Date:         Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:45:53 -0700
Reply-To:     Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: High beam blue light?
In-Reply-To:  <029701c9a2ab$b81a04b0$6401a8c0@PROSPERITY>
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Oh well, that would be a reference to The Simpsons ("Last Exit to
Springfield," 1993):

Grampa: We can't bust heads like we used to. But we have our ways. One
trick is to tell stories that don't go anywhere. Like the time I caught
the ferry to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for m'shoe. So I decided to
go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So
I tied an onion to my belt. Which was the style at the time. Now, to take
the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of
bumblebees on 'em. Gimme five bees for a quarter, you'd say. Now where was
I ... oh yeah. The important thing was that I had an onion tied to my
belt, which was the style at the time. You couldn't get white onions,
because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...
--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
Bend, OR
KG6RCR



On 3/11/2009 5:44 PM Scott Daniel - Turbovans wrote:

> very interesting Rocket, I stand well-corrected thank you, and all.
> but what's this about 'tying onions on our belts' ? ?
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Rocket J Squirrel" <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 5:20 PM
> Subject: Re: High beam blue light?
>
>
>> On 3/11/2009 4:54 PM Mike S wrote:
>>
>>> At 07:15 PM 3/11/2009, Scott Daniel - Turbovans wrote...
>>>> yeah.........duh.
>>>> if he would have said 'blue hi beam INDICTOR LED in the
>>>> dash'...........
>>>> that would have made good sense.
>>>> It's barely a 'bulb'  after all, unless we want to consider light
>>>> emitting
>>>> diodes as some form of bulb.
>>> No. It's an incandescent bulb, with a blue plastic filter on it. Blue
>>> LEDs weren't commercially available until CREE introduced them in late
>>> 1989, and even then, they were too expensive (over $10, AIR) to use as
>>> a dash indicator on a VW. He said "blue hi beam on bulb," which
>>> signifies an indicator.
>> I thought it was pretty clear, too. An LED is a light-emitting diode, not
>> a generic term for a little round bright thing that glows with a pretty
>> color. The tungsten filament bulbs used on the dash are most decidedly not
>> LEDs. They light bulbs. Menlo Park tech. When we tied onions on our belts.
>> Which was the style at the time.
>>
>> I used them very early CREE pale blue bulbs in a product around '89.
>> Before that, there /were/ blue LEDs, from Tektronix (I think) which, near
>> as I can tell, were used for some kind of visual spectrum analyzer
>> calibration or some darn thing wanting accurate color or tightly-specified
>> wavelength. Those really cost a lot.
>>
>> --
>> Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
>> 84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
>> 74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
>> Bend, OR
>> KG6RCR
>
>