On Sun, 13 Apr 2025 12:20:59 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
wrote:

Seems there was! I'm just wondering, since thermionic valves and >semiconductors were yet to be invented, just what the hell they were >generating curves of? Anyone care to hazard a guess?

Forgot the damn link! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/226697308589?_skw=curve+tracer&itmmeta=01JRQDJ37B1BDBTD4DYAFFXBRA&hash=item34c83669ad:g:xyIAAeSwNbFn-jh6&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA8FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1dD%2F7lpRd4m2z5fRFbpAd6Hfo7tB1DrqS4KnKA9PIgi%
2FA6gJMzzkTQdIrWW4Z2wUziXHLGrMQEBolMcvrQXE5gJyo20trVYFVPQpo09cHuUQibl%2B7pZy3r3O8%2FU8Ccd5tJOs6FDs7gtK7vFDHZKN%2FOhE79B4BcBZMe8EGkrOQd1ZS6EBkhMseD%2FxOUwGTeocF%2BlLzWYbSa%2BUtznQR%2B4IjT2h4CQVrLF%2BNVZ4n8nDan58NMy03ngPvUQImleh2eG8Y87OdLruWteg4Vvu%
2FduVCbW%2B4ga76%2FDazoxr5iO9W1c1Q%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR_CzyO3FZQ

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Seems there was! I'm just wondering, since thermionic valves and
semiconductors were yet to be invented, just what the hell they were
generating curves of? Anyone care to hazard a guess?

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On 13/04/2025 9:25 pm, Cursitor Doom wrote:

On Sun, 13 Apr 2025 12:20:59 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
wrote:

Seems there was! I'm just wondering, since thermionic valves and
semiconductors were yet to be invented, just what the hell they were
generating curves of? Anyone care to hazard a guess?

Forgot the damn link! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/226697308589?_skw=curve+tracer&itmmeta=01JRQDJ37B1BDBTD4DYAFFXBRA&hash=item34c83669ad:g:xyIAAeSwNbFn-jh6&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA8FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1dD%2F7lpRd4m2z5fRFbpAd6Hfo7tB1DrqS4KnKA9PIgi%

2FA6gJMzzkTQdIrWW4Z2wUziXHLGrMQEBolMcvrQXE5gJyo20trVYFVPQpo09cHuUQibl%2B7pZy3r3O8%2FU8Ccd5tJOs6FDs7gtK7vFDHZKN%2FOhE79B4BcBZMe8EGkrOQd1ZS6EBkhMseD%2FxOUwGTeocF%2BlLzWYbSa%2BUtznQR%2B4IjT2h4CQVrLF%2BNVZ4n8nDan58NMy03ngPvUQImleh2eG8Y87OdLruWteg4Vvu%
2FduVCbW%2B4ga76%2FDazoxr5iO9W1c1Q%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR_CzyO3FZQ

There was a lot of work early on on the conductivity of electricity
through gases - Paschen published on the subject in 1889

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paschen%27s_law

When I had to start a high pressure xenon arc lamp in 1973, I found a
text book on the subject in the university book shop which was a reprint
of something written in the 1920's by J.S.Townsend. It told me all that
I needed to know. It wasn't exactly helpful on generating the high
voltage required - about 20kV - but more modern texts covered that.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

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On Sun, 13 Apr 2025 12:20:59 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
wrote:

Seems there was! I'm just wondering, since thermionic valves and >semiconductors were yet to be invented, just what the hell they were >generating curves of? Anyone care to hazard a guess?

The Hospitalier Ondograph was a graphing sampling osciloscope ca 1902.

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On 13/04/2025 17:37, john larkin wrote:

On Sun, 13 Apr 2025 12:20:59 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
wrote:

Seems there was! I'm just wondering, since thermionic valves and
semiconductors were yet to be invented, just what the hell they were
generating curves of? Anyone care to hazard a guess?

The Hospitalier Ondograph was a graphing sampling osciloscope ca 1902.

<https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Oscillograph>

--
Jeff

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Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com> wrote:

Seems there was! I'm just wondering, since thermionic valves and semiconductors were yet to be invented, just what the hell they were generating curves of? Anyone care to hazard a guess?

Must have been some interest in non-linear resistances. There were
electrolytic rectifiers around about that timeframe too, I recall a 1908
book describing them for battery charging.

--
piglet

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piglet <erichpwagner@hotmail.com> wrote:

Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com> wrote:

Seems there was! I'm just wondering, since thermionic valves and
semiconductors were yet to be invented, just what the hell they were
generating curves of? Anyone care to hazard a guess?

Must have been some interest in non-linear resistances. There were electrolytic rectifiers around about that timeframe too, I recall a 1908
book describing them for battery charging.

Transformers, alternators, and so forth. Power factor, dissipation, saturation, coercivity,….

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal Consultant ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics

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