
40 uses for Germanium Diodes (1950) [pdf] - kalium-xyz
https://frank.pocnet.net/other/Sylvania/40_Uses_for_Germanium_Diodes.pdf
======
unnouinceput
I fell in love with Electronics at 16 precisely because of these kind of books
that 60's printed full of them. I discovered them in my father's book
collection in early 90's and these were my "drug gateway" to my programming
career.

Having electronics and hardware background made my programming so much easier
as it was easier to understand some concepts and choices that to "pure
software" engineers appeared weird.

These days I love to combine hardware and software integration and boy oh boy,
it pays so much better. Not many programmers out there that will offer a bill
acceptor and/or magnetic card reader integration for a POS solution when your
local restaurant wants to modernize their shop.

Show these kind of books to your kids, you'll never know where the rabbit
jumps from.

~~~
elcritch
Hasn’t Stripe and others cannibalized the POS market? I figured that market
would be saturated. Being another software/hardware guy the various POS
systems Always seemed an interesting market. Do you do lot of custom work
building custom POS?

~~~
unnouinceput
Always. Clients always like their solution to be personalized for their
specific needs. No 2 shops are alike even if they are across each other on
same street. Usually the custom work comes in form of: a). hardware used hence
interfacing with it is custom and b). reports as each client has its own idea
of how data should look in front of their eyes.

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Jeema101
One niche use that I know of that lives on to this day for germanium diodes is
in analog guitar effects.

The reason is twofold: germanium diodes generally have a softer turn-on than
silicon diodes, and they have a lower forward voltage drop than silicon
diodes.

This makes them useful in audio applications for clipping circuits (more
sensitive and warmer sounding distortion), but also in simple one-diode
envelope-detector circuits. One rather famous guitar compressor effect from
the 1970s (the 'Orange Squeezer') used a germanium diode as an envelope-
detector in this manner.

~~~
squarefoot
> germanium diodes generally have a softer turn-on than silicon diodes

This a million times, and it also applies to germanium transistors too. I keep
reading that all it needs to emulate the germanium sound in a guitar fuzz made
with silicon transistors is adding a small cap between base and collector,
which is only part of the story: those are non linear devices, and there's a
non trivial difference between Ge and Si V/I curves, which translate into
different sound which can't be emulated just by adding a cap. A softer curve
creates a much gentler distortion which doesn't ruin the sound when playing
chords for example.

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softgrow
The librarians date it 1951. [https://www.worldcat.org/title/40-circuits-
using-germanium-d...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/40-circuits-using-
germanium-diodes/oclc/30204555) It is no 102 of Bernards radio books series.
List and many other scanned books at
[https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Bookshelf_Bernards_Baba...](https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Bookshelf_Bernards_Babani.htm)

~~~
ggerules
Thanks for posting the link to the bigger list of books. I just love this
stuff. I remember some of these from my childhood and my father's collection.
+1 for posting this!

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greenyoda
No copyright date appears in this document, but it was apparently published
before 1963 (since it lists a U.S. address that uses a postal zone rather than
a ZIP code).

Sylvania's 1N34 diode became available in 1946[1], so the document may date
from as early as then.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diode#Solid-
state_diodes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diode#Solid-state_diodes)

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UI_at_80x24
I was looking through this magazine for inspiration for a fun project. I've
been a hobbyist for 40-something years, and still like to daydream about 'cool
things to build'. Then one of the projects caught my eye, and I saw a real-
world/real-use for it related to Amateur Radio. And then I saw more, and more!

At the end, I see that a fellow Amateur Radio was a previous owner. So it has
me more interested now.

Thanks for sharing.

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2sk21
My first ever electronics project was a radio that used an 1N34 diode in 1974.
Worked beautifully and that's what launched my interest in electronics and
then computers.

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kragen
I was sad recently to find that Digi-Key doesn't stock germanium diodes. My
200-in-1 kit I had as a kid had a couple of germanium diodes in it; I guess
you could substitute Schottky Si diodes in most if not all of the circuits in
its manual. I guess Schottkys have higher reverse leakage, but that doesn't
always matter.

~~~
7402
taydaelectronics.com lists 1N34s in their catalog, although they are out of
stock at the moment. 28 cents each.

(I usually check Tayda first, before ordering from Mouser/Digikey. Often
cheaper, although parts take a little longer to arrive.)

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amelius
On page 18 they power a relay directly from an antenna. This seems a little
optimistic to me, or perhaps they had very low-power relays back then?

~~~
PoachedSausage
>Transmitter Failure Alarm

You would have it installed near your high power transmitter. Having worked on
high power AM transmitters, the fences surrounding the antenna can pick up the
signal and corroded joints act as a detector, the result is the fence becomes
a receiver. So I have no doubt a relay could be powered.

~~~
dasv
What? Does the fence itself vibrate and reproduce the sound? Or do you need to
complete the circuit using the fence as the detector?

~~~
PoachedSausage
I'm not entirely sure what process is converting to sound, but the metal fence
makes a great antenna and we are talking about 10's of feet from the antenna
with 500 kW AM at 200 kHz going into it.

It could actually have been arcing:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo9nGzIzSPw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo9nGzIzSPw)

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qarthandyc
Does anyone know where other books from this series can be found?

~~~
squarefoot
Not sure if it contains other books from the series, and it has been likely
posted already a hundred times, however here is a huge list with some
interesting subdirs filled with books also pertaining electronics, ham radio
etc.

[https://archive.org/details/folkscanomy](https://archive.org/details/folkscanomy)

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EADGBE
You only need one use to justify germanium: Fuzz.

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fortran77
I like to plant them and grow Geraniums.

