restorer-john
Grand Contributor
A Ferranti ZN428
smart ass
I guess your first real radio was a ZN-414 or was it just a germanium diode/cat's whisker, roll of wire, ceramic cap and a crystal earpiece?
A Ferranti ZN428
what convinced me there was nothing wrong with digital and might as well go full digital ahead.
Since when was Instanbul spelt 'istambul'?
It is pronounced that way in some languages. Spanish is one:Since when was Instanbul spelt 'istambul'?
"It is difficult to determine exactly when the first data converter was made or what form it took. The earliest recorded binary DAC known to the authors of this book is not electronic at all, but hydraulic. Turkey, under the Ottoman Empire, had problems with its public water supply, and sophisticated systems were built to meter water... An example of an actual dam using this metering system was the Mahmud II dam built in the early 19th century near Istanbul... The metering system used reservoirs (labeled header tank in the diagrams) maintained at a constant depth (corresponding to the reference potential) by means of a spillway over which water just trickled (the criterion was sufficient flow to float a straw)... The water output from the header tank is controlled by gated binary-weighted nozzles submerged 96 mm below the surface of the water. The output of the nozzles feeds an output trough... The nozzle sizes corresponded to flows of binary multiples and sub-multiples of the basic unit of 1 lüle (= 36 l/min or 52 m3/day)... This is functionally an 8-bit DAC with manual (rather than digital, no doubt) input and a wet output, and it may be the oldest DAC in the world."
View attachment 25651
Source: https://www.analog.com/media/en/tra...ndbooks/Data-Conversion-Handbook/Chapter1.pdf
(sorry, a little off-topic)
Very interesting. I used a somewhat similar design in a sewage plant once for flow regulation. Had no idea the Turks had done such a thing so long ago. My idea took some explaining before other people understood it even though it was relatively simple and very accurate with all simple equipment involved.
Since when was Instanbul spelt 'istambul'?
Istanbul was Constantinople.
I guess your first real radio was a ZN-414
Not much on the board though?