Environmental impact that telegraph
had on society
By its very nature, many toxic chemicals are used in radio. Although
many of these are still in use today, greater precautions are now taken
and non toxic materials are used wherever possible.
- PCB's Polychlorinated biphenyls, were often used in the maufacture
of the large paper capacitors used in radio, oil filled transformers
and switches.. PCB's are synthetically manufactured chemicals belonging
to a family of organic compounds known as chlorinated hydrocarbons
and are very toxic. To a large extent, these items are now produced
with non PCB materials.
- Cadmium, When I started work at Marconi, Cadmium was commonly used
for the plating of screw fittings. Today the dangers of using cadmium
have been recognised and cadmium replaced by other materials.
- Mercury, The dangers of mercury have been recognised for a long
time.Mercury was often used in radio components with mercury audio
delay lines, mercury wetted relay contacts, etc.
- Lead, Lead has always been used for soldering electronic components.
Lead-free solder is now used in the mass production of circuit boards,
but manual soldering processes still use lead.
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