I don’t mean what you use to chop down your feces, but an object that you realized only your family has and people would raise their eyebrows at. Best if said object has a sole purpose.

  • raubarno@lemmy.ml
    87·
    1 year ago

    Well, if it counts, we have a homemade potato grating machine from the Soviet times my grandfather has made because he was a genius and partly because of Soviet Union. It draws a lot of energy, emits a lot of noise (seriously). To turn on, it has two buttons, one for capacitor or something, another for the motor itself and, nowadays, I have no clue which one I should turn on first, left or right… It stands on three legs and weighs around 10 kg (old transformers were heavy). It produces good results, though, despite looking odd.

    • drlecompte@discuss.tchncs.de
      413·
      1 year ago

      Nornally first the capacitor and then the motor. The capacitor is there to absorb the power surge when the motor starts up.

        • skyspydude1@lemmy.world
          11·
          1 year ago

          If you’re on single phase power, you almost always need something like a start capacitor, at least for large-ish motors. It doesn’t really have anything to do with the reliability of the grid, and moreso how single-phase AC motors work.

          If that is a start capacitor, OP might actually want to shut it off once the motor is running, as they’re typically not meant to run continuously. Usually, there’s a mechanism that disconnects the start capacitor once the motor is up to speed, but it’s not strictly necessary

        • Hedup@lemm.eeEnglish
          41·
          1 year ago

          I wonder how their opa figured this out. Did he try it out and encountered problems when starting the motor? Then maybe got suggestion to add a capacitor?

            • 4am@lemm.ee
              41·
              1 year ago

              It’s not like people in the USSR we’re all uneducated or something. Like, they knew how electricity worked, same as in the west.

              Man the red scare propaganda really does live on.

              • raubarno@lemmy.ml
                2·
                1 year ago

                Engineers are needed in all modern societies, capitalist or socialist.

                Engineering education was really good. I read some Physics and some Math textbooks, and they are amazing. Same goes with Chemistry.

                On the other hand, History education was all about how kings and grand dukes were bad, and how Lenin was great. Same goes with Arts, Literature and Philosophy (I once stumbled upon a book that says how class warfare was among the Greek elite, Plato was bad idealist and Democrites and Aristotle were good because they comply with the Marxist Materialism. And that was in a Math history schoolbook!) Plus a lot of discrimination, children of Party members were given good grades, even if one looks for Japan in the Africa (a real case). Ethnical discrimination (Russian chauvinism) also existed, the idea that “everything was made by Russians” and silencing the other USSR and foreign nations’ achievements. We see a war in Ukraine as a continuation of this idea.

                But, going back, yes, people knew knew how electricity, space travel, nuclear power and particle accelerators worked.

                EDIT: mismatched closing delimiter

    • joelfromaus@aussie.zoneEnglish
      17·
      1 year ago

      Reminds me of the joke I heard from the TV series Chernobyl. From memory:

      Q: What weighs 2 tons, emits lots of smoke and noise and cuts apples into 3 pieces?

      A: A Soviet machine designed to cut apples into 4 pieces.

      • Godric@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 year ago

        “What’s big as a house, burns 20 liters of fuel every hour, puts out a shitload of smoke and noise, and cuts an apple into three pieces?”

        “A Soviet machine made to cut apples into four pieces!”