverberation time can be ad- Another sine -wave oscillator, which re-
justed through the use of additional control quires no inductances, is shown in Fig. 4.
circuits. This type depends for its operation on the
As with the electromechanical types, the charging and discharging of a capacitor in
purely electronic tone generators can pro- combination with a resistor. The frequency
duce either sine -wave tones or fully - of the tone produced is determined by the
formed tones including the harmonics. Of time constant of the combination. This type
the two, the complex -wave generator is circuit is especially useful at the very low
more commonly used, mainly because all frequencies, and thus makes an excellent
harmonics produced within the same cir- vibrato generator of 6 to 9 cps. The oscil-
cuit must be in tune with the fundamental. lator of Experiment No. 15 is a resistance -
Even so, the sine -wave type deserves some capacitance circuit, with the photocell
study. acting as a variable resistance.

Below is a front view with part designations of the Baldwin Console Model 5 organ
R to Thann co

(I) MUSIC DESK (IS) STOP -KEYS (PEP.. SW a GT

(I4) FALL BOARD

(2) FALL FRONT (I5) POWER SWITCH

L
(16) SPEAKER SWITCH
(3) MUSIC REST (Il) TONE COLOR PANEL
(4) TONE CONTROL
I' le , (IS) PILOT LIGHT
II'
1 \. 1
\\
1.
(5) VIBRATO SWITCH (191 GT. MANUAL

(6) SW.

(7) KEYBLOCKS
MANUAL
`ZZi \ 1u 1 (20)
(tI)
GT.

KEYBED
KEYSLIP

(B) SW. KEYSLIP (U) LOWER FRAME

(9) ARM
(23) SWELL PEDAL
(10) SIDE
(II) PEDAL LIGHT

I\

r\vf\r,-''
\ \ .
- --
- w -
\``\
\\\\\\\\\\v
(tall REAR PEDAL BOX

(I2IPEDAL CLAVIER

107
 Complex Waves
Because most of the sounds of conven-
tional instruments can be imitated more
readily with waveforms which are essen-
tially saw-toothed or square, rather than
sine -waves, these more complex shapes are
often generated in commercial instru-
ments. With some fairly simple modifica-
tions of conventional sine -wave circuits,
these waveforms are readily produced.
Another type of oscillator, which inher-
ently generates square waves is the multi -
vibrator, shown in Fig. 5. Actually, the
multivibrator is not an oscillator at all, but
rather a form of automatic switch which
rapidly moves from one condition to an-
other. It requires two tubes (or both sec-
tions of a dual tube) to feed the output of
one tube to the input of the other, and vice
versa, back and forth by means of a re-
sistance -capacitance coupling network.
The frequency of the multivibrator can
be changed quite readily, simply by mak-
Baldwin Plano Co. ing either the resistance or capacitance
Ten couplers, 32 independent stops. separate variable. For this reason, it is widely used
tremolos for each manual, are some features of in inexpensive instruments, which play
the Model l0A Baldwin. Console weighs 554 lbs. only one note at a time, and use a single
Frequency range of fundamentals, musical notation and keyboards of the Baldwin organ
Baldwl o Plano Co.
50 110 r00 too 500 ,000 goo 5000
FUNDAMENTAL
FREQUENCY -CPS I I I I I I I I

PIANO KEYBOARD
I I 1 iii 11 1 III in 1

OCTAVE NUMBER 3 4 3 e

ORGAN MANUAL AT 8 FT I II IIl II 1I III 11 III

ORGAN PEDAL CLAVIER

AT 8 FT

8VA
STAVELESS
NOTATION C2 C4
TREBLE CLEF

BASS CLEF

C
108 w-
8 VA
circuit to cover a wide tonal range. All of the tube. At this point the tube becomes
multivibrators generate a waveform in conductive, and the capacitor tends to dis-
which the fundamental is weak relative charge through the gas of the tube. When
to the harmonics. The tone colors will the voltage on the capacitor falls below the
therefore be rather reedy or stringy in ionizing potential of the gas, the tube ex-
character, especially in the lower registers. tinguishes and ceases to conduct, at which
A simple saw -tooth oscillator is shown point the capacitor begins charging again
in Fig. 6. This is one of the simplest and to begin a new cycle.
As we see in Fig. 6 (B), the output
most inexpensive means of generating an voltage varies between the de -ionizing and
audio signal. The heart of this little circuit firing potentials of the tube. The full sup-
is a neon tube. Unlike the vacuum tube, ply voltage never appears across C, be-
whose plate current starts from -zero and cause the firing potential is much less, and
proceeds to a fairly small peak, the gas the difference appears across R. Similarly,
tube passes no current at all until the volt- C never discharges completely, because
age across its electrodes reaches the point that action stops when the de -ionizing po-
where the gas ionizes. When this happens, tential is reached. The saw -tooth char-
the internal resistance of the tube drops acter of the wave results from the fact that
from a quite high value down almost to the charging time is much longer than the
zero, the tube begins to conduct, and a discharge time, because the resistance of
large plate current flows immediately. the charging path is much greater than that
Gas Tube Principles of the discharge path. The actual frequency
of the signal depends on the supply voltage,
Referring to Fig. 6 (A), as voltage is and the values of R and C.
applied, the capacitor C begins to charge Most electronic organs do not have full
up, with an excess of electrons on its lower sets of tone generators, one for every tone
plate. This continues until the charge on in the range of the instrument. Instead they
C reaches the ionizing or "firing" potential often use frequency dividers. Electronics
men are well acquainted with methods of
increasing the basic output frequency of
an oscillator by multiplication, and of de-
creasing it by division. The latter method
is used exclusively in organs, because of
the low cost and frequency stability of
high -frequency oscillators whose signals
are divided down. To build low-frequency
generators and multiply up would not be
nearly so economical in space, weight or
cost.
Tone Forming
The desired tone colors in electronic
music are achieved by the process of ad-
ditive synthesis or subtractive synthesis.
In the former system, the outputs of sev-
eral sine -wave oscillators are combined in
the desired ratio of fundamental and har-
monics. In the subtractive system, we be-
gin with a generated tone which is very
rich in harmonics, and then delete or sub-
due some of them as desired. Both of these
methods are used frequently in modern
r MATE MO MMIITUDE
DETERMINING COMMOMEMTE
electronic organ practice.
Still other electronic means are used in
I iX OEX[I:RTOR-
tone formation to control the rate of attack
Baldwin Piano Co. and decay, as well as other characteristics
Schematic electronic organ vibrato circuit such as vibrato, reverberation and change
of expression. Electronic music has now
of

reached the stage in its development where

it can imitate the sound of any existing in-
strument with a high degree of accuracy,
not to mention the sounds it can produce
that have never been heard before.
109
 Chapter 10

MEDICAL ELECTRONICS
New weapons in the war on disease
SOME of the most dramatic applications Yet despite this sorry history of shame-
of electronics have been in the field of less quackery, medical science was the first
medicine, where the ultimate objective is to embrace, and to benefit from, the true
the saving of human lives. The science of art of electronics when it first appeared
medical electronics is a relatively new one, on the scene. The era of medical electronics
and there have been times when there was really dates from the discovery of X rays
every indication that it would die aborn- by Wilhelm von Roentgen in 1895. So great
ing. Even now, the wedding of electronics was the importance of this discovery, and
to medicine sometimes takes on the com- so readily was it recognized, that within
plexion of a shotgun affair. but a few weeks of Roentgen's announce-
Electra -Medical Quackery ment, X rays were being used as an aid to
surgical operations in Vienna.
Medical men can hardly be blamed for a Although Roentgen used the term X ray,
certain wariness toward electronics as a with X standing for the mysterious un-
useful tool, when one considers the bizarre known, we now are acquainted with the
history of some early collaborations be- true nature of these rays. They actually
tween physicists and physicians. In the are invisible light rays, having a very short
sixteenth century, a self-styled German wavelength and lying directly above the
doctor who liked to be called Paracelsus ultraviolet region. But X rays have some
was advocating the use of powdered lode- very important properties which are not
stone, a magnetic material, in the treatment exhibited by ordinary visible light. First
of stab wounds. In the eighteenth century, are the well-known abilities of X rays to
electric shock from the then new friction penetrate solid matter and to affect a pho-
machines was popular for the treatment of tographic plate. Less well known is the fact
paralysis. At the turn of the nineteenth that when X rays pass through matter, not
century the "tractor" became a widespread only solid matter, but liquid and gaseous
cure-all. This was simply a pair of dissimi- states as well, they produce both positively
lar metals, in effect a primitive battery, and negatively charged ions.
which when drawn over the skin of a pa-
tient was supposed to have miraculous The X-ray Tube
curative powers. The producer of these rays is the X-ray

Brookhaven National Laboratory

Workers insert a 500 -pound

outer half "turn" of the cos-
motron coil during construction
of the giant particle accel-
erator at the nuclear research
center, Upton, N. Y. The hollow
copper coil magnetizes the
steel of the cosmotron and
keeps particles in the cham-
ber. The coil consists of 384
turns, making up the 70-foot
diameter cosmotron. Weight of
magnet alone is 4,000 tons.

