Engineer donates electrical supplies

Mr. Charles Weidler, a retired engineer from Lancaster, PA, who holds over forty U.S. patents on electrical connectors, has donated an assortment of electrical supplies to the West Branch Engineering Club.

The assortment includes:

• Several hundred 1/4 watt and 1/2 watt resistors
• Six pounds of enameled magnet wire on 7 spools, ranging in size from 22 gauge all the way down to an amazingly thin 50 gauge which is only one thousandth of an inch thick. This is about 1/4 the thickness of a human hair.
• 5 lbs of red #26 AWG stranded hookup wire
• 6 lbs of white #24 AWG stranded hookup wire
• 7 lbs of white #22 AWG stranded hookup wire
• 8 lbs of pink #18 AWG stranded hookup wire
• 10 lbs of green #16 AWG stranded hookup wire
• Twenty-two 6VDC yellow panel-mount indicator lamps
• Seven boxes of low voltage DC lamp bulbs
• A small assortment of rubber grommets and strain reliefs
• A large assortment of bat handle, panel-mount switches
• A low voltage DC ringer/chime.
• A Norelco model EL3516 reel-to-reel tape recorder manufactured in the 1950's. This would be an interesting piece of equipment to dissect, providing an historical perspective on how electronic devices were constructed before the digital age. This device weighs 30 pounds and is likely to contain one or two beefy motors that could be used in a student project, such as a robot.

If purchased new, these materials would cost several hundred dollars. In fact, the magnet wire alone is worth nearly one hundred dollars.

The club wishes to thank Mr. Weidler for his generous contribution of these very useful materials. Students who are interested in building electrical or electronic projects are encouraged to check out these new supplies, located in the wall cabinets in Mr. Hoffman's Physics Lab (room 202).

This story was contributed by Mr. Bob Snyder.