[MRCA] project luck or lack thereof

[Gene Smar]

Robert:

 

     My classmate told us that his company was so PO’ed at Westinghouse/GE that they changed the entire panel to GE/Westinghouse, and required the light test switch for the new panel.  They would not have been satisfied with simply rewiring the lamp circuit to show normally on for AC supply.  We EE students all learned from that poor design.

 

 

73 de

Gene Smar  AD3F

 

From: mrca-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:mrca-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Robert Downs via MRCA
Sent: Friday, September 04, 2020 1:33 AM
To: 'Robert Downs via MRCA' <mrca at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [MRCA] project luck or lack thereof

 

A cheaper solution would have been to change the lamp lenses from red to green and rewire the panels such that if the arc supply failed, the green light(s) would go out.  If the indicator lamp failed or burned out, it wouldn’t take more than a minute to swap the lamp and confirm it.

 

Robert Downs

 

From: mrca-bounces at mailman.qth.net <mailto:mrca-bounces at mailman.qth.net>  [mailto:mrca-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Gene Smar via MRCA
Sent: Thursday, September 3, 2020 11:28
To: 'Military Radio Collectors Association'
Subject: Re: [MRCA] project luck or lack thereof

 

Eugene’s saga about his lamp holders reminds me of a similar story from one of my college classmates and his summer job at an aluminum smelting factory.  He told us that this Westinghouse or GE (he wasn’t sure who made it) control panel had indicator lamps that would illuminate if the caldrons that held the molten aluminum had lost AC power to the electric arcs.  If that were to happen, he said, there were emergency procedures they had to follow to drain the cauldron so the aluminum would not solidify and have to be jackhammered out of the cauldron.

 

One day the bulb burned out.  He said it took them three weeks to jackhammer the solid batch of aluminum from the smelting cauldron.  They also replaced the Westinghouse/GE panel with a GE/Westinghouse panel that included a BULB TEST SWITCH.

 

I’m just sayin’.

 

 

73 de

Gene Smar  AD3F

 

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