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Shot tower

en.wikipedia.org

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Re: Shot tower

#21

Post by stiff »

jessevdk wrote: post #2

You can try something similar to this (although more related to the older barrel technique) at home with a soldering iron . Melt some tin at the tip while holding the iron at a sufficiently large enough height over a glass of water. It takes some practice to make nice round balls, but it works!

Loosely related anecdote: in a technical electronics high school my teacher showed us, as a cool trick to impress us, how to actually solder this way - you make a nice little ball from tin with the soldering iron, put it over the first pin of a multi-pin chip and let the ball freely fall through the other pins. It takes a lot of practice, but bits of tin stick to pins forming proper soldering joints and the (somewhat smaller) ball continues to fall. If you are good at it it's really faster then soldering each pin separately.

Re: Shot tower

#22

Post by marpstar »

I've lived in Dubuque, IA (there's a picture of our shot tower in the article) my entire life, and assumed that everyone knew what these were. It's a iconic symbol in our city's history. I guess I took them for granted.

Re: Shot tower

#23

Post by Killswitch »

marpstar wrote: post #22

I've lived in Dubuque, IA (there's a picture of our shot tower in the article) my entire life, and assumed that everyone knew what these were. It's a iconic symbol in our city's history. I guess I took them for granted.

I currently live in the Dubuque IA area, and felt the same way (I moved here in 2002 from Wisconsin)

Re: Shot tower

#25

Post by lmgftp »

In the most restrained and calm way possible, I'm wondering why this is on Hacker News at the moment...

A Wikipedia article, concerning a technology that is effectively ancient and indisputably outdated, seemingly with no relevance to any recent events in the tech world, or the greater world in 2013 for that matter.

Occasionally it seems as if one could do "Random" Wikipedia click [0], find something marginally interesting, and post it here. It's strange that this would be the case, but I suppose the points voted on suggest that the community is interested in the subject. Don't get me wrong, I read the article and found it interesting, just to learn a little something new about history, but I then wondered how it could possibly relate to HN, and I went back to re-read before commenting as I was certain I must've been missing something regarding how this article relates to some current event / technology.

Edit 10:42EST, to restate the purpose as it seems people neglect to realize I too found it interesting and are saying "but it's interesting, I personally enjoyed it", please see the below sentence (Copied from above paragraph for clarity). This comment wasn't about personal interest, it's a question of relevance.

---

Don't get me wrong, I read the article and found it interesting, just to learn a little something new about history, but I then wondered how it could possibly relate to HN, and I went back to re-read before commenting as I was certain I must've been missing something regarding how this article relates to some current event / technology.

---

Ninja Edit: Note! The following will direct you to a random wikipedia page, may be NSFW. Follow at your own risk.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random

Re: Shot tower

#26

Post by sspiff »

lmgftp wrote: post #25

In the most restrained and calm way possible, I'm wondering why this is on Hacker News at the moment... A Wikipedia article, concerning a technology that is effectively ancient and indisputably outdated, seemingly with no relevance to any recent events in the tech world, or the greater world in 2013 for that matter. Occasionally it seems as if one could do "Random" Wikipedia click [0], find something marginally inter…

While it may not be news, and it may not be immediately useful or directly applicable, I found this a fascinating process, and a good illustration how something very simple can be a very effective solution.

Re: Shot tower

#27

Post by skwirl »

lmgftp wrote: post #25

In the most restrained and calm way possible, I'm wondering why this is on Hacker News at the moment... A Wikipedia article, concerning a technology that is effectively ancient and indisputably outdated, seemingly with no relevance to any recent events in the tech world, or the greater world in 2013 for that matter. Occasionally it seems as if one could do "Random" Wikipedia click [0], find something marginally inter…

I'll take it over another self important blogger's take on the NSA. I found the article to be interesting and enjoyed it.

Re: Shot tower

#29

Post by jscheel »

Ok, I get it, not HN material. But, write a blog post about creativity and simple solutions in startups, using shot towers as an illustration, and boom goes the dynamite. This post requires us to use our imagination and extrapolate to get the point, I guess.

Re: Shot tower

#30

Post by sambeau »

lmgftp wrote: post #25

In the most restrained and calm way possible, I'm wondering why this is on Hacker News at the moment... A Wikipedia article, concerning a technology that is effectively ancient and indisputably outdated, seemingly with no relevance to any recent events in the tech world, or the greater world in 2013 for that matter. Occasionally it seems as if one could do "Random" Wikipedia click [0], find something marginally inter…

In a most restrained and calm way I must also point out that the Guidelines have this to say about What to Submit:

  On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting.

  anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.
and they also say this about complaining about submissions in comments:

  Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission
  is inappropriate for the site.
They are silent about pointing out the guidelines in comments on comments that complain about submissions.

:)

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