Naked Science Forum
General Science => General Science => Topic started by: DoctorBeaver on 18/06/2007 19:02:31
-
They're not like normal earphones, are they. They're tubes with earpieces on the end. How do they work?
-
They're not like normal earphones, are they. They're tubes with earpieces on the end. How do they work?
They dont normally.:)
-
They're not like normal earphones, are they. They're tubes with earpieces on the end. How do they work?
They dont normally.:)
Good point [:-\]
-
I have never seen them!
-
they did not have a television or
anything, but then again it was a old banana I want to say pan am or american.. back in 1977 was very little airplane .. there were only two going out of here back then if that .. it might have been the only one at that point.. can't remember!
-
Banana? I can just imagine that! [:D]
-
Banana? I can just imagine that! [:D]
we use to call them the big banana! LOL They were painted bright yellow! LOL Fot the life of me I can't remember which airline it was! [:)]
-
Pan-am were blue & white; American are red, white & blue; United are white with a hint of blue; ATA are white & blue with quite a lot of yellow/gold - perhaps it was that airline?
-
No it was one of the others years ago. I will have to ask me sister.. LOL I can't remember I only flew once to Idaho and back stopping in San Francisco .. we made the same trip several times in one day because it was too stormy and when we got here local.. it was too foggy zero visability!
-
I am not quite sure what is being described, but it is possible that if loud speakers were expensive at the time these were popular, the designers were using one speaker in th middle, and funneling the sound along the tubes into both ears, thus saving money.
-
Dave - I think I remember someone referring to them as transponders. Would that be right?
-
A transponder is something that will receive a signal and then retransmit it. So it is possible that they were called transponders if they were amplifying a signal and retransmitting it as sound..?
I think I have worked out what the headphones were, I think electrical headphones were too expensive and probably bulky originally so the solution was to use pneumatic ones. There was a big speaker somewhere in the aeroplane which was connected essentially by speaking tubes to all of the headphones which were just tubes connecting to your ears. So a vibration created by the speaker would get channelled to your ear, I guess the strange shape was a cunning way of increasing the volume or sound quality.
-
That sounds about right. I know they were damned uncomfortable.
-
The electrically driven earphone speakers are in the arms of the chairs.
The headsets are just passive tubes.
This is done so the headsets can be cleaned and sterilised between uses
-
That explains it.
-
It was a good security feature, too; they were useless if you nicked them!
You know what the general public are like.
-
This is absoutely correct; the headphones consisting of tubes were linked to speakers in the arms of the seat. They work in the same way as a doctor's stethoscope. Interestingly the ear-pieces that TV presenters wear use the same system. The "speaker" is hidden at the back of your neck or down your shirt. The cirly bit you plug into your ear is just a tube from the speaker to the ear-piece. Similarly this is (in theory) so you can have have a sterile earpiece for whoever uses the system. It never works like that though. You always end up with something grubby that's been in about 5000 grotty ears...
-
This is absoutely correct; the headphones consisting of tubes were linked to speakers in the arms of the seat. They work in the same way as a doctor's stethoscope. Interestingly the ear-pieces that TV presenters wear use the same system. The "speaker" is hidden at the back of your neck or down your shirt. The cirly bit you plug into your ear is just a tube from the speaker to the ear-piece. Similarly this is (in theory) so you can have have a sterile earpiece for whoever uses the system. It never works like that though. You always end up with something grubby that's been in about 5000 grotty ears...
The amount of money you must be earning these days, you should be able to afford your own custom-made set! [:D]