Sometimes I miss this guy

It's pretty amazing where technology has gone over the last several decades. Back in the late 80's/early 90's I got saddled with running a team of techs in Detroit dedicated to servicing fax machines. We were the redheaded step children of the service organization because no one took the product serious. We had virtually all of the auto industry in the Detroit area and much of the peripheral suppliers, etc. Anyway, the first beasts in the line looked like 1950's Hollywood robots, huge and clunky and sloooooow. On the service end I didn't get much involved in the cost of the units but I swear I recall them being thousands of dollars. You think about the time span where an invention is conceived, implemented, essential, made affordable, disposable and ultimately obsolete (with the exception of medical providers).

Late 70's I bought the first Teac 4 track cassette unit and paid about a $1000 for it (actually it was my first established line of credit). Record 2 tracks at once, woohoo!

I can see the attraction to operating such a beast, especially in a creative environment. Imagery of a steampunk outfit, manically turning knobs while inexplicable puffs of smoke and flashes of flames emanate in the surroundings. In a way Hammond enthusiasts can be a corollary. Pedals, knobs, drawbars. The mechanics of it all can be a contributor to the creative process I suppose.

Yeah, I still have one of those and 2 Leslies to go along with it. I LOVE that thing....and YES, it does sound better than the plugin version which I also have.  Considerably better, and noisier, and it has that wonderful smell of hot tubes and Hammond oil.  You don't get that with a plugin.

i.postimg.cc/QM8gXj15/RT-3-Front.jpg

I felt a shiver down my spine when I saw the Hammond. I remember having to haul one into gigs, often up several flights of stairs. The one I'm thinking of was cut into two pieces, under the keyboard, but still heavy and awkward to carry.

I used a Moog Prodigy and Hohner Pianet for a while in a band when I was playing guitar and keys. Both interesting keyboards in their different ways, and both really easy to carry.

that’s true to a certain degree. First world equipment does upgrade rather quickly, I was mostly responsible for life support equipment, ventilators, Anesthesia ventilators etc. But even then, the old generation Emerson’s were still in use when I retired in 2010.

When they did take an older vent off line I was responsible for them being up to factory specs before they were sold to South America.

I spoke with Dr.Homer Emerson on occasion. He was the inventor of the iron lung, it was one of the fist life support ventilators. The technology is still in use as hyperbaric chambers. I did preventative maintenance and repair on them. 

I had a great conversation with Dr. Bunnell,  he invented the high frequency ventilator. All the other students were nurses learning how to use the equipment. I was there to learn how to fix it and maintain it. So I spent the whole time with Dr. Bunnell.  He got his idea while trout fishing. He noticed as he reeled in the lure that the pressure on the lure diminished as it hit the eddy currents. When he got back to his work shop he inserted trumpet valves into the air flow, using it to break up the air stream. It reduced the air pressure to Zero.

Previous to high frequency ventilation premature infants with undeveloped lungs could not survive traditional pressure ventilation. There are thousands of people alive today because of Dr. Bunnell, including my niece’s twins, Megan is an emergency surgical nurse at the University of Miami emergency room, her boss was a drummer in my band.

Thanks brother. That gig kind of validated my life. I never worried much about working. Every job I took pretty much sucked. I didn't love working in kitchens either but it was never tedious or boring.

A guy I knew living in the same trailer park, set me up with an interview with his boss. He figured I had amazing skills, based on my ability in being adept at assembling the Sears metal sheds. I got the carpenter gig with PSI, a prestressed concrete company. I only fell one floor but I landed on cured concrete.

After some time I got a call from the Carpenter’s union. They scheduled a week of rehabilitation assessment testing. After that week and two day’s they offered me a job in Bio-Medical Engineering. I retired with 30 years of wrenching on life support equipment. In that 30 years not once was a patient harmed by failure of my life support machines.

Jackson Memorial Hospital. 

jacksonhealth.org/locations/jackson-memorial-hospital/