Last typewriter factory in the world shuts its doors

[Colin McGregor]

On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 2:37 PM, Lennart Sorensen
<lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 02:29:38PM -0400, Mike wrote:
>> Well, as far as the heaters go, tubes have them built in (they're the
>> source the electron wind bias current...). Aside from warming up your
>> pocket a bit too much, tubes also tend to be a bit bulky and require
>> higher (200-600V) voltages to operate. That's a lot of AAAs ;-)
>
> I figured the power needs would be impossible.

Hard yes, but hardly impossible. Here is a World War II example, from
back before transistors were an available option:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCR-536 . These day people stick far more
powerful transmitters in their shirt pockets.

>> And no, no amount of tube amplification is going to make those early,
>> sibilant mp3s sound any better...
>>
>> Now high voltage amplification for electrostatic speakers and
>> headphones... Tubes have never gone out of style. Just *try* and get a
>> Class AB transistor amplifier to do ~600V p-p!
>
> I don't think so.
>
>> It's funny: I just don't think of vinyl sound reproduction and tube
>> amplification as  belong to yesteryear. The Philips compact cassette,
>> now...
>
> Yeah those can stay dead.  I don't know if anyone will miss mix tapes,
> but we have CD-Rs now if they really want to do that.  I guess they can
> share playlists now.

Colin McGregor
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists