What to do with a thyristor - a little contest

[waltk]

So I saw this item for sale on Ebay - described as a bunch of mica capacitors - but the picture for the item is clearly a bunch of little three-legged components in metal cans with the markings not quite discernable.  You can probably guess what I was thinking; here's a nice batch of vintage transistors (possibly germanium), and I can get hundreds of them for a few bucks.  So I took a risk, and bought them.

Turns out they are thyristors (otherwise known as SCRs)  .  My question is: How could I use these in a pedal?  I'm not getting my hopes up, but there are some very inventive folks here.

So let's make it interesting...  the best idea posted by 12:00PM (that's noon) EST on Friday 4-30-2010 will win a couple dozen of these beauties.  Just for clarity, "best" is defined as the most useful, or interesting, or inventive - in my own opinion.  I will pay the postage, and ship them anywhere the US Postal Service will accept - including other (non-US) countries.  An actual schematic representing your idea is helpful, but not required if you provide a description of your idea sufficiently detailed to actually implement it.  Just including a link to some other site or page does not count as submitting an idea; you must actually describe it in your post.  The first submission of the same idea wins, but elaboration or development of a good idea might lead to the recognition of multiple winners.  The contest is intended to be fun and informative for anyone who reads the thread, so let's keep it light.

Disclaimer: the rules of contest may change or be clarified in any way at any time at my sole discretion (don't plan to, but if this "contest" idea backfires for any reason...).  The winner will be determined solely by my opinion of the idea.  The offer is void where illegal.  (add any other disclaimers here that are normally associated with contests).  The winner must PM me with a mailing address to receive the prize.

[GibsonGM]

The best I can think of, Walt, is to use one to vary the AC output of a transformer (or maybe even its input!), then rectify the result so you would have a variable DC voltage (for simulating dying battery voltage sag).  Perhaps this idea could be connected to an LFO so that the headroom of :something: is increased and decreased at a regular interval, leading to some weird clipping results....I dunno.

Those babies are hard to find a use for!!! I have a couple, still sitting in their packaging after 10 yrs....

[CynicalMan]

I'm interested. What is the device number of the thyristors?

[waltk]

I was thinking maybe there is some kind of "switching" use for them, as they latch on when you apply a voltage to the gate.

There are several kinds.  Most are in a TO39 package, some in a TO-3, and a few big ones that are embedded in a bolt (don't know the name of the package).

They all have the TI logo, and the most common ones are "W1168" - with various other numbers underneath (date codes?).
I had no luck finding a datasheet for any of them.

Here are some pictures:

[FiveseveN]

I could actually use a couple myself for some monoblock strobes but they would probably need to handle more power than these.
One usual application is PWM, like in light dimmers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lightdimmer_-_rewire_-_compact.svg

[CynicalMan]

Here's some info for the 2N3561;
Various
Silicon Controlled Rectifier
V(DRM) Max.(V)Rep.Pk.Off Volt.=100
I(T) Max.(A) On-state Current=1.6
@Temp. (°C) (Test Condition)=100
I(TSM) Max. (A)=18
I(GT) Max. (A)=200u
V(GT) Max.(V)=800m
I(H) Max.(A) Holding Current=5.0m
I(D) Max. (A) Leakage Current=100u
@Temp. (°C) (Test Condition)=150
V(T) Max. (V)=1.4
@I(T) (A) (Test Condition)=1.6
Package=TO-5
Military=N

[waltk]

Here's some info for the 2N3561

Thanks.

I could actually use a couple myself for some monoblock strobes but they would probably need to handle more power than these.

I also have some like this: