Life's Inspirations

35 years ago I was inspired by a nineteen year old coed, She inspired me to me get up one elbow and ask her to marry me. She said yes, I am still inspired.

"to me get up one elbow"

Whatever happened to "get down on one knee"?

I am always being inspired by what is around me...

I like restoring old measuring instruments and some of the tricks and details these engineers put into the designs have me gasping at the ingenuity of them - Now probably long since passed on.

Most recently I restored an old very accurate set of balance scales which used the 'drop ring' to set weights...

Taking it apart was an amazing experience, to see how much time, experience and dedication had been put into even the smallest detail was inspiring.

6 years ago I was repairing and restoring an old LCR bridge, when I looked inside, not only was it a work of art, but it had toroidal transformers in and I was sat there wondering what on earth they were used for...

And so began my fascination with ratio transformers - a very old type of measuring system but with accuracies that were decades better than anything new!!!

I can honestly say I can't remember once at university being told about these remarkable devices!!

That is why I say I'm being inspired almost everyday by some of the old fashioned things which are or can be so much better than a new instrument!

John.

decades, a pun, great!

I don't think he was trying to be punny (pun intended). Ratio transformers are used to calibrate digital voltmeters in standards laboratories and can be a decade or two more accurate than the DVM.

Sometimes inspiration comes from within.

I am a ham radio operator. I used to listen to and check into a local net on a 2M repeater on Sunday nights. One time, then Net Control Operator asked everyone why they checked in. He had been the only one to run the net for some time, and he was getting tired of doing so. He had very few new people checking in, and most of the regulars were talking about the same thing every time.
I told him I checked in to see if I could, to see what I was capable of doing with my equipment. I live on the edge of the repeater's coverage area, and I use handheld transcievers that usually operate at 5 watts or less. I often face challenges getting into repeaters in my area.
The Net Control Operator came back and said, "That's what ham radio is all about!"

As a ham, I have worked on antenna designs, and used one of my designs in hunting hidden transmitters (foxhunting) and in tracking balloons with ham radio transmitters aboard.

Like Electroman, my experience was in taking apart and restoring a 100+ y/o combination gas and electric chandelier. The ring at the bottom center was a progressive switch which would turn on one bulb for each 30-degrees of rotation and then turn them all off when it turned the final 30-degrees of its complete circle. A good way to provide just the amount of light desired, at full fuel efficiency. Also, the entire chandelier was still in working condition when it was discovered in an attic of the old mansion.

--JMM

25 years back when i was in college and waiting for a bus..i saw this beggar approaching me and asked if i had some change...

I tried to get change out of my tight jeans front pocket and took few extra seconds to fugure out the lightest coin to give......by the time i removed my hand he moved on....leaving me with all my money intact....i was defeated by a beggar...

I always thought that you don't have to be rich, to be rich.

Ethics/morals...should be the guiding spirit for life and not just making money which remains stuffed in some corner of some bank.