[time-nuts] Any Time nuts in AU?

J. Forster jfor at quik.com
Thu Oct 8 15:26:35 UTC 2009


I just can't resist this one.

As an undergrad at a very well known eastern US engineering school, we
liked hacks. Also, we hardware types looked down on the theory guys with
some distain.

Anyway, a friend of mine's roommate was a "hair grinder"...  he had very
high grades, but was clueless about hardware. In those days, almost
everyone had those little GE line powered clocks with a synchronous motor.

One Christmas vacation, he left school for a week or so. We took his clock
apart and flipped the magnet structure so the shading pole was on the
other side, so the thing ran backwards.

He came back, and was mystified. We said nothing. He pulled several books
down from the shelf and mumbled a while, then said "Oh".

He then unplugged the clock from the wall, got a pair of scissors, and cut
the line cord, spliced it back together w/ masking tape with the leads
reversed, and plugged it in again. Of course it STILL ran backwards. We
were all on the floor laughing uncontrollably.

We did ask him why he'd simply not flipped the plug in the socket and he
said "Oh, that wouldn't have worked".

True story. Honest.  BTW, we eventually bought him a new clock for about
$3. Names withheld to protect the clueless. Last I heard he was running a
government agency.

-John


===============


> I'm not in AU (left coast US), but I've got a clock on my office wall that
> runs backwards (the numerals progress CC too). I think I got it as a gift
> years ago when Dick Smith had a store in the area. It didn't last very
> long.
>
> Cheers,
>
> -Dave
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Joseph Gray" <jgray at zianet.com>
> To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement"
> <time-nuts at febo.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, October 7, 2009 3:14:14 AM GMT -07:00 US/Canada Mountain
> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Any Time nuts in AU?
>
> Does time run backwards down there? :-)
>
> Joe Gray
> KA5ZEC
>
> On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 2:53 AM, Ray Hudson <hudsonray at yahoo.com.au> wrote:
>> Just a test to see if I can send to the mailing list and to find out how
>> many "time nuts" are in the land down under
>>
>> Thanks Ray.
>>
>> Send instant messages to your online friends
>> http://au.messenger.yahoo.com
>>
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>
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