Tiny Mercury Switches

KeithWalker

Joined Jul 10, 2017
3,091
For you older members: Should I avoid playing around with mercury and lead? I got myself some PTH boards and am thinking I should learn to use lead free solder while I'm ahead brain cell wise. The opinion on the internet is small amounts are ok but what constitutes a small amount?
I have been using lead solder quite regularly for the last 73 years and I am remarkably healthy. I guess it will catch up with me in the next 20 or 30 years!
 

peterdeco

Joined Oct 8, 2019
484
40 years ago when I did stereo repairs, one of the tech's in the shop always had a piece of lead solder in his mouth. I wonder what ever happened to him.
 

BobTPH

Joined Jun 5, 2013
8,942
While we are at it, I, and many others my age, we’re raised on cow’s milk. Now, it is apparently a poison and every baby has to have formula. I suspect that babies will die in this shortage we are having in the U.S., instead of being given what I was, which certainly did not kill me.

Bob
 

Reloadron

Joined Jan 15, 2015
7,515
While we are at it, I, and many others my age, we’re raised on cow’s milk. Now, it is apparently a poison and every baby has to have formula. I suspect that babies will die in this shortage we are having in the U.S., instead of being given what I was, which certainly did not kill me.

Bob
While many of us went from breast milk to cow's milk I am pretty sure newborn infants can't come out of the womb and start right on cow's milk and also many moms can't produce breast milk. Not sure about the latter since MD does not follow my name. :)

Ron
 

Thread Starter

Ya’akov

Joined Jan 27, 2019
9,143
While many of us went from breast milk to cow's milk I am pretty sure newborn infants can't come out of the womb and start right on cow's milk and also many moms can't produce breast milk. Not sure about the latter since MD does not follow my name. :)

Ron
"Wet nurses", in the past, were there when a mother couldn't nurse the baby. Now there are "baby formulas" that at least try to substitute for bread milk. No baby being properly raised drinks cow's milk before weaning age.
 

Reloadron

Joined Jan 15, 2015
7,515
"Wet nurses", in the past, were there when a mother couldn't nurse the baby. Now there are "baby formulas" that at least try to substitute for bread milk. No baby being properly raised drinks cow's milk before weaning age.
That's what I remembered. Just wasn't sure.

Ron
 

ThePanMan

Joined Mar 13, 2020
793
Interesting topic. And interesting comments.
While we are at it, I, and many others my age, we’re raised on cow’s milk. Now, it is apparently a poison and every baby has to have formula. I suspect that babies will die in this shortage we are having in the U.S., instead of being given what I was, which certainly did not kill me.
There were lots of things we did back in the 60's and 70's that should have killed us but didn't. I think the experiences have made us richer individuals for life experiences.
"Wet nurses"
My daughter did that for a friend.

On the subject of ball switches - I wonder if anyone makes a photo interrupter type tilt switch. Shouldn't be any bounce there. A close fitting ball and tube sealed so that the ball doesn't just fly from one end to the other, but rather descends at a slow enough rate but not so slow that the user has time to wash the car before the switching is complete. As this ball rolls down the tube it blocks an LED beam and a photo-transistor to detect that interruption. A user could moderate the speed at which it switches by limiting the tilt. Tilt it just a few degrees and the ball slowly traverses the tube. Tilt it 90K and the ball completes the switching action in just a few mS. A cushion at the end of the travel can prevent unwanted bounce back of the ball so you don't get bounce.
 

djsfantasi

Joined Apr 11, 2010
9,160
Interesting topic. And interesting comments.

There were lots of things we did back in the 60's and 70's that should have killed us but didn't. I think the experiences have made us richer individuals for life experiences.

My daughter did that for a friend.

On the subject of ball switches - I wonder if anyone makes a photo interrupter type tilt switch. Shouldn't be any bounce there. A close fitting ball and tube sealed so that the ball doesn't just fly from one end to the other, but rather descends at a slow enough rate but not so slow that the user has time to wash the car before the switching is complete. As this ball rolls down the tube it blocks an LED beam and a photo-transistor to detect that interruption. A user could moderate the speed at which it switches by limiting the tilt. Tilt it just a few degrees and the ball slowly traverses the tube. Tilt it 90K and the ball completes the switching action in just a few mS. A cushion at the end of the travel can prevent unwanted bounce back of the ball so you don't get bounce.
Fill the tube with a liquid. The viscosity of the liquid determines response time. This damping liquid also prevents bounce. During design, tuning can be made by the Db/Dt ratio (Db is the ball diameter, etc…).
 

