Object Record
Metadata
Catalog Number |
2018.0011.0097 |
Object Name |
Transistor |
Description |
A 2N3415 NPN Transistor. The top of the transistor is black plastic and shaped like a top hat. The front portion is flat, while the back is rounded. Printed across the rim of the hat portion in white is "2N3415". Descending from the hat portion are three silver colored wires/nodes. The right wire descends straight, while the other two are bent outward slightly before descending straight down. |
Date |
late 1960s |
Provenance |
Donor's stepfather Vernon Grimes helped develop the beep ball while volunteering for the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind in the late 1960s. Charles Fairbanks, an engineer at Mountain bell, initially came up with the concept and first prototype of the ball by placing a battery powered phone ringer into a softball. Grimes and other volunteers from the Telephone Pioneers of America (a non-profit comprised of retired phone company professionals) improved upon the device to make it usable to play a version of baseball for the blind and hard of sight. To fix the problem of the ball and interior electronic components breaking when being hit by a bat, the ball was inserted into a large 16-inch softball. The inside electronic parts became more refined with the addition of two electric circuit boards and more powerful batteries. With the improved ball, the sport became popular with its first World Series taking place in 1976. Beep Ball follows the basic rules of baseball, with some alterations such as a closer pitchers mount and a smaller field without a second base. |