I recently purchased the following serienscheine (or series set) issued by the city of Heidelberg in 1923. I particularly like the one with the Great Comet of 1618 depicted on it. These three notgeld pieces are rather large and are also of a large denomination. Each is of 1 million marks. This was of course during the height of the inflationary time in Germany. However if you think this is large, there are larger denominations that were issued.
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My friend Tom had a piece from a die cast model of a Ford Model A that he originally wanted me to make a 3-D copy of. However, since another friend (Mitchell) purchased a propane foundry, I decided it would be interesting to see if we could make a copy in copper (as I had some copper ingots around). Copper shrinks about 5%, aluminum is about 6%, so the part would be slightly small. Would that matter? Probably not for this application. Here are some pictures of the first attempt. We didn't quite get it right, but it looks promising. Finally got the last of my three pre-WWII German radios working. The one that I did a few months ago was a battery operated version. This is a mains powered DKE38 (either by AC or DC). In fact it can operate on voltage from 110 to 240 volts. This one was made by Minerva in Austria after the Anschluss in 1938. As with the previous one, it was also in excellent cosmetic condition. Electrically it was almost all original, however I noticed some later (post WW2) capacitors were installed. One was made in West Germany (4700 pF). The other two were a 1500 pF and a 3300 pF capacitor. All the resistors appeared original (300 Ω, 0.1MΩ, 120k, 0.2MΩ, 1M and a 2M). The original capacitors found were 300 pF, 100 pF, 200 pF, 4 µF (x2). The 0.9 µF cap was absent from the radio. After spending several weeks on this one (essentially returning it to the original schematic), I finally got it working. This past weekend I made up my first sand casting flask. It consists of two rectangular forms that mate together precisely. The top piece is known as the cope, and the bottom the drag. The idea is to fill (and pack) the bottom one with "green sand" (a special casting sand which sticks together well) around the mold of whatever it is you are going to cast. Level it off flat. Then dust it with talcum powder to allow the two pieces to separate easily Then put the cope on top and add sand from the top to cover the top half of the mold. You add holes and channels to allow the pour to enter and exit, and then you are ready. Picked up this nice old crystal radio. These were made in Buffalo, NY about a 101 years ago. The instruction manual states: "The Federal Jr. is a sturdy instrument, well designed and built in every detail. There is nothing in it that will wear out and no replacements will ever be required. It should, however, be protected from moisture, excessive temperature and from very severe mechanical shocks. If given the care due, such an Instrument will serve as a source of education and amusement indefinitely." Well, after a 101 years, it seems to be going strong, though I would not say it was the most sensitive radio ever made. Even with a 1N34 diode substituting for the crystal, it was not the greatest crystal radio I have ever used. Still it is a beautifully looking device. I have finished the electrical restoration of the VE301 Volksempfänger (People's Receiver). I would post a video, but YouTube insists in making it a SHORT, which does not link here. Started to work on the VE301 Volksempfanger (Peoples Receiver) restoration. It seems that there is a lot of minor component failures in this baby. The capacitor box was already re-done by someone before me, but I had to check it, just in case. It appears that some wire wound resistors have failed, so I will need to replace those. I recently obtained some cool looking notgeld from Aachen. I was fortunate to visit the city about a month and a half ago. The city was the center of Charlemagne's empire, and was a spa town on the edge of the Roman Empire long before that. Hot springs are still active in the city.
Got these old ANWB (Royal Dutch Touring Club) stamps with various driver's tips for autos and cyclists. I love the artistry in these.
In the early thirties, the ANWB issued three series of large safe traffic stamps with educational images and texts made by the well-known advertising designer Mathieu Güthschmidt. In 1932 the first series of 24 unnumbered stamps of 65 x 45 mm, 12 portrait and 12 landscape, appeared, with the images in sepia and light orange (this set below). This series was soon followed by a series of 18 even larger stamps of 93 x 63 mm in the same colours, on which two images next to each other with the wrong situation on the left and the right situation on the right. Clearly there are 12 more to find in this series, and a second series to find as well from this artist. Note that these are not stamps in the philatelic sense of the word. They would more accurately be called "Cinderellas". I normally don't go for Cindies, but these are quite cool looking. Video of the Paraset receiving a station. I held the phone to the headphones to record the sound, so it is not the best. Some stations came in clearer than on my modern FT857. That could be because they used different antennas which had gain in different regions. |
AuthorCharles Baetsen holds a Bachelor and a Master's degree in Engineering Physics from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. Archives
February 2024
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