Andy Hall wrote:
On 28 Nov 2005 12:42:50 GMT, (Andrew
Gabriel) wrote:


In article ,
"David Lee" writes:

Clive Mitchell wrote...

Subsequently my mum foolishly gave me a battery and torch lamp to play
with and it all went wrong from there.

I wonder how I managed to survive! My grandparents had a drawer full of
mains plugs and sockets that they used to give me to play with as a toddler.
That was fine but, sometime between the ages of 5 and 10, I gleefully
discovered a similar stash in my father's workshop but together with lamps
and cable!

Snap!
My grandfather had a box full of mains lampholders, bulbs, cables,
plugs, etc, and I played with these, connecting them up in series
and parallel whenever we visited them, and observed effects of
different wattage bulbs in series, etc. I would guess this was when
I was between 7 and 10 years old (he died when I was 10). I don't
ever recall giving myself an electric shock in the process.



Likewise.

I had access to a similar stash at about 4 and was given a ball of
string and a screwdriver to wire them up with. I was using a
soldering iron at about 8 or 9 and going on my own to places like
Henry's in London to buy components at about 10. I still have one of
my early Veroboard projects - a timer made using geranium transistors.

I remember fixing an old Bush TV22 obtained from a jumble sale at
about the same time and learned about the concept of live chassis
products.

http://bakelite_world_2001.tripod.co...know/id48.html





Don't forget GW Smith's in Lisle Street... I nearly got arrested there
as a teenager -the policeman took some time to convince that I was
really after a wobbulator..

I have a 1968 Smith's Catalogue in near-mint condition, if anyone wants
to /really/ reminisce.

--
Sue