A\
Columnla-Presbyterian Medical Center

The massive 10 -ton betatron is

the latest weapon In the attack
on cancer. The plastic cone is
positioned, above, from which
the 24 -million volt X rays wiL
emerge in a highly penetratinç
beam to the spot to be treated.

At right is the betatron's operator

who sits behind a 31/2 -foot cor -
crete wall while the patient is
under treatment. Operation of the
betatron is viewed through a
water-filled porthole which wi_1
absorb any harmful radiation-.
Columbia -Presbyterian Medical Center
111
 PULMONARY
ARTERY
TO LUNGS
PULMONARY
VENA VEIN
CAVA FROM LUNGS
CIRCULATORY
SYSTEM

RIGHT
VENTRICLE
AORTA
TO
CIRCULATORY
SYSTEM

Electronics Illustrated
Electronics Illustrated
Another version of electronic cancer fighting Is The diagram
this 2 -million -volt X-ray unit which is designed to above indicates pictorially the
main elements of the human heart. Heart disease
treat cancer cells at pin -pointed site within body. is number one killer in U. S. (See text for details.)

tube, which is basically nothing more than injury to adjacent healthy tissues and vital
a high -voltage diode rectifier in which the organs. The solution to this problem has
electron stream from the cathode strikes come out of atomic research.
the anode with such force that it produces
X rays by bombardment. When an X-ray Particle Accelerators
photograph is taken, some of the rays are In X-ray tubes the basic process is the
absorbed by the subject. Thus the picture acceleration of electrons, and they may
is really nothing more than the shadow thus be regarded as the direct antecedents
cast by the object being photographed. of the family of devices known as particle
Since the relative absorption and penetra- accelerators. These devices, which were
tion of the rays varies with the various originally developed by atomic physicists
materials in the subject under study, the to produce nuclear transformations, in-
X-ray camera can in effect "see" beneath clude such well-known names as the cy-
the surface, as in the case of a broken bone. clotron, cosmotron, betatron, synchrotron
X rays are also widely used in the diag- and bevatron.
nosis of many diseases and anomalies such Particle accelerators are used to speed
as tuberculosis, silicosis, arthritis, and up either electrons or positive ions to tre-
various types of stones, ulcers and cancers. mendous velocities, to just barely under
But its usefulness is not confined to diag- the speed of light. At this point they either
nosis alone. In the year following Roent- strike a suitable target and thus produce
gen's discovery, a Chicago doctor used very penetrating X rays, or the electrons
X rays to treat a tumor. Since then X rays themselves leave the system through a
have been used for the relief or cure of window. (Also see illustrations in Chap-
ulcers, sinusitis, bursitis, arthritis, and ter 2.)
dozens of different skin infections. There are two main types of particle
A disadvantage of ordinary X-ray accelerators. In one type the particles move
equipment for treatment is that its rays along a straight path, through devices
concentrate their effect on the surface of which in successive steps supply more and
the patient's body. But for cancers within more energy to boost the particle velocity.
the body, for example, it is desirable that This type is called a linear accelerator. In
the rays penetrate more deeply, and that another type the particles are whirled
they be sharply controllable so that a around in a circular orbit.
tumor might be destroyed with minimum The betatron is an example of the latter
112
 mkrophon

Electronics Illustrated Electronics Illustrated

Sensitive Gulton microphone at end of heart Drawing shows how microphone and cable, con-
catheter is so tiny It does no damage passing nected to preamp, is placed in heart by insert-
through arm vein and chest into patient's heart. ing through vein, over shoulder, into auricle,

type. The first of these was built in the the target or escaping, as they continue to
United States in 1940, and in addition to pick up speed in making hundreds of thou-
their usefulness for nuclear experimenta- sand loops around the doughnut. When
tion, they also have been employed in in- the proper velocity is reached, only then
dustry, their high-energy X rays proving are the particles permitted to strike the
very effective in detecting flaws in metal target and form X rays, or to escape di-
castings and forgings. More recently, they rectly through a window.
have been adopted for medical use, there But although it takes some time to tell
now being a 22 -million -volt model in the it, all of this can actually happen within
Chicago Medical Center of the University 1/720th of a second!
of Illinois, and a 24 -million-volt version In the betatron at The Presbyterian Hos-
at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical pital, the beam is not continuous, but is
Center in New York City. made up of a series of short bursts, each
The betatron works on the principle of lasting only about a microsecond, with a
electromagnetic induction, and might be pulse repetition frequency of 180 cps. This
thought of as similar to a giant transformer. frequency produces such a pronounced
In place of the secondary wiring used in a hum that special acoustical lining is needed
transformer, however, the betatron has a on the inner walls of the unit to keep the
circular vacuum tube (generally known as noise down to a tolerable minimum.
a doughnut) placed in the magnetic field The beam is so powerful that a 7 -foot
of the transformer core. Thus the electrons thick concrete wall is used directly in front
in the secondary circuit, instead of flowing of the machine to reduce its effects to a
through turns of wire, spin around inside harmless level. The walls of the treatment
the doughnut in response to the force ex- room are 31/2 feet thick, to absorb any stray
erted by the induction field from the pri- radiation. The operator observes the treat-
mary. ment of the patient from outside this wall,
through a water-filled porthole. Although
Particle Deflection super -high -voltage particle accelerators
The particles don't simply make one trip such as this one have not been in any way
around the doughnut in traveling from a cure-all for cancer, they are expected to
cathode to target, however. Instead there prove an important therapeutic and re-
are electromagnetic deflection circuits search tool in the fight against this dread
which prevent the particles from striking disease.
113
 Radio Corp. of America Radio Corp. of Aroerira
"Radio Pill" is demonstrated by two scientists. FM radio antenna at the end of metal
against body, picks up radio waves sent out by pill. The FM waves pass through the body. rod is held
the oscillograph which registers changes in pressure. Bottle on the table At right is
contains the tiny radio transmitter.

Body Signals
The signal tracer you build in Experi-
ment No. 16 will help to diagnose troubles
in electronic apparatus. Similarly, the live
human body is in reality a dynamic system
which generates a variety of electrical
voltages, signals which provide an excel-
lent clue to the body's own state of health.
In this diagnostic branch of medical elec-
tronics, instrumentation is the major tool.
This group of instruments comprises the
electrocardiograph, electroencephalograph,
electrogastrograph, and electromyograph.
These instruments are designed for use
with the heart, brain, stomach, and nerves
and muscles, respectively.
All of them make use of voltages gener-
ated within the body itself, and known as
bioelectric potentials. Since the body it-
self is conductive, the electrodes which
pick up these voltages may generally be
applied externally. In the case of the elec-
trogastrograph, however, one set of elec-
trodes is strapped to the patient's forearm,
but six others are affixed to a small balloon
Columbia- l'reshytertan Medical Center
which is swallowed, so that they may come
Great aid in the fight on disease is the electron into direct contact with the stomach lining.
microscope, which is shown above being locused. In any case, the voltages, which are on
'tad io Corp. of America the order of millivolts, or even microvolts,
HOW ELECTRONS ARE FOCUSED
are amplified by conventional electronic
IN THE RCA ELECTRON MICROSCOPE
means, and then fed to a suitable recording
medium, or monitored by headphones or
speaker, or displayed on some instrument
such as a cathode ray oscillograph. These
bioelectric potentials are invariably highly
complex, and the instrumentation will
often include some form of harmonic
analyzer, which will separate out the vari-
ous signal components. The objective here
is the correlation of these various factors
 RCaEIECTRON
TUBE S !

Radio Corp. of America Radio Corp. of America

New electron tube is the "eye" of a microscope attachment for use in medical research. Called the
"ultrascope," it converts invisible ultraviolet images of human tissue into visible pictures. At right is
photomicrograph of unstained brcin section, with almost no cell structure visible. To its left is same
specimen viewed with the aid cf the "ultrascope" tube. The irregular black spots are nerve cells.

with the action of the various parts of the The result is something like listening to a
body with which they are concerned. dance band two doors down the hall, while
The significance of the voltages is de- each musician is playing a different ar-
termined by means of standards of com- rangement of the same tune.
parison. After much experience in the use
of these instruments on healthy people, it The Radio Pill
has been learned just what form the signals The same general condition holds true
should normally have. An abnormal pat- for the other internal organs. In the case of
tern would indicate a condition of illness the stomach and digestive system, the
of some sort, which likewise may be diag- problem has been solved by the radio pill.
nosed in the light of experience gained The patient actually swallows a miniature
from previous cases. FM radio broadcasting station, complete
Electronic science has also contributed with transmitter and power supply. The
much to the branch of diagnosis known as entire system fits into a plastic capsule
ausculation. This has to do with listening 11/8 inches long and less than a half -inch
to sounds within the body. The practice in diameter, and relays information to the
began when doctors started placing their outside by radio, as it journeys through the
ears directly against the body of the pa- gastro-intestinal tract of the patient.
tient, a procedure which for some years For probing the sounds of the heart, the
had about as much sanction as witchdoc- problem isn't so simple. The only way we
toring. Ausculation in the modern sense can really tell what the heart is doing is by
dates from 1819, with the invention of the listening to it from the inside of each of
stethoscope, the rubber -tubed instrument its four chambers. This is actually done,
so familiar to all. using a sensitive microphone smaller than
Well over a century passed before we a grain of rice. It is enclosed with a pair of
had the first electrostethoscope, an elec- wires in a plastic tube hardly thicker than
tronic instrument in which the sound is a piece of string.
picked up and converted to electricity by There are two methods of getting the
a transducer, and then reconverted to tiny mike into all of the four heart cham-
sound by means of headphones. But any bers shown in Fig. 1. For the right side, the
stethoscope has one major disadvantage. plastic tube is introduced into the vein of
Amplified or not, it still hears the heart the arm, the same one used for blood do-
from outside, after the sounds have trav- nation. The process is practically painless,
eled through the heart walls, through the and no general anesthesia is needed. As
chest, between or through the ribs, and shown in Fig. 2, the cable enters from the
finally through the skin. In getting through top (vena cava), and can get into both right
these acoustic barriers, the sounds are chambers, through their valves, and even
weakened about 80 decibels. Furthermore, into the pulmonary artery which carries
all the various heart sounds merge to- blood to the lungs.
gether, regardless of where they originate. [Continued on page 119]
115
EXPERIMENT 16 Building a Signal Tracer

e. .,
e
Underside of Edu-Kit signal tracer
shows wiring simplicity. Coil in
center used for other experiments.

Test probe is made of foot -long piece of wire, with end skinned bare. Check grid and plate of each stage.
 EXPERIMENTS in electronics involving the hu- suit a tube manual to determine which are the
man body are not for non -medical laymen, but plate and grid terminals. With the radio turned
the idea of ausculation and the check of bio - on, touch the probe to the grid of the first tube.
electric potentials is directly analogous to the You should hear a station. When you touch the
signal tracing and voltage testing apparatus you plate of the same tube, the sound should be
build in this experiment. louder. Continue on through each succeeding
The signal tracer is just one of many devices stage in this fashion, until the signal disappears,
which may be made from a Progressive Edu-Kit, becomes noisy or is distorted. You have now
And just as the doctor con localize the malfunc- isolated your trouble to a specific area, and all
tioning of certain parts of the body by listening that remains is to find which component is at
to its sounds, so you can find trouble in radios fault. And nine times out of ten, a visual in-
and other electronic gear by using this instru- spection, or poking around for loose leads, or
ment and your own ears. broken or intermittent connections will give you
The chassis of the equipment under test is your answer.
connected to the signal tracer chassis through For checking supply voltages, and for locating
C,, as shown in the schematic. It is important opens and shorts, you can use a neon probe.
that the two chassis do not touch each other A commercial model is shown in the picture, but
directly. The probe is simply a wire about 12 you con easily build your own, using an NE -2
inches in length, with about a half-inch of in- or NE -51 mounted in a length of plastic tubing.
sulation cut off the end. When voltage is applied, both electrodes glow
Until you get to know the pin connections of with 90 or more volts AC, while only one glows
the commonly used tubes, you will have to con - on DC.

IDENTIFICATION CODE
TUBES LINE CORD
TUBE I 6P5, 6J5 OR 6C5 WIRE I: BLACK
INTERCHANGEABLE WIRE 2: GRAY
TUBE 2: 6507, 6SJ7 OR 6SK7 WIRE 3: RED
INTERCHANGEABLE

CONDENSERS RESISTORS
CI: AI MFD. RI: ANY VALUE BETWEEN
C2: .001 MFD. 1500 OHMS t 5000 OHMS (1.5K SK)
52: ANY VALUE BETWEEN -
B 3.3 MEGOHMS (IM . 3.3M)
MEGOHM
I

ELECTROLYTIC CONDENSER
LEAD I: RED
53: ANY VALUE BETWEEN
OHMS i
-
50.000 OHMS 125K
25,000
SOO)
LEAD 2: RED RI: ANY VALUE BETWEEN - 100.000 Neon tube probe checks supply voltages of
LEAD 3: BLACK OHMS & 200.000 OHMS 1100K 2000) .
90 volts or over, also opens and shorts.

TUBE 2
TUBE 2 TUBE I

C2
CI

CO

PROLE
INCHES OF WIRE

CI R2

l
WIRE TO
CHASSIS BEING
SERVICED

WIRE I

17) WIRE
I
WISE 2

Cr
3
117
LEAD 3 B
 Columbia-Preshyterian Medical Cente- National Institutes of Health

Electrogastrograph, for stomach cancer diagnosis. Studies of fats in blood are aided by precise
Patient swallows small balloon containing six elec- analysis possible with mass spectrometer, which
trodes; another electrode is strapped to arm. sorts out the electrified particles and identifies
Electrical difference in potential is then measured. any foreign elements in patient's blood sample.

Electronic stethoscope, whose am-

plifiers pick up a newborn baby's
faint heartbeats, are great help
in this field. Other aids are in-
cubators with infrared radiant
heat where the infant wears
temperature-sensing elements at-
tached to sections of his body.

Columbia-Preabyterlan Medical Center

Experiments to find cures for cancer are conducted Special electronic equipment in an open-heart
with the help of radioactive carbon. Below, a Gei- surgery recovery room includes fog tent, monitoring
ger counter measures one sample's radioactivity. oscilloscope, recording machine and pacemaker.
American Cancer Societe Columbia -Presbyterian Medical Center
 Radio Corp. of America
A medical color television camera is shown above undergoing operational tests. Thls color TV
camera system is designed specifically for medical use, cam be used closed-circuit or on -the-air.

[Continued from page 115]

To get to the left side of the heart by this lengths of the lenses, which remain station-
method, however, would require going into ary. Focal length is changed by varying
the arteries, against the blood flow and the currents in the coils, thereby changing
against the valve action. So the method the strength of the magnetic fields.
actually used is somewhat different. A long The electrons comprising the beam are
hollow needle is inserted between the ribs concentrated on the specimen, which ab-
in the back, directly into the left auricle. sorbs some of them and scatters others.
The mike and cable pass inside the needle, Thus the distribution of the remaining
and from there can drop down to the left electrons in the beam is determined by the
ventricle and even into the aorta. Although details of the specimen. After the beam
it is only a couple of years old, this hi-fi passes through the specimen, it is further
heart checker has been directly respon- focused and enlarged by the objective and
sible for saving literally hundreds of lives. projector lenses.
The Electron Microscope The image is not directly observed as in
an optical microscope, but is seen as a pat-
Another important contributor to medi- tern produced on a fluorescent screen,
cal research is the electron microscope, similar to that used in television receivers.
which permits examination of viruses and The beam may also be focused on a photo-
minute bacterial structures which are far graphic plate since electrons will affect a
too small to be seen with even the most photographic emulsion in the same way as
powerful optical microscopes. As shown on will visible light. Thus it is possible with
page 114, the electron microscope uses a the electron microscope to get a direct,
beam -forming system similar to that of the permanent record of the image.
television tube. The lenses of the electron There are many more examples of co-
microscope are the powerful magnetic operative efforts between electronics and
fields of four coils. Whereas in the optical medicine, but it is clear from what we have
microscope the image is focused by chang- seen here that the forward march of medi-
ing the lens spacing, in the electron micro- cal science has been advanced immeasur-
scope this is done by varying the focal ably by the contributions of electronics. e'

119
 Chapter 11

SEEING EYES
Electronic navigation

Federal Aviation Agency

Typical Instrument Flight Room at a large termi-

nal airport. Radar sets shown are short range.

