Let’s go back to the fall of 1967. I was working at [this is a long address] the University of Pennsylvania, Moore School of Electrical Engineering, Valley Forge Research Center. Even more important than that was job provided me with a place to live free of charge. I remained lost, but I thoroughly enjoyed my job. At first, I faced many pieces of test equipment from a bygone era. I think all the equipment was to test my boast that I could repair anything.
The first piece of equipment was a Wheatstone Bridge. It was housed in what looked like a mahogany case. The wiring was done with fancy right angles rather than point-to-point wiring. The photo accompanying this blog is of a similar Wheatstone Bridge. You can see that it had a ton of switches, and they presented the biggest problem. They had years of accumulated gunk, dirt, and grime. The bridge repair consisted of thoroughly cleaning all the contacts on all the switches.
Luckily, a small manual had survived all the years the University had the bridge. Using the manual and what seemed to be many cans of spray-on contact cleaner, I got the bridge working. I stopped one Saturday morning right after succeeding in repairing the Wheatstone Bridge at my mother-in-law’s. I was greeted by a phrase I would hear many times. I did not realize then how important it would be to me. “A young man needs a woman in his life.”
One Response
Chauncey and I worked at the same facility. I was mainly at the Moore building in Philly but had projects at the Valley Forge Center during the summers. Some really exciting projects…mostly classified.
We’ve remained friends all those years. Also, we are both still active as ham radio fans!
Working in the Moore School was one of the best jobs I ever had….until the various government projects ran out. Not unusual for the time. Transferred to the Electrochemistry Department working on fuel cells for electric cars; before EVs became a phenomenon today.
Now retired from the electronics industry and from teaching college physics & astronomy