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Retrotronics
Retrotronics (a portmanteau of "retro" and "electronics", also ''retro-tronics'') is the making of electric circuits or appliances using older electric components, such as vacuum tubes, Nixie displays, relays, uniselectors, analogue meters, etc. These are usually chosen more for their aesthetic qualities than performance. Retrotronics is a popular strand within the steampunk movement. At the Oxford exhibition of Steampunk art, a third of the works on show had a strong retrotronic influence, from light fittings of period components through to computer keyboards and webcams of burnished copper and brass. Outside steampunk, similar influences are found amongst the retro-futurist scene. Other sources cite the Maker movement as an influence. A recent musical trend has sought to recapture early 1980s 8-bit game and synthesiser sounds, often referred to as chiptune. Artists such as Kid Carpet perform entire sets on children's toys or pocket synths of the period. Other artists, such ...
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Retro-futurist
Retrofuturism (adjective ''retrofuturistic'' or ''retrofuture'') is a movement in the creative arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced in an earlier era. If futurism is sometimes called a "science" bent on anticipating what will come, retrofuturism is the remembering of that anticipation. Characterized by a blend of old-fashioned "retro styles" with futuristic technology, retrofuturism explores the themes of tension between past and future, and between the alienating and empowering effects of technology. Primarily reflected in artistic creations and modified technologies that realize the imagined artifacts of its parallel reality, retrofuturism can be seen as "an animating perspective on the world". Etymology The word retrofuturism is formed by the addition of the prefix "retro" from the Latin language, which gives the meaning of "backwards" to the word "future", a word also originating from Latin. According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', an ea ...
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Steampunk
Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and aesthetics inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the Victorian era or the American "Wild West", where steam power remains in mainstream use, or in a fantasy world that similarly employs steam power. Steampunk most recognizably features anachronistic technologies or retrofuturistic inventions as people in the 19th century might have envisioned them — distinguishing it from Neo-Victorianism — and is likewise rooted in the era's perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, and art. Such technologies may include fictional machines like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne. Other examples of steampunk contain alternative-history-style presentations of such technology as steam cannons, lighter-than-air airships, analog computers, or such digital mechanical computers as Charles B ...
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Electrolytic Capacitor
An electrolytic capacitor is a polarized capacitor whose anode or positive plate is made of a metal that forms an insulating oxide layer through anodization. This oxide layer acts as the dielectric of the capacitor. A solid, liquid, or gel electrolyte covers the surface of this oxide layer, serving as the cathode or negative plate of the capacitor. Due to their very thin dielectric oxide layer and enlarged anode surface, electrolytic capacitors have a much higher capacitance-voltage (CV) product per unit volume than ceramic capacitors or film capacitors, and so can have large capacitance values. There are three families of electrolytic capacitor: aluminum electrolytic capacitors, tantalum electrolytic capacitors, and niobium electrolytic capacitors. The large capacitance of electrolytic capacitors makes them particularly suitable for passing or bypassing low-frequency signals, and for storing large amounts of energy. They are widely used for decoupling or noise filtering ...
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GPO Telephones
The General Post Office (GPO) of the United Kingdom carried the sole responsibility for providing telecommunication services across the country with the exception of Hull. The GPO issued a range of telephone instruments to telephone service subscribers that were matched in function and performance to its telephone exchanges. General history Until 1982 the GPO had a monopoly on the provision of all telephone lines and telephones within the UK, other than in Kingston upon Hull, and so the range was limited. Customers (known within the GPO as "subs", being short for 'subscribers') did not buy their telephones, they were rented from the GPO, together with the house wiring and the wiring connecting the house to the local network at a connection point known as a DP (distribution point). The majority of DPs were (and still are) at the top of what are still known in the UK as telegraph poles. Type 121 During the early days of telephones, in the UK, a variety of instruments were produce ...
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British Telephone Sockets
British telephone sockets were introduced in their current plug and socket form on 19 November 1981 by British Telecom to allow subscribers to connect their own telephones. The connectors are specified in British Standard BS 6312. Electrical characteristics of the telephone interface are specified by individual network operators, e.g. in British Telecom's SIN 351. Until recently, this socket contained an enclosed spark gap, SP1, that could safely flash over internally to provide high voltage surge protection. This component is no longer used due to negative effects on VDSL speeds. The socket includes a 1.8 µF capacitor (bell circuit) to feed the AC ringing and a 470 kΩ resistor (R1, out-of-service resistor) to permit remote testing when no telephones are plugged into any sockets. Additional internal extension (secondary) sockets are wired off the master socket (connected in parallel using the IDC system) but not containing the surge protector, bell circuit capacitor, a ...