ASDE radarscope presents air traffic controller

with picture of all ground traffic at Idlewild
Airport. Note clear definition of the runways.
Airborne Instruments Laboratory

120
 ONE of the more dramatic applications
Radar
of modern electronics is in the many Among these is the well-known radar,
systems developed for the navigational which came into its own during World
guidance of surface vessels and aircraft. War II. The important fact of nature, with-
So many contributions have been made to out which radar would be impossible, is
the art, in fact, that we can cover only the exactness of the velocity of movement
briefly a few of the more important ones of radio waves, very nearly 186,282 miles
in this chapter. per second.
The age of electronic navigation began Radar works on the principle of echoes.
in 1912 when the old Mauretania was fitted When you shout across a canyon or ravine
with radio direction finding equipment. and hear the sound of your own voice
This equipment comprises a sensitive bouncing back at you, your mouth is acting
radio receiver, along with a highly direc- as the transmitter, and your ears as the
tional antenna system. With this combina- receiver. If you measure the time it takes
tion, the operator can tell the direction for the sound to travel to the cliff or moun-
from which a radio signal arrives. And tain side and bounce back again, then
from this he can tell the direction in which knowing that the velocity of sound is
his vessel should head to arrive at the around 1,120 feet per second, you can easily
source of the transmissions. figure, the distance between you and the
The drawback here is that a single signal opposite wall.
can give the operator no more than a Similarly, the radar set transmits a short
bearing. If the captain uses this informa- pulse, receives its echoes, then transmits
tion to set his course, he is not taking into another short pulse and receives its echoes.
effect the drift he will encounter because When the waves strike an object, such as
of wind and current. He may therefore an airplane, ship, building or mountain,
take a rather roundabout way in arriving they will bounce back to the radar source.
at his destination, although arrive at it he While radar of this type was originally
surely will. used for the location of enemy aircraft, it
A much better application of radio direc- is now used as a navigational aid for
tion finding involves the use of two or friendly craft in the system known as
more bearings on separated stations. When Ground Controlled Approach (GCA).
these several bearings are plotted on a When a pilot must make a blind landing in
map, they will cross, and the intersection bad weather, but lacks the airborne equip-
will pinpoint the ship's position. ment to enable him to do it unaided, a
Radio direction finding has a number of skilled crew of GCA operators on the
disadvantages, however, perhaps the most ground can "talk him down" by giving him
important of which is the requirement of a a running commentary on the quality of his
skilled operator. The shortage of such approach.
skills, plus the desirability that the com- The airport equipment usually com-
mander of the vessel have accurate naviga- prises two radar sets, one known as the
tional information at his fingertips at a mo- search system, and the other called the
ment's notice, has led to the development precision unit. The search unit monitors all
of many semiautomatic electronic naviga- aircraft within about 30 miles of the air-
tional aids. port, while the precision set gives continu -

Washington National Air-

port control tower is typical
of similar centers found
throughout United States.

Federal Aviation Agency

121
A I rhorne [not rumen( s Laboratory
ICeytheon Co.
Automatic radar performance monitor attached to Designed for large ocean going vessels, this
radar screen enables the operator to check on radar screen, shown here with viewing hood, gives
and measure accuracy and operation of the set. operator continuous warning of any hazards.

Long-range radar uses 40 -

foot antenna, covers more
than 125,000 square miles
of area. A single set is
able to feed 15 monitors
simultaneously, allows
tracking even in bad
weather or rain. A new
provision allows set to pick
out only moving objects.

Restneon Co

122
 AIRCRAFT
INTERROGATION r

SIGNAL

AIRBORNE RADAR
(INTERROGATOR)
RECEIVING
ANTENNA BEACON
REPLY SIGNAL

TRANSMITTING FIG. 1. The radar beacon system uses stations

ANTENNA both on the ground and aboard the vessel. With
RADAR
BEACON two stations supplying a bearing, as shown, the
flying aircraft can readily get an accurate fix.
(TRANSPONDER)

ous information on the specific approach- sion of the ancient practice of the password.
ing aircraft with respect to the runway. One of the most important navigational
factors in aviation is altitude, and in pro-
Radar Beacons viding this information electronics has
While radar was first used to locate an proven indispensable. The conventional
unknown target from a fixed point, it can barometric altimeter has two serious dis-
also work in reverse. That is, it can deter- advantages. First, it indicates altitude
mine the unknown location of an airborne above sea level rather than above the im-
radar station relative to a known ground mediate terrain. Second, it must be ad-
position. In the radar beacon system, in justed for the existing condition of the
fact, there are radar transmitters and re- barometer at various points over which
ceivers both aboard the aircraft and on the the aircraft is flying. This in turn requires
ground, as shown in Fig. 1. that the information be received by radio
The fixed radar station, known as a from the ground, introducing still another
transponder, sends out a signal only upon possibility for error. As former Flight
interrogation from the mobile station. The Radio Officer for a leading airline, this
reply will indicate both the distance and writer knows of several near -tragedies
bearing of the mobile station from the which resulted either from improper op-
radar beacon. With two or more such range eration or interpretation of barometric al-
readings, the captain or navigator can de- timeters.
termine his position on a map simply with The Radar Altimeter
the use of a pair of compasses. He merely
describes circles around the beacon sta- Several forms of absolute altimeters
tions at the proper ranges, and the point have been developed, all employing elec-
where they intersect is his position. tronic principles, but the one most com-
The radar beacon is actually an out- monly used is the reflection type, using
growth of the IFF (identification, friend or the radar concept. The system uses sepa-
foe) system in use during World War II. rate transmitter and receiver, with asso-
In this case, whenever the ground radar ciated antennas spaced some distance
system discovers an aircraft, it sends out apart on the underside of the aircraft, as
an interrogation pulse. The frequency of shown in Fig. 2. Since the speed of radio
this pulse, its length and spacing, have waves is constant, the time required for
been predetermined by a specific coding. the altimeter signal to shoot down to earth
A beacon transponder aboard a friendly and bounce back to the receiving antenna
aircraft, when it receives this pulse, will is directly proportional to the altitude.
automatically send back a coded reply of The signal is frequency modulated,
identification. If the detected aircraft were rather than pulsed as in most other types
of enemy origin, it would presumably be of radars. The receiver compares the fre-
ignorant of the code, so even if it should quency of the returning signal with that
have its own transponder, it would not be of the transmitted signal at every instant.
triggered into sending a correctly coded With the time required for the signal to
reply. Thus we have an all -electronic ver - [Continued on page 127]
123
 Building a
EXPERIMENT 17
Direction Finder
John J. Rmith, Meehanlx Illustrated John J. Smith. Meehanlx Illustrated

Complete construction kit, ready for assembly. Note Rear view of completed radio compass without
muffin tin used for accurate sorting of small parts, case. Meter controls are at front, speaker at- aide.

200NC .
2asRE ).ion 300.0
211,5C.323NC

- ---1{.iSiL\C:r
4

L_
I
AESONAVICAL
_ ERONAUTICAI
_......J
.

RADIO- VAVIGATION MARITIME RA01O' MOIO' MVIGATION

Chart of radio services NAVIGATIONCr.. . -

found in 200-400 kc band. 14ÁDISpTaEACOÑs1

DEVIATION CHART
r- IT
,...
.,.

Checking visual sightings -5 1

against radio bearings

will often show deviation I .

due to unsymmetrical ship.

ro' AO' act so l00 1zó N

RADIO
;
1
IO 100 1eá 700 Pd

BEARING
i yrEO'.ze

If in doubt about possible RADIO STATION -

reciprocal bearing, hold
course and take second
bearing short while later.

BOATS COURSE

124
 AS we approach the last in this series of experi- acteristics of a loop antenna. Between the two
ments, you should now be ready for another lobes of strong signal reception, there are two
major project. This one here demonstrates the rather sharp areas of minimum signal, known as
principles of one of the oldest forms. of electronic nulls. One of these will indicate the true bearing
navigation, and is a most useful instrument as well. of the station and the other will be displaced by
The radio direction finder is still one of the most 180 degrees.
To obtain a position fix, the procedure is re-
accurate means of navigation when properly op-
erated, and the one shown here is built from a peated on one or more other stations, and their
Heathkit. The circuit comprises six transistors and bearings plotted in degrees on a chart. Accuracy
covers two bands of frequencies. The low band, in establishing a fix will be greatly increased if
from 200 to 400 kc, embraces all marine beacons the angle between stations is always greater than
and most aviation services. The upper band, 540 30 degrees. The point or small area where the
to 1620 kc, more than covers the standard AM two or more bearings intersect is your position.
broadcast band. If your vessel is within a triangle whose sides
The first stage is a converter, followed by two are imaginary lines between each of three sta-
stages of i-f. Next the signal is detected by a tions, as will usually be the case on inland waters,
semiconductor diode, followed by two stages of your plotted fix will probably be a triangle also,
audio, with the output stage connected in push- within which is your position. In coastal waters,
pull. where all shore stations lie in approximately the
Operation of any radio direction finder de- same direction, your position will fall slightly out-
pends upon the figure -of-eight directional char - side such a triangle.

