Tag: Patient things
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One huge point
The latest article by Charles Hugh Smith makes one HUGE point that I haven’t heard before. It resonates deeply. The one huge point: AI is winning because the people in charge of making decisions NO LONGER HAVE A QUALITY HUMAN PRODUCT TO COMPARE WITH. The deciders don’t know how shitty the new offshored or AI’d…
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Bell’s photophone experiments
In the 1880s Bell and his collaborator Tainter performed some experiments using light and heat to generate and carry sound. They wrote up the trials in a little monograph Upon the production of sound by radiant energy. Bell was the consummate speech scientist. He thought like a larynx and experimented like a larynx. A larynx…
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GenRad and pinfeed part 1/4
Last month’s tech history piece on the Standard pinfeed invoice machines reminded me that chart recorders also used the same pinfeed system, along with the more familiar dot matrix printers. The Standard began as THE STANDARD: Chart recorders bring me back to old home territory, GenRad. General Radio in Boston started as a regular maker…
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GenRad and pinfeed part 2/4
Continued from Part 1 re-introducing GenRad. = = = = = GenRad’s chart recorder followed a common pattern, with the usual GR extras to satisfy peculiar needs. The common pattern was a pinfeed drive for the paper and a solenoid controlled by negative feedback pushing the pen back and forth. The pen was driven by…
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GenRad and pinfeed part 3/4
Continued from part 2, the more modern chart recorder. = = = = = Moving a pen back and forth requires a fair amount of force. It was always possible with mechanical signals like an aneroid barometer, or strong electrical signals like a telegraph. Morse’s 1840 telegraph used a moving pen. But a delicate signal…
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Genrad and pinfeed part 4/4
Continued from part 3. = = = = = In between GenRad’s strange photo-film oscillograph in the ’20s and its own pinfeed chart recorder in the ’50s, GR collaborated with Esterline. The Esterline pinfeed chart recorder was the standard in many industries. It was tough, portable, and simple to use. GenRad made a signal conditioner…
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Astrolabes in the news!
Astrolabes don’t hit the headlines often, to put it mildly. Here’s a news item about a newly discovered connection of an old astrolabe. = = = = = START QUOTE: As Gigante began to study the astrolabe – a scientific tool which dates from 11th century Spain and is used to chart stars and other…
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Back to Maragha again 1/2
I’m trying to reconnect with inspiration after a long dull winter. I’m mostly old and weary after four years of world holocaust, and partly distracted by “hurry up and wait” dealings with my courseware publisher. The project is all done now, so I no longer have to keep my mental desk clear for sudden final…
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Back to Maragha again 2/2
Continued from part 1. Christoph Scheiner’s magnum opus is Rosa Ursina, published in 1620. The title, roughly the Bear’s Rose, is an extremely poetic and sycophantic dedication to his patron, Virginio Orsini, Duke of Bracciano. The bear, of course, is the patron’s name, and Scheiner waxes lyrical about the vast mind and infinite morality and…
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Obsolete?
Recently I focused on the role of gelatin in printing. Got curious. With all the current fads and “laws” about vegan and GMO and gluten-free, you’d think gelatin had long since been replaced by synthetics. Has it? Nope. Gelatin isn’t a very large part of industry in monetary terms, but it’s steadily GROWING, gaining new…
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Already scriptable
I enjoy reading Protos accounts of the bitcoin swindlers. Protos started as a pro-bitcoin advocate, then gradually wised up and turned into a more objective reporter. Nice to see a company DIverging instead of CONverging into a crime. Stories about Craig Wright are especially entertaining because nobody takes him seriously by now. There’s no risk…
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Protons
Bloomberg’s reporters had fun with the elderly Supreme Demons, who evidently don’t spend much time on social media. The court was dealing with a case where an asshole wanted to block Trump from blocking the asshole’s tweets, because Trump is Trump and everyone knows that everything Trump does is evil because it’s Trump, even though…
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Reminds me of
Another of those Natl Assn of Mfrs films. This one is mainly about uses of ultrasonics. Many of them are familiar now, detecting flaws in aluminum or embryos, and cleaning surfaces. Here’s a use that didn’t seem to go anywhere, but the experiment is dramatically effective: Ultrasonic sound breaks up fog and smog. Reminds me…
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TVA part 1 of 4
I did a tribute to WPA last year. The Tennessee Valley Authority was another of the New Deal’s giant perpetual improvements to America. TVA and the smaller Bonneville Power Administration continue even now as the sole illustrations of government working like a business. Both still make a profit from selling electricity. They create real value…
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TVA, part 2 of 4
I’ve been putting together some digital replicas of TVA’s model city at Norris, obviously not trying to include the whole thing! Here’s the top view of the street plan with a scattering of houses. The original was somewhat denser, but nowhere near ‘walkable’. Norris was named for Senator George Norris, who had been pushing the…
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