A note for North American readers

A note for North American readers There are only a few differences in the terminology of electronics bet­ ween Europe and North America. Where such occur, for example, plate for anode in Chapter 3, I use both terms. The term anode or plate in any case goes back almost to the beginning of the century, when transadantic communication was slow and travel less common. With more modern terms, such as base, emitter and collector, the usage is uniform throughout the English speaking world. Indeed the English terms often show up in this disguise in other languages: for example, before being replaced by * sweeper', wobbulator turned up in French as wobbulateur and in German as wobbelgenerator. Component types are another matter. Whereas in North America JEDEC (2N-—) numbers predominate, in Europe Pro Electron numbers are conmion. However the big semiconductor houses on both sides of the Atiantic, e.g. Motorola and Philips, nowadays each produce devices under both numbering systems. Chapter 3 uses both types as examples. The data books of all the major device manufacturers give cross reference tables of exact or near equivalent devices between the two systems, and between those and their in-house numbers — examples of the latter will also be found throughout the book, e.g. in Chapter 8. There are doubdess many minor differences of usage of which I am not aware — and of course almost everyone has his or her own pet way of transliterating names like Chebyshev — but whilst these may sound odd to the American ear, I hope they will not in any way obscure the meaning.