Do you suppose...

[gui_tarzan]

Back in the '20s through the '40s the people that assembled radios and such were not good readers, hence the color-coded "domino" (and other) caps and resistors?

[Phil_S]

I'm doubtful. Those domino parts look like dreadful things to work with.

If people couldn't read, it's unlikely they could be relied upon to get the right color sequence. That's my take.

[JazzGuitarGimp]

I actually think the work force was far more literate in the forties and fifties than today's crop of workers.

[cbass]

I actually think the work force was far more literate in the forties and fifties than today's crop of workers.

Yes definitely my dad went to school here in arura are in the 40s and was very well educated in math and other things . more so than the average college student today. My grandfather would have done the same In the 20s he was very sharp with math. The thing is back then they forced you to learn they didn't just stick you in a remidial class so you can fuck off and still graduate.

[gui_tarzan]

All good points, it was just a thought that crossed through my static-filled brain. I worked in a public school system for 18 years, I believe things are going downhill fast.

[John_P_WI]

Gotta agree with Lou and Cbass. My father was born in 1926, the youngest of 4. He and his siblings were all highly edumacated, and successful. My mother was born in 1930 and was later educated in a rural one room school house, her father had an eighth grade education - yet was very successful and I would say better educated than the high school kids of today.

The only reason I say this is that they would have been from the generation that gui_tarzan questioned. I work with production people daily, except for a few women from Laos - I don't think any of them have the assembly skills / smarts that they had in the 40's.

The people of the 40's were survivors of the depression era, multiple wars etc. The kids today are only interested in social media, selfies and the Kardashians - the nation today is greatly dumbed down and only getting worse as they feel that they are entitled to graduate without learning (I have teenage daughters and see this first hand).

[Structo]

The color code came about in the 1920's by the Radio Manufacturers Association which published EIA-RS-279 which sets the standard for color codes.

Not only does it standardize the code but provides a way of marking the value of small components like resistors or older capacitors.

When I was in school we had to memorize the resistor color code and be able to read the value without assistance.
There are word association tricks to memorize the colors and values.
Like: "Bad, Boys, R***, Only, Young, Girls, etc.

Now with surface mount components (SMD) and advances in micro printing, they write a numeric code or value on the component.

I think people on electronic assembly lines probably didn't understand too much about what they were building or how it operated.

They were simply taught a sequence of mounting and soldering components in place.
I'm sure there were exceptions among the assemblers that knew what they were doing and how it worked.

[boots]

We had an instructor at ITT who gave us the pneumonic under his breath when the administrators weren't looking, and said we would never forget it, but we didn't hear it from him. Warning, it's politically incorrect, repeated here for anyone who hasn't heard it before.

Black Boys Rape Our Young Girls, But Violet Gives Willingly.

Black, Brown, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet, Gray, White

0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

I've never forgotten it, and can now read resistor color codes by sight just as easily as if they were numerals.

[SilverFox]

John P Wi: I work with production people daily, except for a few women from Laos - I don't think any of them have the assembly skills / smarts that they had in the 40's.

Yeah and like the engineers of the 60's that designed moon shot vehicles using the slide rule? They were 40's students too.

When I started reading the thread the first thought was to garb a book off the shelf and go looking for the veritable: "A gang of men digs a ditch in 5 hours the first day" problem as I never was able to understand it to solution. Never spent the time to learn.

Instead I found one from a HS Geometry book, copyright 1935, that should suffice, to wit:

A motorist, driving north on a straight road, notices at a certain point a mountain peak in the distance about 20 deg. east of north. He travels 5 miles farther and notices that the peak is about 40 deg. east of north. Approximately how far is the peak from the second point of observation?

I realize the above example is not that difficult to solve, although I'd have to study portions of the book to do so, (basic trig to determine length of side); On the other hand I seriously doubt most HS students study problems like this now... More likely they simply study a gang of men!

But there is hope. I ran across this Phd''s page the other day and was most impressed. I ended up on the site in search of HV information and found many interesting projects. And by one individual?? One of my interests is gas turbines and I've seen various versions of the "Automotive Turbocharger" adaptation before but this looks like something GE would have built.

http://rtftechnologies.org/general/gas-turbine.html


Regards,

silverfox.

[JazzGuitarGimp]

We had an instructor at ITT who gave us the pneumonic under his breath when the administrators weren't looking, and said we would never forget it, but we didn't hear it from him. Warning, it's politically incorrect, repeated here for anyone who hasn't heard it before.

Black Boys Rape Our Young Girls, But Violet Gives Willingly.

Black, Brown, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet, Gray, White

0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

I've never forgotten it, and can now read resistor color codes by sight just as easily as if they were numerals.

I was probably 11 years old when an older friend taught me this, except the first word was Bad rather than Black. I had trouble for many years, remembering Bad Boys was Black Brown, as opposed to Brown Black. I think I was in my thirties when one day, it occurred to me that the vowels in bAd bOys matches the vowels in blAck brOwn - and from then on, I've had no trouble with interchanging black and brown. Your version is more to the point (in terms of which color is which, that is) but I have to admit I cringe just a bit when I consider the racial profiling aspect.

[boots]

I cringe too Lou. I'm totally color blind when it comes to humans.

But the "black" has always helped me remember that black is zero.

Sorry if anyone finds it offensive (I do too!), but I bet you'll never forget the color code now......

[roberto]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of ... _mnemonics

[martin manning]

The middle part is "rainbow" order (ROY G BIV), and one can easily imagine red fading to brown and then black on the low end, and violet going to gray and then white on the high end.

[boots]

Well, mine made the list, but not without being chastised for being offensive!

[JazzGuitarGimp]

Oh come on boots, I wouldn't equate "cringe a bit" with "chastise".