Today’s Quixotic Quantum Quandary is something that is special, not only for being an osolete relic that somehow managed to be used to great success, but also special for what exactly was accomplished with it. And as such, the correct answer criteria are just a little more strict today, since you can’t just say what it is, we all want to know what it did as well. There will be no babying and acceptinng partial answers today. So hit the jump and take a look, and see if your mind can make the great leap to a conclusion!
If you can’t solve this one solo, here is your hint!
This is the first time the clue pictures have offered so much and the hint picture has offered nothing. I am as benighted now as I was before peeping the hint. At least I know what the thing in the hint pic is.
I looked at some old Television cameras, but no luck. My second guess is sort of this…
http://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/library/pictures/catalo…
or this…
<img src="http://lh6.google.com/fisherwy/R-E88aLXV-I/AAAAAAAAOCQ/D2ZAyClesoc/hogans-heroes Ivan Dixon picture[4]" width="300/">
I got nothin'
Is that a telegraph in that picture from Hogans Heroes? I believe these are parts from one.
Lindbergh's telegraph key. From the hint, I presume it was used in the Spirit of St. Louis.
Here's one of his from a different plane. http://airandspace.si.edu/collections/artifact.cf…
<img src="http://airandspace.si.edu/images/collections/media/full/20030065012Cp04.jpg" width=500>
Is that an Arch-rival photograph?
You are like 66% there, let's just say that the hint is an associative hint to lead you to what you discovered already, and the Q³ is more than just a key…
Well, certainly the second picture is of the radio transciever.
I get some of the textual clues. Lindbergh had no front windshield in the plane because of the front placement of the fuel tank, hence "flying blind". The "great leap" was the crossing, I suppose, as was the reference to solve this one "solo".
<img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516APxN2X0L._SS500_.jpg">
"No babying" is a morbid connection to the kidnapping and subsequent murder, which had nothing to do with the transatlantic flight except for making the victim's family world famous.
But most puzzling to me is understanding exactly where the subject of today's Q³ fits into the big picture. Lindbergh removed the radio for his famous flight in order to save weight. Or is that how this obsolete relic was used to great success?
Oh poop. Perhaps I got carried away with my Lindbergh cues, since they all seem to point towards probably the most famous of his accomplishments. He did some other stuff too, with his wife.
And morbid is such a strong word. Too soon?
Well, certainly if he didn't use any radio on his famous solo flight, then this was one he didn't use.
<img src="http://airandspace.si.edu/images/collections/media/full/A20030065020cp01.jpg" width=500>
Anne Morrow Lindbergh did use it (or something similar–the Smithsonian site indicates it was "representative" of the support equipment) in the couple's 1931 and 1933 world travels, though.
http://airandspace.si.edu/collections/artifact.cf…
Over and out.
Breaker Breaker, Nice job good buddy!
<img src="http://airandspace.si.edu/images/collections/media/full/A20040304031cp02.jpg" width=400>
That is is the one! "Charles A. Lindbergh and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, flew in their Lockheed Sirius aircraft on two significant missions, one in 1931 and the other in 1933. The first flight in 1931 was to the Orient. This flight successfully proved the viability of using the great circle to navigate from the West to the East via the North. In 1933 the Lindberghs again flew the Sirius across the Atlantic, this time on survey flights to gather valuable information for planning commercial air transport routes for the North and South Atlantic."
I understood this to be the radio used in those expeditions, and the 'representative' being that the entire collection represents the effort put forth, by virtue of being actual artifacts from the plane and ground support.
Not as cool really as something affiliated with the actual trans-Atlantic flight, I suppose. You did a good job noodling out my Lindbergh inferences, kudos to you, sir!
<img src="http://atomictoasters.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Q3-No34-Pic-AnsWWer.jpg" width=400>
The Smithsonian link to that radio says "The objects in this collection are representative of these mission support and personal items carried. These objects serve to illustrate the essential equipment that would have been taken on international exploratory flights during the 1920s and 1930s." The collection does include a different receiver and trasmitter it said were carried on the journey, as was the telegraph key I included in my original answer above.
<img src="http://airandspace.si.edu/images/collections/media/full/A20030065011Cp01.jpg" width=500> http://airandspace.si.edu/collections/artifact.cf…
<img src="http://airandspace.si.edu/images/collections/media/full/A20030065010Cp01.jpg" width=500> http://airandspace.si.edu/collections/artifact.cf…
I don't know whether in such a weight and space-critical mission they would have had a backup radio or whether some of this would have been used by their support crew, of course, but my original reading of the museum's description led me to believe the Q³ subject may have been merely old and not necessarily historically significant.
Looks like I took a photo of the wrong radio. That's what I get for not paying attention. I should go back and revise that to say that it 'is almost special, not only for being an osolete relic that somehow managed to be used to maybe facilitate a great success, but also sort of special for what exactly was accomplished in the general vicinity, possibly, of it.'
You didn't take a picture of the wrong radio, the Lindberghs brought the wrong one on their trip. Why take component transmitter, receiver, and bug when an all-in-one was available to them?
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I have a couple of pictures of a piece of antique tech suitable for a future QQQ, but this was apparently the weekend you didn't publish the email address for such submissions. I suppose I could look it up from a previous week, but I'm all googled out after the wild goose chase you sent me on this time. Look for it soon.
HycoSpeed@gmail.com by the way. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that I forgot to add that. I am in the midst of a cross country move and spent Saturday waiting in a gas station parking lot for the truck company's roadside assistance to decide my truck was unfix-able and send me another truck for me to swap my entire truckload of belongings into–12 hours lat-er, as they say in Sponge Bob. The point of that brief tale of woe; I Q³ed from my phone, so mostly I am just happy that the image wasn't this:
<img src="https://forum.kag2d.com/attachments/broken-link-image-gif-jpg.5071/" width=300>
Well, it looks to be a radio telegraph, the key and transmitter/receiver units. I'm sure that many important messages have been relayed through one, but I can't make the association with the St. Louis Arch though.
Perhaps it’s a negative association. The pictured radio telegraph may be very much like the one Lindbergh didn’t use in the Spirit of St Louis when setting his record.
Or perhaps this is the “earth inductors compass” Lindbergh used for navigation.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Inductor_Com…