Why disappeared metal "W" and "E", familiar to us from childhood

Every boy in his childhood had found a strange metal plate with the letters "W", "E", and sometimes "P". Their origin was shrouded in mystery, but their use, no problems. Backyard kids made up dozens of these undertakings with the tin cans, which brought incredible joy, though sometimes ended with injuries. Modern kids you won't find these strange artifacts, and we will tell you why.

An important advantage of metal letters was that they flew perfectly. Launched with a deft hand like a boomerang, such a "W" with a whistle cut through the air and deftly cut the leaves of the trees and even thin branches. Another advantage of these things was that they were easy to transformation. Bending them with his bare hands, and violent children's imagination and helped to connect the parts in intricate designs.

Already in high school mysterious atmosphere of metal letters was dispelled. Physics lessons to pupils told the device electrical transformer and it became clear that the letter is only a part of the steel core of the device.

In baby hands got plates from the small transformers from appliances — televisions, tape recorders, radios. In some types of equipment they were several, of different sizes. A large variety of serial transformers, provided the boys as tiny plates, the size of a large postage stamp and impressive, as two hands of an adult.

Plates could be not only with the letters "W" and "E". Produced transformers and other parts, but they were found much less frequently in the hands of squirt almost fell. The biggest transformers operating in power plants and industrial plants, also contained the plates, but they were huge and so the streets are not lying.

On the street part of the household of the transformers found themselves on the most banal reason — they are burned out and threw them away. Electrical item failed with "special effects", releasing a cloud of white, like a vapor of smoke and suffocating smell of wax and burnt enamel.

Often the transformers repaired — this process is called forward. On a steel core, replaced the coil of thin copper wire using special equipment or hand tools, for example, a drill. The experts know how to rewind a transformer, highly valued, because to buy a new, desired brand in the country, the total deficit was not always.

But sometimes the device was not subject to repair and end up in a landfill. Rarely threw the TV or radiogram — in such cases, hams without embarrassment was removed they need details directly into the trash, and transformers, with the very same plates were not used. They sometimes twisted copper wire having at least some value, and the core of iron cast in place showdown.

Today a rarity, as CRT TV, turns on the garbage area is very rare. Modern televisions use compact switching power supplies with transformers on ferrite cores. They have no steel plates.

Well, if some grandpa decides to get to the dump your old "Electron" or "Birch", the wipers will quickly clean up the machine that contains a lot of valuable non-ferrous and rare metals. Therefore the letters "W" and "E" forever disappeared from our courtyards and modern kids know nothing about them.

Unfortunately, with the advent of digital technology, children lost and many other joys that were available to us.