OUTSIDE TRIANGLE

Bob McVea, Advanced Pilot, Plum Beach Power

Squadron, N. Y., takes bearing aboard his cruiser.

INSIDE TRIANGLE

Bearings within station triangle fix position within

triangle. Outside triangle bearings are less accurate.
125
 ;
A

`"

Circle at upper right shows section

of an actual map: the circle at left
shows the same segment as pictured
on a radar screen of a ship. The dot
in center is the ship's present posi-
tion, In the East River. New York.

Radar on board the liner "Empress of Canada"

is used to bring the ship to moorings through
narrow waterways and in a thick, English fog.
Britlab Information Services

Airborne Instrumenta Laboratory

Radar display shows distribution of airborne
aircraft in the New York terminal area at 10:30
a.m., July 14, 1956. Altitude is not indicated.
[Continued from page 123]
hit ground and bounce back, there will be Information from both these signals is
a difference in frequency between the conveyed to the pilot through an instru-
original and the reflection. With this differ- ment having two meter movements at right
ence known, the transmission time can be angles to one another. The pointers on the
calculated, and from that information, the two meters thus cross at right angles when
altitude can in turn be calculated. These the correct approach is being made. But
computations are actually performed if the airplane is coming in too low, the
within the instrument, however, permitting glide path pointer will sag down below the
the pilot to read his altitude directly in horizontal, and if he is too high, the needle
thousands and hundreds of feet. will stab up above the center line. Simi-
Before the advent of radar, there were a larly, when the airplane is on course, the
number of radio aids to navigation, and localizer pointer will be perfectly vertical,
these systems are still the most widely but if the airplane drifts to right or left,
used. One of these is ILS (instrument the pointer will deflect to one side or the
landing system), which involves several other as well.
special transmitters on the ground and spe- In addition to the runway localizer and
cial receivers aboard the aircraft. The the glide path, there are two or sometimes
complex radiation pattern of the ILS trans- three marker beacon transmitters, which
mitters is shown in Fig. 3. These combined send up sharply vertical fan -shaped beams,
signals give the pilot very accurate infor- which tell the pilot how far he is from the
mation concerning his course, approach, runway. The first of these is called the
attitude and distance from the runway. outer marker, and is located around 4.5 to
5 miles from the runway. Following this on
Landing Beams the approach path is the inner marker,
The transmitter which gives the course about 0.7 to 1 mile from the runway.
information is the runway localizer. This Finally, there is sometimes a boundary
is fairly high powered, with a range of marker, which is about 250 feet from the
perhaps 40 to 80 miles, depending upon the near end of the runway. As the airplane
airplane's altitude. Thus it not only gives passes over each of these marker beacons,
the pilot his right -left orientation with re- he can hear a tone in his headset, and he
spect to the runway, but if he should be may also have a visual indication in the
arriving from the right direction, it might form of a colored light flashing on in his
also serve as a homing device. instrument panel. Although the ILS sys-
Vertical information concerning the ap- tem can bring an airplane in completely
proach is sent from the glide path trans- "blind," the pilot almost always makes
mitter, which gives the pilot an invisible visual contact with the ground at least a
toboggan slide in the air to ride in on, right few moments before the touchdown on
down to the runway. the landing strip.

ALTIMETER ALTIMETER
TRANSMITTING RECEIVING
0.02 MICROSECOND, 0.25 DEGREE, OR
NTENNA ANTENNA
OR ABOUT 10 FEET ABOUT 10 FEET
IN DISTANCE AT 1/2 MILE

TRANSMITTED
SIGNAL
REFLECTED
SIGNAL
//
SCANNING 60 RPM

//
0.25 DEGREE
BEAMWIDTH

Airborne Instruments Laboratory

At half-mile distance ASDE radar pulse examines FIG. 2. The radar altimeter is designed to tell
target in increments of 10x10 feet. Beam scans the actual height above ground the aircraft is
across the aircraft and outlines it on radar screen. flying over, rather than the sea -level height.

127
 Mt /IM
OM MONK MM MIIT

O
IIGNifiOwNn

L I `

! :
.
,ßj!
9.4
@

L"T: M.7.7« e:4- ' ' NEW TORI TERMINAL AREA

ma MOMMY tot

The map above shows the New York Terminal Area VOR Departure routes In 1958.

Recording Fathometer for

small pleasure boats can
tell operator at a glance
the depth of water plus
the contour of the bottom.
Raytheon l'o_

128
 FAN- SHAPED
LOCALIZER
MARKER BEACONS
ANTENNA
TRANSMITTER
4.5-5 MILES
ON COURSE

I
Ó7 1 MILE

.1,tfli

(ll(1
I

IIF11II6
POINT OF GLIDE -PATH
CONTACT BEAM
INNER
MARKER LOCALIZER
OUTER
MARKER BEAM

FIG. 3. The ILS arrangement gives an airplane pilot complete information concerning the correctness
of his approach for a landing, even in bad fog. See text for full explanation of this system.

Radio Ranges erratic fading at night, caused by irregular

One of the older forms of radio aids to reflections from the ionosphere. Another
navigation is the range station, which gives is the multiple courses due to reflections
the pilot information on the course to fly of the waves from mountains. Still another
on the way to his destination. Although is course bending, resulting from changes
now obsolescent, the radio range is still in the radiation characteristics as the wave
widely used all over the world, with over passes from one type of terrain to another.
400 such stations in the United States alone. And while these are called range stations,
The radio range comprises essentially they don't actually provide range (dis-
two pairs of antenna towers, each pair tance) information at all, but only bearing
having a radiation pattern which, in its or direction. Finally, the necessity of lis-
simplest form, is a figure -of-eight. Each tening to the on -course tone of the range
pattern is at right angles to the other, as can be very fatiguing, especially when
shown in Fig. 4(A). Into one pair of towers there are heavy static conditions.
is fed the code signal N (dash -dot), while Omnirange
into the other pair is fed the signal A (dot -
dash) The timing of these two signals is
.
It was in answer to these serious prob-
exactly interlocking, as shown in Fig. 5. lems that the Civil Aeronautics Authority
An aircraft within the service area of began planning a new system, dubbed
the station will generally receive both the VOR (visual omnidirectional range). In
A and the N signals. In most areas one of this system the ground station transmits
the signals will be stronger than the other, two separate signals, one perfectly circular
but there will be four areas in which the around the station, and the other cardioid
two signals will be of equal intensity and or heart -shaped. The cardioid pattern, fur-
therefore sound like one continuous tone. thermore, is constantly moving around the
These solid -tone beams are about 3 degrees station, thirty times a second, something
wide, and provide four courses for aircraft. like the sway pole artist at the circus who
These beams crisscross throughout the swings his body around the pole.
United States, so that by flying the correct The VOR receiver is equipped to re-
beams of a number of stations, a pilot can ceive both the stationary circular pattern
fly his airplane to almost any desired air- and the rotating cardioid one. The receiver
port in the country. compares the arrival time (phase) of the
It isn't often, however, that the four two signals and translates this information
beams are wanted at exactly right angles. to compass heading of the aircraft with re-
Other than perpendicular directions are spect to the station. Thus the pilot has a
achieved by attenuating the power fed to visual, rather than aural, readout. The
one of the antenna systems, or by delaying biggest advantage of this system is that it
the signal in time, or both. The result of permits an infinite number of courses,
this is shown in Fig. 4(B). rather than the four possible with the ordi-
Useful as ranges have been, they do have nary range.
some serious drawbacks. One of these is The omnirange system still doesn't pro -
129
 lhnun Co.

vide range information, however, and here

is where DME (distance measuring equip-
ment) comes in to form the complete VOR-
DME system. Essentially a refinement of
the radar beacon shown in Fig. 1, DME
also is a two-way system with interrogator
and transponder, and whose airborne re-
ceiver continuously measures the time in-
terval between its own interrogation pulses
and the reply pulses from the ground. As
many as one hundred aircraft can obtain
information from a DME transponder si-
multaneously, each one learning its own
distance from the station and its ground
speed.
Long Range Navigation
Still another electronic aid to navigation,
widely used both by aircraft and surface
ships, is LORAN (long range navigation).

Storm tracker radar antenna, photo left, tracks

tornadoes and hurricanes up to 250 miles away, is
designed to fit into a planned nationwide network.

FIG. 4. The basic radio range has four course

legs at right angles (A). By varying the antenna
powers (B), the angle of each leg may be changed
to any degree desired. See text for full details.

FIG. 5. The "N" and "A" transmissions of the

radio range interlock so that they can produce
an uninterrupted signal in the oncourse area.