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767
"Wet nurses", in the past, were there when a mother couldn't nurse the baby. Now there are "baby formulas" that at least try to substitute for bread milk. No baby being properly raised drinks cow's milk before weaning age.
Most commonly when the mother was of too high in income/prestige to nurse a baby. Or when a poor worker during the industrial revolution needed to get back to work, they would arrange schedules with other women to feed each other's children. A wet nurse was a career option for young women that could pass health exams.
"Wet nurses" were not simply an available resource for women who couldn't lactate enough to feed their own baby.
 

shortbus

Joined Sep 30, 2009
10,045
No baby being properly raised drinks cow's milk before weaning age.
So you weaned your kids at 12months? The medical community disagrees with your statement - https://www.google.com/search?clien...y+raised+drinks+cow's+milk+before+weaning+age

Wet nurses have been replaced by members of the La Leche League. I dated one member years ago, that didn't tell me she was a member. The first time we were intimate it shocked me, I though she had something wrong because her kids were teenagers.
 

Thread Starter

Ya’akov

Joined Jan 27, 2019
9,143
So you weaned your kids at 12months? The medical community disagrees with your statement - https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=No+baby+being+properly+raised+drinks+cow's+milk+before+weaning+age

Wet nurses have been replaced by members of the La Leche League. I dated one member years ago, that didn't tell me she was a member. The first time we were intimate it shocked me, I though she had something wrong because her kids were teenagers.
First of all, yes, I disagree with the medical community

Second, my wife was a Le Leche leader and personally I have never heard of one acting as a wet nurse. They are lactation consultants. Your friend must have been freelancing. La Leche does help organize milk sharing and probably mutual nursing in come cases but it would be two nursing mothers working together.

My point, though, was that in the general community breast feeding when out of style and bottle feeding with formula became the norm. Nowadays breast feeding is once again much more common but in-between the role of wet nurse, often a person who did it for the money for people of higher social class, evaporated.

It would have been no big deal to the women who certainly would have helped relatives and friends in the same way for no pay.

My daughter and two daughters-in-law are currently nursing their babies so while there was a hiatus from having a nursing mother around (our youngest is 20) we now have 3 from time to time and I have become reacquainted with the process and its various difficulties. Thankfully, all three babies are doing very well.
 

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767
It would have been no big deal to the women who certainly would have helped relatives and friends in the same way for no pay.
im sure there is an article on the le leche league website about the horrors of wet nursing and how the children of the lower social class wet nurses would die or be developmentally disabled because the employer or slave master would require their baby to be satisfied first. The term "wet nurse" has a bad history and le leche league is sure to point out the possible issues of getting your child fed by someone of a lower socioeconomic class. It is NOT and NEVER WAS "no big deal" for someone that LLL calls a wet nurse. There are other arrangements with other names but "wet nurse" has a specific connotation.

also,
often a person who did it for the money for people of higher social class, evaporated.
Wet nursing under (poorly) paid conditions is still alive and well in some parts of the world and malnourished children of wet nurses still exist today.
 
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k1ng 1337

Joined Sep 11, 2020
960
Interesting how my inquiry turned into a discussion about breast feeding. I'll try to keep my comments on point for now on. Sorry about that.
 

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767
Interesting how my inquiry turned into a discussion about breast feeding. I'll try to keep my comments on point for now on. Sorry about that.
Mention another hazard and watch how that flap of a butterfly wing turns the conversation.

Spoiler, all mentions of health hazards at ACC end up in conversations about feeding babies.
 

shortbus

Joined Sep 30, 2009
10,045
Second, my wife was a Le Leche leader and personally I have never heard of one acting as a wet nurse. They are lactation consultants. Your friend must have been freelancing. La Leche does help organize milk sharing and probably mutual nursing in come cases but it would be two nursing mothers working together.
I never said she was a wet nurse, just that La Leche has pretty much done away with the need. She used a breast pump to harvest milk that was supplied to mothers that couldn't provide enough for their babies. And that went through La Leche.

You may be letting your new apostrophe show in your disagreement with the medical community.
 
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