Motive - ation

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I've seen some great 'constructor' stuff on YouTube over the years, but this scratch-built valve amplifier almost takes the biscuit: it's an hour long, but fascinating and worth the time invested. It made me quite misty-eyed with nostalgia for my childhood. I can't remember whether I've mentioned this one before - I don't currently have any indexing capabilities for this blog - but even if I have, it's worth mentioning again. When I was in the third year at senior school - you'll have to work out what that means, these days - I was tasked with a physics homework project to construct a small DC electric motor from various household items. After pissing about in the most futile fashion for most of the evening, I threw the lot against the wall and went to bed in high dudgeon. What followed was a revelation, not only of great parental love and affection, but an exposition of skill and technical knowledge, borne of real, practical experience: not unlike the linked video's content.

My dad worked through to the early hours - due at work at eight AM the following morning - creating the most amazing piece of kit absolutely from raw, scratch materials. The resulting motor was a complete work of art, using a field-coil rather than permanent magnets, everything made, literally, from raw scrap lying about the shed. By the time I woke up for school, the old man had already left for work. Needless to say, I had to admit to the teacher that I had had some 'help' in completing the project. I wish that there was something left of this and the many other things that the old man made for me, but my eidetic memory at least makes up for the loss of the artefacts themselves: they're as clear in my mind now as then. If I repeat myself, I apologize, but the story makes me smile, and that's worth the retelling in itself. The image featured is a random pull from Google: dad's motor was a tad more modern - at least for it's time - design...

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