Thanks to Thomas K4SWL for alerting us to this video -- he had it on his excellent SWLing Post blog.
Many things crossed my mind as I watched this video:
-- Pocket protectors! Pete recently noted that this was a common fashion accessory among electronic techs and engineers back in the day.
-- HP test gear.
-- "Extreme cleanliness" that doesn't seem quite so clean.
-- 550 transistors per hour. Now we have upwards of 50 billion on a single chip.
-- The Germanium salami that Pete mentioned in our last podcast.
-- Hints of Silicon's impending replacement of Germanium.
-- A transistor factory in Spring City, Pa. that "hums with excitement" (seemed kind of sleepy).
-- The 1957 assumption that Philco transistors would be in the first orbiting satellite. Then came Sputnik.
-- The transistor that moves like a "Gulliver through Lilliputian lands."
-- Our voices or accents seem to have changed, at least the voice used in products like this. No one talks that way today.
-- As I watched, I tried to remember if Pete's CK722 was made by these folks. But no, that was a Raytheon product. Here is a nice short description of the early days of the CK722: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CK722 We need to learn more about the hobbyist Carl Todd.
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