Tattle-Tape hardware

[stormdog]

Work is getting rid of their vintage Tattle-Tape machine and it has parts I would *love* to take home and work with, except I can't work with them right now...

Six *big* capacitors, wired in parallel. Two *huge* capacitors wired in parallel. one big transformer that looks to have more straightforward connections than the big toroidal one I have.

Also, in the giant pile of abandoned stuff we cleaned out of lockers, there was a nice stethoscope. I joked about taking up safe-cracking and Harry reminded that we have a safe. So I spent ten minutes or so listening to it and then read this. I wish I had to time to go through this process and try and open it; it looks like a ton of fun!

Comments

[cmcmck]

What, I ask, is a tattle tape machine?

[stormdog]

It's part of the theft prevention system that a lot of libraries do. The books have a strip of "Tattle-tape" (that's 3Ms name for the product) put inside of them. If they are taken through the security sensor without having that tape discharged, they trigger an alarm. The thing I took apart is the box that activates or deactivates the strips when books were checked in or out.