I was so mischievous when I was a kid. A quality that I am sorry to admit that have withered as I grew up.
The first thing I remember experimenting with was the tap of the Diesel barrel in the terrace of our house when I was two. When I didn’t like the taste of the oil derivative I ran crying to my mom. She panicked when she saw me. I learned later that it wasn’t because of my intake of the hazardous material. It was because she had rightly guessed that the tap was left open after my foray into the terrace.
I think it’s the curiosity. I was so bloody curious and inquisitive about anything and everything. I bit on the chess pieces at the age of three before eventually learning how to play at the age of five. I literally destroyed three transistor radios for my father by the age of six because I was intrigued by my cousin who was studying electronics at the time and was himself intrigued by the little black, cockroach-like pieces called “ACs” (or RCs.. I don’t recall exactly). And I then started collecting these pieces like gems. It was not until later that I realized they those tiny chips were of no use, they were destined to be used in one type of circuitry and hardly useful anywhere else.
But my pursuit of electrical magic didn’t stop there. Once when I broke apart a cassette player I thought I had a better use for the low voltage motor which is normally used to spool the tape. I envisaged a prototype design in my head and set to work on it. I must have wasted a ton of cardboard boxes in the process of getting the design right. You know, at the age of 7, a drawing board is out of question. But by the end of the painstaking process I had a toy car.
The car was simple and pathetic, but it worked. Four water tap rubber washers were stuck at the both ends of two thin steel rods that were extracted from another toy car. The motor was fixed to a recess in the underbelly of the car body (which was a mix of wooden chips and cardboard). From the motor ran two tiny wires to the surface where the batteries were mounted. The switch would come later. I had to subcontract my cousin to do that bit for me.
Now the part that I was so proud of was the transmission gear. Around the protruding tip of the rotary engine was a plastic reel; I kept that one in there. I’ve also exploited the rubber band (which is usually looped around the motor reel inside the cassette player) to transmit the turning momentum of the motor to the rear wheels. Another reel was centrally placed through the rear rod and glued in place.
When I was satisfied with my work, and in the Name of The Almighty, the Most Gracious, the most Merciful, I wrapped the spliced wire end around the copper extension of the battery cradle. I of course had to keep my finger on the rear wheels to stop them from rotating uselessly in the air.
Voalla!
The ‘car’ jerked forward and started bumping over the uneven tiles of the terrace. But that was not the only reason why its track was askew. One of the washer-turned-wheels was slightly larger in circumference than the other. That little variance did wonders to warp the procession of my little invention. It had eventually crashed into the wall. The damage was substantial to both the structure and the gear. Although from the look of things my experiment was akin to Nasa losing the Challenger (minus the human loss of course). But I was nonetheless proud of my achievement.
I’ve made a [toy] car!
Now when my douchebag of a cousin stepped in and over my entire project, he added few little tricks. He installed a little switch and a mechanism to reverse the placement of the battery (a move which I sullenly learned would reverse the rotation of the motor thus reversing the car itself). He had also brought a better skeleton and body; a former plastic toy car that was made devoid of its entrails. (I thought of that earlier but didn’t have the money to just buy one and spoil it). Now the new, shiny body came along with new wheels as well. I must admit it was an impressive work on my cousin’s part.
The first thing I remember experimenting with was the tap of the Diesel barrel in the terrace of our house when I was two. When I didn’t like the taste of the oil derivative I ran crying to my mom. She panicked when she saw me. I learned later that it wasn’t because of my intake of the hazardous material. It was because she had rightly guessed that the tap was left open after my foray into the terrace.
I think it’s the curiosity. I was so bloody curious and inquisitive about anything and everything. I bit on the chess pieces at the age of three before eventually learning how to play at the age of five. I literally destroyed three transistor radios for my father by the age of six because I was intrigued by my cousin who was studying electronics at the time and was himself intrigued by the little black, cockroach-like pieces called “ACs” (or RCs.. I don’t recall exactly). And I then started collecting these pieces like gems. It was not until later that I realized they those tiny chips were of no use, they were destined to be used in one type of circuitry and hardly useful anywhere else.
But my pursuit of electrical magic didn’t stop there. Once when I broke apart a cassette player I thought I had a better use for the low voltage motor which is normally used to spool the tape. I envisaged a prototype design in my head and set to work on it. I must have wasted a ton of cardboard boxes in the process of getting the design right. You know, at the age of 7, a drawing board is out of question. But by the end of the painstaking process I had a toy car.
The car was simple and pathetic, but it worked. Four water tap rubber washers were stuck at the both ends of two thin steel rods that were extracted from another toy car. The motor was fixed to a recess in the underbelly of the car body (which was a mix of wooden chips and cardboard). From the motor ran two tiny wires to the surface where the batteries were mounted. The switch would come later. I had to subcontract my cousin to do that bit for me.
Now the part that I was so proud of was the transmission gear. Around the protruding tip of the rotary engine was a plastic reel; I kept that one in there. I’ve also exploited the rubber band (which is usually looped around the motor reel inside the cassette player) to transmit the turning momentum of the motor to the rear wheels. Another reel was centrally placed through the rear rod and glued in place.
When I was satisfied with my work, and in the Name of The Almighty, the Most Gracious, the most Merciful, I wrapped the spliced wire end around the copper extension of the battery cradle. I of course had to keep my finger on the rear wheels to stop them from rotating uselessly in the air.
Voalla!
The ‘car’ jerked forward and started bumping over the uneven tiles of the terrace. But that was not the only reason why its track was askew. One of the washer-turned-wheels was slightly larger in circumference than the other. That little variance did wonders to warp the procession of my little invention. It had eventually crashed into the wall. The damage was substantial to both the structure and the gear. Although from the look of things my experiment was akin to Nasa losing the Challenger (minus the human loss of course). But I was nonetheless proud of my achievement.
I’ve made a [toy] car!
Now when my douchebag of a cousin stepped in and over my entire project, he added few little tricks. He installed a little switch and a mechanism to reverse the placement of the battery (a move which I sullenly learned would reverse the rotation of the motor thus reversing the car itself). He had also brought a better skeleton and body; a former plastic toy car that was made devoid of its entrails. (I thought of that earlier but didn’t have the money to just buy one and spoil it). Now the new, shiny body came along with new wheels as well. I must admit it was an impressive work on my cousin’s part.
After couple of triumphant trials, he took it away.
Rotary low-voltage motor (typically used for cassette players)
Assortment of water-tap rubber washers.
An here's to my ultimate inspiration, the one and the only : Inspector Gadget!
