See subject. I dreamed it last night. It was this vacuum tube-looking thing next to the NVidia video processor.
(Or any other liquid, to expand the dream.)
Thanks,
Leo
Mineral Oil.
You can submerge an entire computer (except the hard drives I think) inside an aquarium filled with mineral oil.
There are liquid cooling systems.
Although it’s not what you asked, you can submerge the components in mineral oil to really cool them and it works just fine.
Short answer is yes.
I have an electronic inclinometer (level) which the safety warning label essentially says “do not subject to freezing temperatures as the sensor is water-filled.” Although it is against my nature, I haven’t taken it apart to see how it works.
As part of the circuit?
[Self hijack: in general analog components are old hat. a Question: how long have analog components been used? Save for hijack or new OP…]
All components are analog…
So, what you are asking is, “what was the first electronic circuit?”
Do you consider motors to be "electronic?’
How about electrostatic generators?
Or, spark-gap radio receivers/transmitters?
Aaah! Please read my edited post before I timed out:
But as part of the circuit?
[Self hijack: in general analog components are old hat. a Question: how long have analog components been used? Save for hijack or new OP…]
I just thought of all the MEMS gas sensors on a chip (“artificial noses”). “It"s just plumbing,” as my idiot managing editor at an electronics magazine said when initially vetoing a masterful professional article.)
I remembered I also worked with Koch and his awesome analog VLSI lab at CalTech (in an article by him on artificial vision).
A winner. No, thankq!
electronics is often defined as having an active component, e.g. tube, transistor or IC. electrical components, e.g. resistors, capacitors, inductors are in both electrical and electronic circuits.
there are fierce fights over galena.
Analog is a stupid name. Even digital circuits are both analog and analogue. They use either voltage levels or current flow as analogues of logic values. “Analog” is not the antonym of digital. Sadly common use has made it so.
As to the OP. The Cray-2 must rate as one of the best examples of the idea.
Well, I don’t need no stinking chemistry like Pollak in 1886. Stuff like that comes to me in visions. Plus I still like the image of a mini skyscraper vacuum-tube next to all the chips. Steam-punk EE?
I don’t know the word “galena.” Are you talking arguments like about Atlantis (nd chicken/egg or galena surfaces, which I looked up? Classic place for comic error on my part…
galena is a mineral, lead sulfide, which can have semiconductor properties.
For consumer products, your best chance what zoid mentions. Nothing else in common (or uncommon) use AFAIK contains any liquids at all. The smallest oil-filled transformer I could find was still the size of a trash can.
If you take apart an electrolytic capacitor (which I coincidentally did last month for reasons) you’re going to find (basically) a tightly wound strip of slightly damp paper. I wouldn’t classify it as a liquid.
except mercury.
Just try and find a consumer electronics product with a component containing mercury!
Motherboards with integrated cooling have been around for about 6 years now. Current is not sent directly through liquid but liquid is sometimes sent through the CPU.
I realize it’s not a liquid-filled bulb like the OP dreams of, but the important characteristic of the electrolyte is that as a liquid, it can get into much closer contact with the metal on the other side of the oxide layer than you could get with a solid. See this picture at the link. The capacitance between the purple damp paper and the metal foil will be much smaller than the capacitance between the green liquid portion and the metal foil. There’s both a larger surface area and a smaller gap.
