THE DECCA LEGACY - Wootton Bridge Historical

WHAT ABOUT THOSE SINE WAVES
CHAPTER 17
SOMERTON SHORT STORIES
(Bob Newcombe)
It was the day of a VIP to see the radar system in all its shiny cabinet glory. The MD was there,
marketing was there in their best suits. The technical staff were assembled and all was going well. The
VIP was treated to an extravagant explanation of the functions of the radar system, moving from aerial
control, receivers, signal processing, displays and all. In the corner of the room sat an oscilloscope with
its input leads hanging loosely. The `scope had picked up the characteristic 50Hz signal from the mains
and was displaying it at full stretch on the screen. As they moved from each sub-assembly, the VIPs gaze
was seen to wander at each explanation to the coloured trace on the `scope, and before long the speaker
was beginning to lose patience. “Excuse me Mr. VIP” he said, gesturing towards the `scope, “that is an
oscilloscope displaying sine waves”. “yes yes” muttered the VIP, “I knew there were sine waves, but
until now I never realised they were green!” This story originated from John Flounders.
THE PATTERN ON THE TABLE
One of the senior secretaries in the engineering unit was a very good seamstress. She liked to use her
lunch break in a productive manner. Being a seamstress of course involved cutting out from a pattern and
when a particularly large one was involved she needed a particularly large flat surface to cut out the
material. What better than a conference room table. Here she could work undisturbed in the lunch break
and as she controlled the conference room bookings, she was best placed to use the facility.
Dressmaking tracing paper is a special waxed carbon paper that transfers markings like seam lines and
grain lines, this is placed between the pattern and the fabric to be marked. Tracing wheels having
serrated edges are used to outline the pattern by tracing around the outline and
mark the cloth underneath.
The conference room table was perfect for this task, and on one particular occasion, when the material
beneath was very thin, the tracing wheel’s route was transferred permanently to the table surface. When
the light was shining from the window on a good day and at the right angle, conference room users were
treated to a full size dress outline. That may have caused visiting customers some concern when
discussing the progress of their equipment design.
TRASH and CARRY
The AR3D development radar system achieved a degree of fame as “a state of the art” radar system .On
one notable occasion its presence was felt locally at the Cash and Carry store less than a mile from the
Somerton site.
In order to protect the local population from unwanted radiation from the radar, a system of sector
blanking was used to inhibit the transmitter for safety reasons, and this was set up manually from the
control panel. On one particular day, the sectors were wrongly assigned so that the blanking was not
applied to an area that included the local Cash and Carry store. Imagine their surprise when the tills
suddenly stopped working due to radiation from the AR3D.
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