Signal and pattern generator

[roadster541]

Just wondering if anyone can identify this signal and pattern generator. There is no indication of maker, so my feeling is that it may have been a kit, possibly from a magazine article, but I am not very familiar with TV service gear. It is very basic, just two valves, EF80 and 6K7G, both mounted upside down below the chassis.
73
Rod
M0LXY

[Horris]

These were made and supplied by R&TV supplies of Acton. They did a range of low cost signal generators in the 1960’s. I seem to remember that they sold for about £6:19s:6d

Dave

[roadster541]

Thank Dave,
I have just spent an interesting half hour browsing R&TV supplies and Testgear Acton.
There are a couple of threads on here one of which links to a history of the company.
I haven't yet worked out what the audio output is. It seems to be a very efficient use of only two valves.
Rod

[stuarth]

Not having a go, but I was mildly amused by the phrase "about £6:19s:6d". Converting to decimal, that's saying "about" followed by a 4 digit number, £6.975 (if I've done the conversion to the correct level of precision!). Accountancy is always far more "precision" than our so-called Precision electronics, where 1% is good, and some transistor parameters have a 5:1 variation.

Of course we do have our precision moments: making something like a Pentium chip requires high precision lithography and levels of cleanliness that would put the medical profession to shame.

Stuart

[Craig Sawyers]

The reason for the 19s6p of the now ubiquitous 99p at the end of modern prices is not (as I used to think) to do with fooling the public into thinking that the product is less than the stated price (so £4.99 is actually £5 rather than £4) - but to prevent potential fraud.

If the product was £5, it is easier to pilfer from the till in notes rather than £4.99. It kind of misses the point that you could pinch a fiver, and then put a penny back in the till, so it still reconciled, but minus a fiver.

But who remembers when back in the 40's to '60s manufacturers quoting prices in Guineas? The coin was abolished in 1816. But since the price at that time was fixed as 21 shillings, quoting prices of goods in guineas was a way of fooling the customer, period. So 10 guineas was actually (in today's money) £10.50. Plus purchase tax of course.

All sorts of companies tried this trick. Including early Sinclair stuff - and even AVO, where the Model 7 in the late 1930's was 12 guineas.

Craig

[Craig Sawyers]

Back to the guinea. It was a gold coin. And that made me think of how much gold has ever been mined, in history.

And the answer is about 200,000 tons, or about 10,000 cubic meters. Or about 40 typical semi-detached houses full of gold.

Put like that, it is not very much at all in volume.

Craig

[avocollector]

I always understood pricing in guineas was an attempt to appear upper echlon, upper class. The London Harley street medical pros, antique and saville row clothing shops priced their goods/services in guineas. Guinea 'spade' coins were also used in the London Gentlemen's clubs for gambling - originally the real thing but later many brass copies were made to be used as tokens.