[Lowfer] LF history, Big Boys on LF

Mon, 09 Dec 2002 20:05:26 +0000

Mike,

Please make some pictures of those rocks!  I loved quartz even before I
knew it would oscillate :)   You should tell your story in great detail
and post to a web page.  Please inform me if you do.

Dex

Mike Staines wrote:
> 
> Thanks, Dex. This was great.
> 
> I won't drone on about this but I have a personal connection to the RCA
> facilities on Long Island. This connection is what got me interested in
> radio.
> 
> My Grandfather was the head of Maintenance for the Riverhead facility. My
> Great Uncle Paul (his brother) was an engineer at Riverhead and developed
> many patents for RCA. In fact, when he retired in the early 60's he held the
> record for most patents developed. Most of the patents involved the growing
> of man-made quartz and the manufacturing processes to create high quality
> crystals. About 5 feet from me is a sample of one of the earliest man-made
> hunk of quartz for radio crystals. It is sample #40. Sample #182 is in
> pristine condition and looks like the Washington Monument. I'll shoot some
> pix of the Quartz and then some unpolished blanks so you can get an idea of
> the process.
> 
> I never got to Rocky Point but visited Riverhead often as my Grandfather
> always needed to stop in on nights and weekends. It was a great place.
> Imagine about 50 acres of 75 foot telephone poles. One trip, about 1960(age
> 6), I walked up and down the aisles of equipment racks and threw switches
> and twisted knobs "just like Grandpa." I caught hell for that.
> 
> One final anecdote. Albert Einstein was a friend of my Great Uncle Paul.
> While he taught at Columbia he was under contract to RCA. Every now and then
> he would go out to the Labs at Riverhead, give a little speech and check on
> the progress of various research projects. In the evening, he would often go
> with Paul for dinner at my Grandparent's house where Paul also lived. Paul
> would NEVER tell my Grandmother when Einstein was coming so the house was
> always "a mess" and this pissed her off to no end!
> 
> Unfortunately, I never got to meet him myself.
> 
> Mike
> wa1ptc
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [email protected]
> > [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Dexter McIntyre W4DEX
> > Sent: Monday, December 09, 2002 8:26 AM
> > To: LowFER
> > Subject: [Lowfer] LF history, Big Boys on LF
> >
> >
> > Hugh, G6TMK, called my attention to the following:
> >
> > http://www.angelfire.com/nc/whitetho/1922RCA.htm
> >
> > Notice the NC in the URL.  That stands for "NC type" loading coil :)
> > Could Dr. Emmett Brown and his flux capacitor have visited this time
> > period?
> >
> > Excellent reading!
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> 
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