From Adam Quantrill
Crispin Piney states that silicon rectifiers were used in the DEUCE in the 1950s (1 May, p 33). This seems a bit early for silicon technology, and besides silicon diodes don’t smell much when they burn out.
He was probably thinking of selenium rectifiers, which pong to high heaven when they burn out, as one did when I was a lad and tried to use my Hornby train set power supply to power my first induction coil.
Cambridge, UK