I ,3U
Each LORAN station consists actually of Knowing he is somewhere on a line,
two stations, a "master" and a "slave." however, is hardly sufficient information
(See drawing below.) To get a position for the navigator. But if he tunes in a sec-
fix with the system requires tuning to two ond pair of LORAN stations and gets a
such pairs of stations. second hyperbola, then he knows that he
The master and slave stations transmit is right at the intersection of these two
identical pulses, except that the slave lines. Or at least he knows his position
pulse follows that of the master by a brief within three miles, which is a good deal
interval. Although the time difference is better than celestial navigation. And it
fixed at the points of transmission, it will works day or night, in fair weather or foul.
vary at the receiver position, depending The newest system of aerial navigation
upon where the receiver is located with re- is TACAN (tactical air navigation), which
spect to the two transmitters. while similar to VOR-DME, gives not
The LORAN receiver measures the time only range and bearing information, but
difference between the pulses, and this in- also tells the position of the interrogating
formation will place the ship on a line ship. Although hardly more than a dream
which has a hyperbola shape, as shown in in 1945, VOR-DME may well be on its way
Fig. 6 on this page. Special charts are to the scrap heap to be replaced by
available showing the hyperbolas for vari- TACAN, such is the breakneck pace of the
ous time differences. electronic art today.

MASTER ( SLAVE
® t

/SHIP'S
POSITION
Pi Pt
SROAVE

FIG. 6. The position of a ship or airplane is shown

by intersection of two hyperbolas emanating from
radio stations. This applies to LORAN system.

Actual map of hyperbolic navigation system at

left pertains to New York area airport control.

Airborne Instruments Laboratory

I 3 1
 Chapter 12

SPACE AGE ELECTRONICS

For satellites and space vehicles
THATthis world of ours is now in the communications, bigger than all of the
throes of the Space Age is hardly news other applications of electronics we have
to anyone. We see constant reminders of studied in this book combined.
it screaming from newspaper headlines
day after day. But the immense impor- Missile Electronics
tance of electronics to the space effort con-
tinues to amaze even veteran observers. Computers, electronic navigation sys-
It is seldom realized that of the billions tems and radio communications are all im-
of dollars being spent in the United States portant adjuncts to missile applications,
alone for missile development, very nearly and these have been discussed in earlier
one-half goes into electronics, for guidance chapters. We will therefore confine our-
systems, instrumentation and telemetering. selves here to the two rather unique ap-
Right now, the dollar volume of the missile plications of electronics in missiles,
electronics business is surpassing both in- namely, guidance and instrumentation.
dustrial and consumer sales for the first Missiles are described by various family
time. This means that missile electronics designations, such as by the job they do,
is bigger than all of radio, TV, hi-fi, com- their propulsion system, their guidance
puters, industrial and medical electronics, system, their speed or their range. For

U.S. Army Ordnance

Telemetering antenna is used to track missiles. especially research -type rockets such as the
Viking. These antennas are located at several tracking stations, often take on weird shapes.

132
our purposes, we will consider the two All of the navigating tools known to
broad applications of missiles today: either mariners for centuries may be used, such
military or research. as compasses, barometers, sextants, and
All missiles comprise four main assem- distance measuring devices. In each case
blies: an airframe, a propulsion system, a the devices are mechanically connected to
guidance system and a nose cone. It is in the control surfaces of the missile.
the nose cone, where the payload is car- An electronic navigation system, similar
ried, that military and research missiles to LORAN, is called baseline. Here radio
differ most. The military nose cone is a receivers in the missile use signals of
warhead, comprising some type of explo- two or more ground transmitters to de-
sive charge and a means of setting it off, termine position and alter course when
while the research missile payload is a necessary.
satellite and/or an instrument package.
In some types of warheads the percus- Command Guidance
sion charge is set off electronically by a
proximity fuse. This is a device which is The type of radio control used in model
sensitive to some characteristic of the tar- airplanes is in effect command guidance.
get which is not found in empty air. This The ship carries a radio receiver which
might be the light or heat of an engine gets steering signals either from the
exhaust. Or it might be the ability to re- ground or from an airborne transmitter.
flect radio waves, using the radar prin- These signals actuate motors coupled to
ciple. A number of other arrangements the control surfaces, to make the missile
are possible, but they all have the same go up or down, to right or left.
objective: to discharge the warhead when A modified form of command guidance
it is in a position to do the most damage. uses two radars. One of these tracks the
Whether a missile is to strike a target or moving target and the other tracks the
go into orbit, it must have some sort of missile. Thus the speed, position and
guidance system to get it to its destination. (Continued on page 136)
Official USAF Photo
Electronic computer assists in computing data
in
received during flight of a guided missile, the
conjunction with tracking instruments. does
work of 50,000 girls with desk calculators.

Army Hawk missile in flight is controlled by the

radar system, bottom left. Radars automatically
track target, ignore unwanted reflections, en-
able missile to lock onto and destroy target.
Raytheon Co.
EXPERIMENT 18 Building a Wireless Relay

N._
ANTENNA

SOLOLF LW BUSBAR (BARE WIRE)

.f/
TOI

atifi. 1i AMr"
VENTILATEO AREA
0F COVER
350 34e 370 38
//ORANGE eux

INOICATOR LAMP
MI O PHONE HEADPHONES

A
TZ
OR 7 IN@G. )
-1

Relay and transmitter are interconnected by tying

relay contacts across key contacts, soldering firmly.

POWER CR

I
SUPPLY

r
1 ÿ.; .+

...'x.."
,
It, GROUND
«I, ild
,

r HO 120
[. 1 t.,. f^ VOLTS
: A 60CYCLE
A C

.$xr-, 1r ntl wo
f fr- Á
: .
..+... T 3
EATER FOR
4
._. z f POWER
TRANSFORMER 12 KS

ikde.p,.., .: .
 THE voice -operated relay shown here is used 1,000 -cps vocal tone, the charging is completed
in conjunction with the code transmitter you in about a quarter -cycle.
built in Experiment No. 1. Simply connect the On the negative half -cycle, the A side of C,
relay contacts on the voice relay across the key is lesspositive. Electrons leave the B side and go
of the transmitter. through RN to ground. Because of the high time
Guided missiles do not normally respond to constant, however, C, is only partially discharged,
spoken commands, but they could, and this ex- and there remains a net negative voltage on the
periment gives some idea of one way of accom- B plate.

plishing this. When you speak, you actuate the Successive cycles of the audio signal thus
relay which in turn keys the transmitter. Thus cause the charge to build up further in this zig-
it is not your voice which is broadcast, but a zag fashion, and it soon reaches -2 or -3 volts.
tone signal which is keyed on or off at you speak. At this point, since grid 2 is connected to the
In this circuit the tube is conducting when you B side of C,, it becomes sufficiently negative to

are not speaking, but will cut off when grid 2 cut off the tube, or at least enough to reduce
is biased to -2 volts or more. When you talk plate current to the point where the relay is de -
into the microphone, an electrical signal is de- energized and the contacts open. Sensitivity is
veloped which varies at the same rate as the controlled by R,. Turning it clockwise increases
sound waves. On the positive half of the signal, the resistance and reduces the plate current
the A side of C, becomes more positive, causing through the relay winding. The circuit is then
the B side of C, to acquire more electrons and more sensitive, as a smaller reduction in current
thereby become charged. In the case of a will open the relay.

Sensitivity adjustment is made, speaking into With receiver tuned to transmitter frequency,
microphone at normal voice level. tone is heard, not voice, when commands made.
 Raytheon Co.
Rapid fire sequence shows Sparrow III, Navy air-to-air missile, being launched
interceptor. Plane carries four missiles which are fired at target automatically from F3H-2 Demon
when within range.
[Continued from page 133]
heading of both the target and missile are ndes right down the middle of a radar
known. These pieces of information are beam reflected from the target. This sys-
fed into a computer, which almost instan- tem has the disadvantage that the path of
taneously calculates what the missile the missile is long and curving, and the
must do to establish itself on a collision missile itself must be highly maneuverable.
course with the target. This information These problems are solved, however, by
then goes to the missile by the radio com- the two -radar beam -rider system, which
mand system, and the missile responds is similar to the modified command system.
by setting out on its path of destruction. A computer is used to set up the collision
The beam rider uses the principle of the course, the only difference being in the
glide path in the instrument landing sys- method of conveying information to the
tem. But instead of following a beam missile. Instead of tracking and correction
transmitted from the ground, the missile as in the radar command system, a radio
136
 Here's all you need
to build a HEATHKIL..
...these tools and NO EXPERIENCE
We say "NO ELECTRONIC EXPERIENCE NEEDED" ... and we mean it.
Recognized by leading consumer research organizations as the best
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And you'll save 50% or more on the world's finest electronic
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EVERYTHING FOR STERED

AMLIIRRS

TUNERS

HEATH COMPANY
a subsidiary of Daystrom, Inc.
Benton Harbor 7. Michigan
Please send the latest Free Heathkit Catalog.
QIANGSRS
NAME

ADDRESS

.AAatQ the coupon D'odayf CITY TONE-STATE

137
 Subminiature accelerometer amplifier is just one of ten in the experimental
X -15's inertial unit.
Pictured here, left, is the 100 kc stagger -tuned amplifier. Top
for Inertial system tells pilot angles of flight. It contains power
right, all -attitude stabilizer
supply, amplifiers, gyros.

