A 555 on your breadboard!

I stumbled across the page looking for comparator circuit.....

This is easier

That's what I'd call "right down to the bare metal".

Or for a little neater job,

from Si.
Tom_J

I think that this is a case of too much free time with nothing better to do. I remember having to model a triple nickle in school with discretes... Still a monstrous waste of time.. IMO there isn't a lot except the output drive (100 mA) that can't be done better with a Tiny13.

Doc

Or someone just wanted to try for the challenge. Why turn a lamp on a lathe? What a monstrous waste of time.