[sdiy] finding Lecaine schematics? anyone from canada?

[Colin Hinz]

On Thu, 4 Jun 2009, Dan Snazelle wrote:

> hey there

Hey there right back....two and a half years later. Postponed e-mail
has been POSTPONED, it seems.

But you had some questions and I have some answers, which may (still)
be of interest to you or anyone else here.

> i have been REALLY into hugh lecaine lately and the thing that upsets
> me is there are websites and books and cds of his work
> BUT not schematics at all. a block diagram or two but nothing really useful.
>
> I contacted the museum that has some of his stuff and they sent me here
>
> http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/4/7/m15-399-e.html
>
> but that is the Canadian Library/Archives. To get things from them you
> either have to GO there and photocopy stuff or
> redraw it, OR if you know exactly what you are looking for you can pay
> 40cents a page for copies.
>
> the problem is they have all his journals,etc and i am not going to pay
> hundreds of dollars just to get a bunch of stuff
> that isnt what i am looking for.
>
> SO...I was wondering if first, anyone had any experience with Lecaine
> or with the archives.
>
> Maybe there is a guide somewhere? or access to a card catalog online?
> (i couldn't find anything specific on what was in the many
> pages of notebooks they have. i am sure much of it is GOLD though.
>
> I really am after stuff on his stuff from the 60's and early 70's but
> anything would be cool.
>
> anyway.....just more things i need to find
>
> thanks

Okay, easy answers first: I visited the Archives for a couple of days
in August 2001, and found enough material of interest to require a
$80 purchase of archival photocopying.

What's in the archives is the sum total of LeCaine's personal papers.
As far as I can tell, Trudy LeCaine (his widow) donated the whole
kit-and-kaboodle to the archives, and they've organised it nicely
but literally everything's there, from school yearbooks to a glossy
brocure for a Jaguar XK150 which has been rubberstamped in numerous
places, "This expenditure is strictly unavoidable and the public
interest will suffer if the expenditure is not made." (I wonder
if the N.R.C. still uses this rubberstamp?)

What is NOT in the archives is anything from N.R.C. itself, unless
it was a copy that LeCaine brought home for his personal files. So....
a "how to build it" guide for any of his famous instruments? Nope,
not there! I was told that the N.R.C. had their own internal archives
and that such material *might* be available there. I haven't yet
pursued this, I confess.

There are, however, numerous published papers, either from the N.R.C.
or in other journals, which describe aspects of the instruments, and
include some simplified schematics and block diagrams.

There's also the "circuits file" -- an archive box of circuits from
both LeCaine's lab and elsewhere, often with supplemental notes,
measurement data and graphs. To me, this is the "gold" in the archive.
I've got copies of several of the circuits but there's a vast amount
that I had to pass up.

I've been meaning to try building some of the circuits. They're not
hard, provided one has a source of germanium transistors, and an
RTL logic gate or two....

- Colin