Sperry Gyroscope Co.

beam is sent out for the missile to follow,

directed so that in following it the missile
will intercept the target.
. .. e
e
. W a a
R
/> n r-0 Homing Guidance
' W '
a ID

:1 r a a° , h, The system in which the missile detects

q,
the target and then steers itself to it is the
.. . tl
G
most accurate of all, and is now used al-
ß
a
most exclusively in surface-to-air and air-
to-air missiles. This system, known as
homing, has an effective range of ten miles
or less, and it is therefore used in conjunc-
tion with some other form of guidance,
such as beam riding, or the missile is car-
ried to within that range by a mother
aircraft.
Homing guidance operates on the same
general principles as the proximity fuse.
In active homing the missile transmits its
own radar beam in the general direction of
the target, and then acts as a beam rider
in homing in on the reflected wave. This
has the advantage of making the missile
completely self-contained and independ-
ent, but has the important disadvantage
that the warhead payload will be cut by
the additional weight of the radar trans-
mitter.
The missile might also contain only a
radar receiver, which homes in on the re-
flected beam from the target, with the tar-
get being "illuminated" by radar trans-
Lloyd Mellen missions from the mother aircraft or from
the ground. This makes the missile de-
pendent on a friendly radar transmitter in
Wiring of electronic package for U.S. satellite the vicinity, and the system is therefore
vehicles is shown on large template which is known as semi -active homing.
reduced photographically and etched on actual A missile could regain its independence
instrument base. Work Is done with a magnifier. and still not have to carry the excess bag -
138
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rate. No instructor Is necessary. the l' heelp-you.'withOur Consultation
any techn ca problem.
PROGRESSIVE TEACHING METHOD you may have.
The Progressive Radio "Edu-Kit" is the foremost educational radio kit In the world. Stataitis, of 25 Poplar PI., Water-
and Is uni fly accepted ais the standard in the field of electronics training. Th 'Edu
J.
bury, Conn., writes: "I have repaired
Kit" uses the modern educational principle of "Learn by Doing." Therefore you construct. Isets for my friend., and made
learn schematics, study theory, practice trouble-shooting-all n money. The "Edu-Kit" paid for Itself. I
closely Integrated pro.
gram designed to provide an e s lylearned, thorough and interesting background In radio.
YOu begin by examining the ariou radio parts of the
eady to spend $240 for a Course,
was ready
but I found your ad and sent for your
function, theory and wiring of these parts. Then you build ''EduKit.'' You then learn the
a simple radio. With this first
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set you will enjoy listening to ç ler broadcast stations, learn theory, practice testing
and trouble -shooting. Then you build a more advanced radio, learn more advanced theory FROM OUR MAIL BAG
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strutting more advanced mu:ti-tube radio circuits, and doing you ill Sen Valerie, P. O. Box 21, Magna,
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professional Radio Technician. I am sanding you the questions and also
Included in the "Edu-Kit" course are sinteen Receiver, Transmitter, Code Oscillator the answers for them. i have been In
Signal Tracer, and Signal Injector circuits. These are not unprofessional "breadboard"I Radio for the last seven years, but like
experiment, but genuine radio circuits, constructed by means of professional wiring to work with Radio Kits, and like to
and soldering on metal chassis, plus the new method of radio construction known as build Radio Testing Equipment. I en-
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THE "EDU-KIT^ IS COMPLETE fine. Also like to let you know that I
feel proud of becoming member of your
You will receive all parts and instructions necessary to build 10 different radio and Radio-TV Club."
lectronics circuit,each guaranteed to operates Our Kits contain tube tube sockets, Robert L. Shull, 1534 Monroe Ave.,
variable, electrolytic, mica, ceramic and paper dielectric condensers, re.is{ors, tie stripe. Huntington, W. Va.: Thought I would
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In addition, you receive Printed Circuit materials, including Printed Circuit chassis, d my Edu-Kit, and w Ily arnaced
special tube otket s, hardware and instructions. You ale0 receive a useful set of tools, that such a bargain can be had atuch
professional electric soldering iro and self-powered Dynamic Radio 6 Electronic a low price. I have already started re-
Teeter. The 'EduKi t" also includes Code Instruction. and the Progressive Code Oscillator, pairing radios and phonographs. My

sive Signal Injector,

servicingas
in addition to F.C.C.-type Questions and Answers for Radio Amateur License training. You
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build a Printed Circuit Signal Injector, Send "Edu-Kit" C.O.D. I will pay $22.95 plus postage.
a unique servicing instrument that can
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PROGRESSIVE "EDU-KITS" INC.
for anyone interested in Electronics. Progressive Building, Dept. 504KK, 1184-86 Broadway, Hewlett, N. Y.

139
 Part of satellite instrument package may be this
cylindrical Geiger counter for measuring such
solar radiations as ultraviolet rays and X rays.

Above is shown the size of some of the "bigger"

equipment in the "moons" of the Vanguard
research rocket; weight is tneasured in ounces.

lir. l'r,,1 S. .. Maryland

Photo left. Exacting tests

are performed before any
of the instruments are
mounted into a satellite
nose cone. Here, engineer
checks a meteor-impact
counter with the help
of laboratory scope.

Right. Diagram shows

how instrument-bearing
rockets report briefly on
solar rays during their
flight above atmosphere.

Naval lteaearrh Laboratory

gage of a radar transmitter, if it could target. The sensitive detection system

home in on some sort of wave emanating aboard the missile operates on infra -red
from the target itself. This is known as principles. The Navy has been particularly
passive homing. These waves could be active in developing this technique, which
radio transmissions, if the target would be has all of the advantages of active and
so cooperative; or they could be light semi -active homing, and none of the dis-
waves, as long as the sun is shining. advantages. Its Sidewinder, for example,
can detect an enemy target at distances up
Infra -Red Detection io seven miles, and home right into the
exhaust nozzle of the target's engine.
But the best method yet is to home in on A research missile may be of the probe
the heat radiations from the engines of the type, carrying an instrument package de -
140
 signed to relay back by radio information
the conditions it encounters during a rela-
tively short journey. Examples of this
type are the Aerobee and the Loki. Or the
missile may carry a satellite to be spun
into orbit, and which itself carries instru- MONEY -SAVING
mentation. Examples of the latter type in-
clude the Vanguard and Viking.
There is no really typical instrument
package in either type. Presently missile
and satellite payloads are limited to per-
haps a half -dozen instruments at most,
each of them fairly complex. Some of the
following instruments described will be ALLIEDI
found in every satellite.
Temperature measurement is accom-
plished through the thermistor, a resistor
SAVE
ELECTRONICS ON EVERYTHING
whose resistance varies with temperature.
IN ELECTRONICS
When a voltage is impressed across it, the
varying current provides a ready-made 44.0
signal for modulating the telemetering ; ,.,.,..
transmitter. EASIEST TERMS
only $2 down on
Meteoroid Detection orders up to $50

Several devices are used for detecting

the presence and effect of meteoroids, the
solid particles travelling through space.
see the best values
One of these is simply a microphone whose Send for the most widely used buying
diaphragm is mounted flush with the skin guide to everything in Electronics
of the satellite. Any collisions will be for Experimenters, Builders,
clearly heard on the received signal. Amateurs, Servicemen, Engineers
Micrometeoroids, no larger than dust and Hi-Fi enthusiasts. Save on:
specks, may well erode the shell of the KNIGHT-KITS-Best in Build -Your -Own
satellite, much like sandblasting. An ero- Everything in STEREO Hi-Fi
sion gauge on the surface will have its Hi-Fi Music Systems and Components
electrical resistance increased as parts of Tape Recorders L Phono Equipment
it are worn away, and this too will be duly Public Address & Paging Systems
Naval Research Laboratory TV Tubes, Antennas, Accessories
Amateur Station Equipment
Latest Test L Lab Instruments
Parts, Tubes, Transistors
Everything in Tools & Technical Books

SAVE on everything in Electronics

at ALLIED-- get fastest service,
expert personal help, guaranteed
satisfaction. Send today for your
FREE 1960 ALLIED Catalog. SENO FOR

Everything in Electronics FREE

from One Reliable Source CATALOG

our 39th year d AWED

50 M( 0 r
DIO
t E1EC150Nics
Iseo

ALLIED RADIO CORP., Dept. 95-0

100 N. Western Ave., Chicago 80, III.
D Rush FREE 1960 ALLIED Catalog.

ICY SOLAR FLARE Name

EXPERIMENT
MIN
Address
FOOESTCM
SAM NICOLAS
City Zone State
PT. MUGU
CALIF.
141
 Complex transmitter and experiment instruments
designed for the Far Side rocket must withstand
extreme temperatures and velocity conditions.

