[Jukebox-list] A better understanding

[Wesley Dean]

    I have taken the liberty to stray today. 
    I have always believed that to better understand the workings of any device is to delve into the motives of the designer. Start by asking yourself WHY? 
    For instance why did Wurlitzer abandon a perfectly reliable mechanism to use one that was very hard for servicemen to understand.  If you examine the last good mechanism on the 3300 series, you will see that the mechanism could not be placed any lower in the cabinet when the trend was to produce low profile cabinets. 
    The obvious answer was to use a different mechanism. They opted to use a design that the German Wurlitzer people had been using for some years. In their efforts to correct this disaster, they made small changes each year until they gave up and stopped trying. 
    The German technology was too alien for the American servicemen. Other American juke manufacturers used designs that were easily adapted to the new trend. That may be why all of them survived longer than Wurlitzer. 
    One problem with most mechanical devices is inertia. Once anything is rotating and is required to stop precisely and not randomly requires some method of braking. With AC motors either a kick-out armature or some kind of stop is used. What is rarely used on AC devices are dynamic brakes, while most everybody uses on DC motors. I have often wondered about this. Now the automotive engineers are using this principle in hybrid designs. The inertia of a vehicle of this type is directed back into the energy storage devices.  
    I am trying to start some controversy among you people. Wes