Hey @sunkat2048, thanks for the follow request!
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@alice I have a box of obsolete cables in my closet like everyone else, except mine are just a tad more obsolete than most
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@dan that's rad!
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@alice I have a box of obsolete cables in my closet like everyone else, except mine are just a tad more obsolete than most
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@dzwiedziu @alice I have some others that are cut away so you can see the layers. This is a segment of TAT-1, the first transatlantic voice cable (1955/1956).
Layers from inside to outside:
- a copper wire wrapped in copper tape
- a thick layer of polyethlene (newfangled at the time!) serving as a dielectric
- a wrap of copper tape for the return path
- layers of cloth tape, steel wires, and jute fibers to serve as armor
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@dzwiedziu @alice I have some others that are cut away so you can see the layers. This is a segment of TAT-1, the first transatlantic voice cable (1955/1956).
Layers from inside to outside:
- a copper wire wrapped in copper tape
- a thick layer of polyethlene (newfangled at the time!) serving as a dielectric
- a wrap of copper tape for the return path
- layers of cloth tape, steel wires, and jute fibers to serve as armor@dan
Well, 75 years and I'm still in ave that it would just lie on thousands of km of oceanic floor and work. -
@dzwiedziu @alice I have some others that are cut away so you can see the layers. This is a segment of TAT-1, the first transatlantic voice cable (1955/1956).
Layers from inside to outside:
- a copper wire wrapped in copper tape
- a thick layer of polyethlene (newfangled at the time!) serving as a dielectric
- a wrap of copper tape for the return path
- layers of cloth tape, steel wires, and jute fibers to serve as armor@dan @dzwiedziu @alice That's actually really interesting! Do you know more about the return path? It seems strange to me that it seemingly uses less material for conducting the signal than the main wire
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@hacktor I certainly do! https://lgbtqia.space/@alice/115609275112210873
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Hey @sunkat2048, thanks for the follow request! Unfortunately there's not enough vibe on your profile to check, so...
What's one of the coolest things you own?
I have a puzzle lockbox that was handmade by one of my friends, then delivered from Australia by another friend. It has three weird locks on it, one of which was designed and built by said friend, and the bitting on the key is shaped like my name. It's pretty fucking cool. I also have an amtique 8-lever padlock that's stamped with "Mastodon" from circa the late 1800s.
My bassoon!
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Hey @sunkat2048, thanks for the follow request! Unfortunately there's not enough vibe on your profile to check, so...
What's one of the coolest things you own?
I have a puzzle lockbox that was handmade by one of my friends, then delivered from Australia by another friend. It has three weird locks on it, one of which was designed and built by said friend, and the bitting on the key is shaped like my name. It's pretty fucking cool. I also have an amtique 8-lever padlock that's stamped with "Mastodon" from circa the late 1800s.
@alice this hand plane is certainly the oldest human made thing I own, being from about 1890
I have some things I think are even cooler but I keep this just because it feels good to have something from so long ago
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@dzwiedziu @alice I have some others that are cut away so you can see the layers. This is a segment of TAT-1, the first transatlantic voice cable (1955/1956).
Layers from inside to outside:
- a copper wire wrapped in copper tape
- a thick layer of polyethlene (newfangled at the time!) serving as a dielectric
- a wrap of copper tape for the return path
- layers of cloth tape, steel wires, and jute fibers to serve as armor@dan @dzwiedziu @alice Were these rings(?) added just to protect the ends of the cut-away, or are they something else?
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@dzwiedziu @dan @alice Especially in the 1850s! Before reading more about undersea cables, I would've said they were invented in like... 1920. It's amazing that they go back so much further.
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My bassoon!
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@alice this hand plane is certainly the oldest human made thing I own, being from about 1890
I have some things I think are even cooler but I keep this just because it feels good to have something from so long ago
@recursive @alice Huh, I wonder if any of my second-hand hand-planes are that old. The oldest thing that I have with an actual date on this is silver dollar from 1878 that is exactly 100 years older than I am.
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@dan @dzwiedziu @alice That's actually really interesting! Do you know more about the return path? It seems strange to me that it seemingly uses less material for conducting the signal than the main wire
@Numerfolt @dzwiedziu @alice I think it's a combination of two things:
1) most of the current is carried in the outer skin of the conductor (but don't ask me to explain why, physics class was a long time ago!)
2) it might actually be the same amount of material. Wrapped around the much larger insulator, it doesn't take a very thick layer to make up the same cross-sectional area.
You can see this if you cut a regular household coax cable open, too... the return conductor is a thin braid around the cable.
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@alice this hand plane is certainly the oldest human made thing I own, being from about 1890
I have some things I think are even cooler but I keep this just because it feels good to have something from so long ago
@recursive @alice That's lovely. Nice to see something like that kept carefully, in clean and usable condition. It really emphasises how much it's not just some disposable junk.
My grandfather gave me a plane decades ago that isn't old, but which I have all sorts of feelings about:
https://toroid.org/restoring-a-number-4-plane -
@dan @dzwiedziu @alice Were these rings(?) added just to protect the ends of the cut-away, or are they something else?
@amenonsen @dzwiedziu @alice I would assume they're just there to keep it from unraveling
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@dzwiedziu @dan @alice Especially in the 1850s! Before reading more about undersea cables, I would've said they were invented in like... 1920. It's amazing that they go back so much further.
@theorangetheme @dzwiedziu @alice Well, I didn't say the original 1858 cable was a *good* one.
The first telegram it carried was a 98-word congratulatory note from Queen Victoria to James Buchanan. It took 16 hours to transmit.
It only lasted a couple months before one of the engineers, hoping to get a better signal, cranked the voltage way up and completely fried the cable.
Long undersea cables weren't really practical until they figured out how to add and power repeaters along the line, originally using miniature tube amps, closer to the 1950s.
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@alice this hand plane is certainly the oldest human made thing I own, being from about 1890
I have some things I think are even cooler but I keep this just because it feels good to have something from so long ago
@recursive @alice They make great pencil sharpeners too
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@theorangetheme @dzwiedziu @alice Well, I didn't say the original 1858 cable was a *good* one.
The first telegram it carried was a 98-word congratulatory note from Queen Victoria to James Buchanan. It took 16 hours to transmit.
It only lasted a couple months before one of the engineers, hoping to get a better signal, cranked the voltage way up and completely fried the cable.
Long undersea cables weren't really practical until they figured out how to add and power repeaters along the line, originally using miniature tube amps, closer to the 1950s.
@dan @dzwiedziu @alice Undersea tube amps! That's so cool. Thanks for the history lesson.
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Hey @sunkat2048, thanks for the follow request! Unfortunately there's not enough vibe on your profile to check, so...
What's one of the coolest things you own?
I have a puzzle lockbox that was handmade by one of my friends, then delivered from Australia by another friend. It has three weird locks on it, one of which was designed and built by said friend, and the bitting on the key is shaped like my name. It's pretty fucking cool. I also have an amtique 8-lever padlock that's stamped with "Mastodon" from circa the late 1800s.