FAR SIDE AIRBORNE TRANSMITTER

AND EXPERIMENT INSTRUMENTATION
TOTAL WEIC,bT OF INSTRUMENT
PACKAGE :.ti." r.-FNrIA 3.5 LBS

WHY PAY MORE?

Assemble your own stereo phono system and
SAVE! Pictured above is the REK-0-KUT Photo right. Minute slice of silicon crystal is
K33 -H turntable kit (331/3 rpm) with hyster- used as sensing device for satellite telemetery
esis motor, matching REK-O-KUT S-120 12" system. Performs functions of objects on table.
arm, and unfinished base kit. Total assem-
bly time is less than one hour. Only $92.85.
With your purchase of the above, you will
receive the Shure M7D magnetic stereo
cartridge FREE
All units in factory sealed cartons. Full mfgr's
warranty. Shipments f.o.b., N.Y.C. Ask for SHURE
audio discount catalog A-11.
KEY ELECTRONICS COMPANY
M7D
REG. NET VALUE
120 LIBERTY ST., N. Y. 6, N. Y. $2400

FOR THE
WOULD-BE
HAM
AND THE
NOVICE... Radio Corp. of America

Experimental solar battery cell is studied here

If you're interested in ham radio, this is under simulated high altitude conditions. Glass

I:li.
the hook for you. vacuum chamber holds cell during radiation
experiments with protons, X rays, alpha particles.

Ilan' reported back to earth tracking control.

QsaOw.attNM
. If any punctures are made by collision

,
e M
a.
..,.aw with meteoroids, pressurized compart-
ments will leak air to outer space and the
pressure will fall to zero. A bellows -type
75 cents Vita8!`=. ., , -,
Y FB 415 pressure gauge will immediately respond
to this change and develop an electrical
signal which is transmitted to earth.
It is believed that much of the radiation
from outer space never reaches the earth,
but instead is absorbed by the atmosphere.
Just what rays may be involved, and in
what quantities, are questions which the
satellites are helping to answer.
on sale at local newsstands Ion chambers mounted in the skin of the
to order direct: Send 75 cents to FAWCETT BOOKS, satellite detect ultraviolet radiation. These
Dept. 437, Greenwich, Conn. Add 10 cents per copy
for mailing. No Canadian orders.
are small transparent capsules containing
gas under low pressure. When ultraviolet
142
 Fill in coupon for a FREE One Year Subscription to
-
OLSON RADIO'S Fantastic Bargain Packed Catalog
Unheard of LOW, LOW, WHOLESALE PRICES
on Brand Name Speakers. Changers. Tubes. Tools, Hi-
Fi's. Stereo Amps, Tuners and other Bargains.

If you have a friend interested in electronics send his

Weatfnghouse Co name and address for a FREE subscription also.

Below is experimental solar generator which Is

Intended to harvest solar energy for some future
space ship powered by this form of electricity.

No Risk Trial Guarantees you can

FIX ANY
TV FAST! All New!
3rd Revised
..or pay not one cent! Edition
NO EXPERIENCE TRANSISTORIZED TV
COLOR SETS
OR HIGHER MATH NECESSARY
PRINTED CIRCUITS
Let 10 days' use of this book prove you can DEFLECTION
Install and repair any TV Bet like an ex- METHODS
Wright :,r Development Center. USAF pert. You'll be amazed how easy it la to
.
spot most troubles by eye and ear alone- DC RESTORATION
how the clear, step-by-step instructions and ANTENNAS
Illustrations reduce even the most compli- POWER SUPPLIES
rays strike the gas, its ionizes and becomes rated problems to simple e-b-c's. Quickly SYNCHRONIZATION
conductive, with the resulting current pro- and easily, with this manual to guide you,
you can turn your up-to-the-minute knowl-
POOR PICTURES,
SOUND QUALITY,
viding signal information. The Geiger - edge into plenty of spare -time rash or be
your own boas in a profitable business. ALIGNMENTS, UHF
Mueller tube, which is similar in principle, In this new edition you get: The latest eirculta-Troubleshooting tech-
niques-Transistorlied TV sets-Remote control tuning-Troubleshoot-
can be used for the detection of cosmic M g printed wiring-Module type construction-packaged circuits-
Newesthinte-Latest information on color TV and teat
rays. And infra -red detectors can be used equipment . every new advancement plus the basic know-how you
.

need to put any set back in perfect working order.

to record radiation at that end of the Mr. C. W. Morris of Charleston, W. Va., says: I have paid as much
au $200.00 for courses that haven't given me the clear understand-
spectrum. ing this book has."

Some satellites even have memory units, _TRIAL COUPON-MAIL TODAY_

rPRENTICE-HALL, INC., Dept. 5217 -BI
actually miniature tape recorders. These Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
will broadcast the recorded information on Please send nie
as first
SERVICING
have used
command, then erase and record more.
Since weight and space are at such a pre-
mium aboard satellites, it is not possible to
pricd.
ay if I am notsatisfied I may
you etw more pia

Name
P 80.75
it get immediate
REFUND or my Seat payment. Or I will keep the book and send
rnts of $2 a month for 2 months until full

have separate tape recorders for each in- Address

City Zens... t State
strument. And even with multi -track re- 56.75 now nd wen
SAVE!send pay postage. Re-
fund and same return privilege guaranteed.
cording it isn't possible to record upwards
of six tracks simultaneously on quarter -
143
 Left. The "works" of a military radio no larger
than a sugar lump, designed for missile equip-
ment. Micro-modules take the place of transistors
and other components, measure one-third inch.
Radio Corp. of America

Weather-eye satellite launched with Vanguard

missile contained the instruments shown below.
A 51/2 -inch wide tape recorder recorded and then
transmitted data to ground after each trip around
earth. Total weight of sphere was only 211/2 lbs.
Ride World Photos

Radio Receiver Data Transmitter

Tracking
Transmitter

Photocell Mercury
Light Shield Cell Batteries

inch tape. The signals are therefore re- life of the transmitters, and as long as they
corded sequentially, each instrument for a continue in operation they provide the best
short time. Switching occurs quite rapidly, method of tracking the satellite's course.
so that the reading of no instrument is lost The system of radio tracking known as
for more than a short period of time. Minitrack is a development of the U. S.
Naval Research Laboratory. The system
Satellite Tracking comprises a chain of receiving stations
located in a line running throughout North
The main reason for the memory system and South America. Thus, while the west-
is the fact that the satellite tracking net- ern hemisphere is quite adequately cov-
work, extensive as it is, does not blanket ered, .during the time the satellite is over
the entire world. Some readings, such as the eastern hemisphere, it is not under
ultraviolet and meteoroid signals are too observation of the Minitrack system.
important for any of the information to be But when the satellite passes over the
lost. But if the satellite should be out of Minitrack line, two or more ground sta-
range of any of the authorized listening tions will at all times be able to receive its
stations, it would be lost, except possibly signal. Each station then measures the
to some alert monitor in another part of angle of elevation of the satellite above the
the world who had no right to the in- horizon and, of course, the exact time of
formation. the sighting. Knowing then the distance
The readings of the various transducers and the altitude of the horizon, as well as
and gauges are therefore recorded by the the measured angle, it is a simple problem
miniature tape system, and transmitted in trigonometry to determine the altitude
down at high speed on command from the and bearing of the satellite. With two such
ground. The command consists of a special observations made simultaneously from
coded signal, also sent by radio. This means two different Minitrack stations, the exact
that the satellite must have two addi- position of the satellite can be pinpointed.
tional pieces of equipment, over and above Since most satellites have been in orbits
the instrumentation and telemetering which cause them to cross the Minitrack
transmitter. These are the tape recorder line perhaps a dozen times a day, their
and the command receiver. exact course and future positions can be
The command system also prolongs the predicted with considerable accuracy.
144
 Mail Postage-Free Card for

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TELEVISION ELECTRONICS
Oldest and Largest Home Study Radio -
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rated BARNETT, /1 smarck ear`Ra
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You LEARN -BY -DOING. As part Card for Sample lesson
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