Transistor Case

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32035, 9 July 1969, Page 11

Transistor Case

Transistor radios, fresh from the factory, were recently found to be faulty on arrival in the shops. Quite a mystery, for they had all passed their final tests at the makers. The explanation turned out to be that these radios had been packed in plastic bags. These bags, like almost any dry piece of plastics material, had become charged with static electricity. It so happened that when the static discharged itself it went through the aerial into the receiver and destroyed the first transistor. A 8.8. C. reporter warning against this trouble said in a recent broadcast that similar disasters have been known to overtake car radios. Cars often pick up a static charge in dry weather. If you get out and then touch the radio aerial all you feel is a slight tingle, but the radio set loses a transistor. Fortunately, there is a simple remedy. It is to connect a miniature neon tube to the aerial circuit of the receiver. When a static discharge occurs the neon lights up momentarily and absorbs the electrical energy.