[GreenKeys] Hell Box... and other stuff...

[Randy and Sherry Guttery]

Don Robert House wrote:
> George is correct... only difference is we called them a "20 Year Box"
> The local hardware store here carries both 6-32 and 6-40 taps and dies.
> But they do not carry the machine screws.
>   
I finally found the "source" of the term "hell box". Back 
when I first
got involved with electronics (late 50s early 60s) the older 
guys would
refer to the catch-all box as "hell box".  Every-so-often 
I'd ask where
the name had come from - no one seemed to know... they noted 
that's what
the guys called them when they were coming up - so it's a 
name that's
been around for a very long time.   Recently - when researching
something I ran across the term in a most unexpected place - 
talking
about early type setting.  Seems when a printer would 
complete a press
run on an old press that used "movable type" he'd break down 
the type
block and dump the individual letters into a box - "hell 
box" which
would then be sorted back into a type drawer, etc. by one of 
his
apprentices, called a printer's devil. As individual 
(reusable) type was
replaced by cast type (Linotype, etc.) - the "hell box" 
became the
receptacle for broken and unused sections from the 
hot-casting process...

Apparently - as radio repair guys worked on radios - any 
left-over
and/or replaced parts were tossed into a convenient box with 
the
intention of later sorting and putting away the good from 
the trash.
Since the similar box in the printing world already had the 
name "hell
box" - it seems the name was applied to the Radio man's junk 
box as well.

And now you know too...

-- 
randy guttery

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