Electronics at Hogwarts

[sbursztynski]

No: HPFGUIDX 158539

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Bruce Alan Wilson" <bawilson at ...> wrote:
>
> Anent the car, how much of its inner workings (as opposed to the outer controls
> and appearance) was still the original Muggle car that Arthur acquired?  It may
> be that all of the internal workings were magically powered--after all, there is
> no mention of stopping for 'petrol' (and how would they have bought any; it
> isn't as though they carry Muggle money, much less a credit card, around!)
> 
> Hogwarts' express looks like a steam locomotive, but I hardly think that the
> 'fireman' was really shoving coal into the firebox.  Similarly, Slughorn's
> record player may have looked like a gramophone and the Weasley's wireless set
> may have looked like a radio, but I hardly think that the really played through
> friction on the disk by the needle or the other by vacuum tubes.  These and
> other post-Seclusion machines would have been things that the WW learned of
> through halfbloods and muggleborns and reverse-engineered to do what the muggle
> contraptions did, and to look like they did (for the benefit of any stray
> muggles that might see them, or the comfort of muggleborns/halfbreeds), but not
> WORK like they did.



> 
> BAW
>

Sue:

Interesting discussion. Well, they couldn;t have worked the same at Hogwarts, at least, 
because Muggle technology just doesn't. It has a sort of magical 'dampener field' against 
Muggle technology - which is presumably why the car is running wild in the forest, a living 
thing, and why Sirius's motorbike, apart from flying, can hold a normal-sized person like 
Sirius and a gigantic one like Hagrid. And if you or I were to turn on the radio, we sure 
wouldn't hear the Weird Sisters playing! Makes me wonder why, given that they have all 
this other stuff that resembles Muggle technology, they can't use a Wizard-style phone 
instead of having to stick their heads into the fireplace to communicate (imagine being a 
Wizard teenager and not being able to spend hours on the phone... NO ONE could possibly 
kneel for ages on the edge of the fireplace). And how sad for them that they don't have 
computers and a Wizard Internet - imagine what Hermione could do with that! :-)