Ronald E. Madsen, Jr., December 31, 2024
According to my father, Ronald Earl Madsen, Sr., I frequently followed him around when he repaired or modified the electrical system in our house, even though I was only around seven years old at the time.
I eventually brought a flashlight to him and asked him how it worked. Rather than give me a simple, most likely useless answer and quickly dismiss me, my dad built a small electrical project board using a sheet of plywood and a sheet of Masonite pegboard, attached at right-angles to each other.
The project board included an electric bell, salvaged from some sort of do-it-yourself home fire alarm kit. A rusty electric motor was also present, most likely rescued from an automobile junkyard. The rusty 4-blade fan that went with that motor was not attached to it at first, but it was stored somewhere in the house. A couple of years later, attaching the fan made the motor far more fun and far more likely to injure a careless finger.
Two substantial knife switches were attached to the plywood, with their heavy white porcelain bases, black insulated handles and thick copper contactors in plain view. There’s nothing quite like a knife switch to make the concept of a switch instantly apparent to a curious child. One of the knife switches could only be closed or open, thus merely on or off. The second switch was fantastic, providing two switches mechanically linked together, with three possible positions for the moving contactors. I later learned the technical designations for the contactor configurations: Single-Pole-Single-Throw for the on/off switch and Double-Pole-Double-Throw for the more amazing one.
A miniature light socket was attached to the pegboard, with a miniature light bulb threaded into it. As with the other components, it was easy to see how its electrical connections were made.
For electrical power, my project board had two options: a lantern battery or the AC transformer for my American Flyer electric train. The transformer was most interesting, because it had a red pointer dial on top, allowing the output voltage to be adjusted. Bells could ring softly or loud, motors could spin slowly or fast and little light bulbs could glow dimly or bright.
Using some annoyingly fragile and thin aluminum bell wire with red insulation, Dad taught me the basic concept of an electric circuit. He also taught me to fear the dreaded short-circuit, which could damage my train transformer and possibly set the house on fire. It wasn’t until a few years later that I finally learned why it was called bell wire. A few years later, I also got to see what happens when you accidentally short out your American Flyer train transformer and fill the basement with strange-smelling smoke.
I played with that project board at least until I was twelve, with a bell ringing, a motor spinning, a bulb lighting up. I learned far more than just how a flashlight worked. I’m very glad my father went a little overboard in answering my simple question.
In the 1980’s, I provided an electronics tutorial program at The Utah Children’s Museum. The young students I hosted got to build project boards, with plywood and Masonite pegboard sheets I had pre-cut to size. Theirs were not quite as amazing as the one my Dad invented for me.