In the 1950s, as a child I often spent hours at a local amusement arcade and was fascinated by the sight of their complex mechanisms revealed briefly when the owner had to fix something.
Here is my electric garage door project: a nostalgic tribute to the days of electro-mechanical devices; relays, motor cam switches, push buttons, ropes and pulleys. Proving, as any inventor knows, that there is nothing that cannot be adapted for another purpose totally removed from the original.
“For Amusement and Only” was the sign on those slot machines and that was the motive for this project. It took 6 months to complete with problems aplenty but one-by-one they were fixed and has since operated faultlessly for 23 years much to the amusement of our grandchildren.
All that complex wiring could now be replaced by a few microchips but it would not have been anywhere nearly such fun. And I can see how it all works. How many today really understand modern electronics? Wires in, wires out and what goes on inside those little black boxes – a total mystery to most. The only sign of life are flashing LEDs. Who now can remember a visit to the Open Days at GPO House in Birmingham? All that sweet noise and smell of life of 1000s of Type 3000 Relays and Strowger Switches. Now all gone of course along with the equally numerous engineers’ jobs that were needed to keep it all working.
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