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BT Group
BT Group plc (trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-line, broadband and mobile services in the UK, and also provides subscription television and IT services. BT's origins date back to the founding in 1846 of the Electric Telegraph Company, the world's first public telegraph company, which developed a nationwide communications network. BT Group as it came to be started in 1912, when the General Post Office, a government department, took over the system of the National Telephone Company becoming the monopoly telecoms supplier in the United Kingdom. The Post Office Act of 1969 led to the GPO becoming a public corporation. The ''British Telecom'' brand was introduced in 1980, and became independent of the Post Office in 1981, officially trading under the name. British Telecommunications was privatised ...
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Bakelite
Polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride, better known as Bakelite ( ), is a thermosetting phenol formaldehyde resin, formed from a condensation reaction of phenol with formaldehyde. The first plastic made from synthetic components, it was developed by Leo Baekeland in Yonkers, New York in 1907, and patented on December 7, 1909 (). Because of its electrical nonconductivity and heat-resistant properties, it became a great commercial success. It was used in electrical insulators, radio and telephone casings, and such diverse products as kitchenware, jewelry, pipe stems, children's toys, and firearms. The "retro" appeal of old Bakelite products has made them collectible. The creation of a synthetic plastic was revolutionary for the chemical industry, which at the time made most of its income from cloth dyes and explosives. Bakelite's commercial success inspired the industry to develop other synthetic plastics. In recognition of its significance as the world's first commercial synthet ...
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GPO 332 Director Telephone
GPO may refer to: Government and politics * General Post Office, Dublin * General Post Office, in Britain * Social Security Government Pension Offset, a provision reducing benefits * Government Pharmaceutical Organization, a Thai state enterprise * Government Press Office (Israel) * Green Party of Ontario, Canada * United States Government Publishing Office * Group Purchasing Organization Places * Gospel Oak railway station, in London, England * Guam Premier Outlets, a shopping mall in Guam * Indore G.P.O., a residential area in Indore, India * General Pico Airport, in Argentina, IATA code Science and technology * Giant Pacific Octopus * Group Policy Object * General Purpose Outlet, mains socket in Australia * General Purpose Output, an uncommitted digital signal pin on an integrated circuit or electronic circuit board used as an output and controllable by the user at runtime. Other uses * Generalplan Ost, a Nazi genocide plan in occupied territories * General Post Office (di ...
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Transistor
upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink). A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electrical power, power. The transistor is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semiconductor material, usually with at least three terminals for connection to an electronic circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals controls the current through another pair of terminals. Because the controlled (output) power can be higher than the controlling (input) power, a transistor can amplify a signal. Some transistors are packaged individually, but many more are found embedded in integrated circuits. Austro-Hungarian physicist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld proposed the concept of a field-effect transistor in 1926, but it was not possible to actually constru ...
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Vox AC30
The Vox AC30 is a guitar amplifier manufactured by Vox. It was introduced in 1958 to meet the growing demand for louder amplifiers. Characterised by its "jangly" high-end sound it has become widely recognized by British musicians and others, such as George Harrison and John Lennon of the Beatles, Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones, Brian May of Queen, Dave Davies of the Kinks and Hank Marvin. History The Vox AC30 was originally introduced in 1959 at Hank Marvin's request as the "big brother" of the fifteen watt (15 W) AC15 model, Vox's original flagship amplifier, because the AC15 was not loud enough with the screaming fans at Cliff Richard's concerts. The AC15 was powered by a pair of EL84 tubes, an EF86-driven "Normal" channel, an ECC83-driven "Vib-Trem" channel, and rectified by an EZ81. The original first-generation AC30 used a GZ34 tube rectifier, three ECC83s (12AX7) for the Normal channel and the tremolo/vibrato oscillator/modulator circuits, one ECC81 (12AT7) phase inver ...
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Guitar Amplifiers
A guitar amplifier (or amp) is an electronic device or system that strengthens the electrical signal from a pickup on an electric guitar, bass guitar, or acoustic guitar so that it can produce sound through one or more loudspeakers, which are typically housed in a wooden cabinet. A guitar amplifier may be a standalone wood or metal cabinet that contains only the power amplifier (and preamplifier) circuits, requiring the use of a separate speaker cabinet–or it may be a "combo" amplifier, which contains both the amplifier and one or more speakers in a wooden cabinet. There is a wide range of sizes and power ratings for guitar amplifiers, from small, lightweight "practice amplifiers" with a single 6-inch speaker and a 10-watt amp to heavy combo amps with four 10-inch or four 12-inch speakers and a 100-watt amplifier, which are loud enough to use in a nightclub or bar performance. Guitar amplifiers can also modify an instrument's tone by emphasizing or de-emphasizing certain fr ...
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