Quote:
Originally Posted by Ian E G7OLT
...Later on 'permanent contact' lamps were introduced. They contain an 'anti-fuse' which does the opposite of a fuse. A fuse fails open-circuit and an anti-fuse fails short-circuit. If you examine the base of a bulb closely, and in order to do this you'll have to remove the cap, you can see what looks like three or four turns of wire around the two wire pins where they come through the glass envelope. This is the anti-fuse...
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A-ha! I knew what they did but didn't know that they were called anti-fuses.
I also remember as a kid, one of the strings of lights was a 12 olive lamp set. I also remember that the wires used to fracture at the bulb holder and in order (for my dad) to effect a repair, he would have to heat up the plastic around the bulb holder to allow it to pop out and then re-solder the wire.
Another memory is of a mechanical flasher unit rigged up by my dad to three sets of lights using a motor and three sets of contacts. Created a bit of interference on the radio though!
This is a great thread
