My interest in "what makes things tick" began when I was about 5 or 6 years old. I took apart many old (and not so old) clocks, both wind-up and electric. Soon I started slaughtering 5 tube broadcast radio receivers, then any kind of appliance. I remember a great Magnavox receiver that had shortwave bands, lots of high quality air-gap variable capacitors, and a Magic Eye tube. I had received a Gibert chemistry set for christmas and I spent many days in the basement at my father's workbench doing the experiments in the book that came with it. I liked melting Sulphur (it's a yellow solid that melts into a dark blue liquid). My favorite concotion was called "Green of the Grass" and involved Sodium Ferrocyanide and some other chemical I have forgotten... I wanted to be a chemist when I grew up! I also played with Tinkertoys, an Erector Set, and Lectron, all of which I still have. I discovered that I could go to the library and read books about all sorts of practical technical subjects like car repair, bicycles and motorcycles. The 629.xxx numbered section was my favorite, along with anything by Alfred Morgan, and The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments, which is probably my favorite book of all time. I remember the school librarian saying that I couldn't check it out any more until I read some other things. I understand an original copy is now worth a good bit... My father died when I was 7 and my Mom tried to keep me amused by taking me around the back of TV repair shops, and scavenging the hopeless cases that had been discarded to take home and dissect. I also remember going to Barney's Garage in Alexandria, VA and talking to the mechanic, and he gave me some old hydraulic valve lifters which were cool because they had a tight fitting piston inside that was spring loaded, and held in by internal wire clips at the top of the bore that I finally managed to get out with needle nose pliers. I especially liked the lifters because they were heavy and precise and obviously important. I think I threw them out sometime in my thirties... Once I got hold of my father's socket set I started taking apart old lawn mower engines and any other machinery that I could get hold of. I took the fenders off my 24" Schwinn bicycle because I thought it looked racier that way, although it was messy to ride when it was wet. I took old baby carriage wheels and orange crates and scrap lumber and made "go carts" to ride (coast) down the hill to the bottom of the cul de sac on the street where we lived. In 1971 we moved to Eldersburg, MD and I set up my father's workbench and other tools in the basement.