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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear WW: I remember having a lot of fun with static electricity. At Christmas air in house was very dry because there was not provision for humidifying it. Bouncing a air inflated ball perhaps ten inches in diameter on wool rug would build up quite a charge. Holding finger out to unsuspecting patsy would make spark almost an inch long jump to him. When I worked nights in high priced mental hospital, and with rubber soled shoes scuffed along very expensive rug whole length of corridor, and then touched my massive door key to one of my buddies, he would jump a mile. I once made a fairly good Vandegraf generator after seeing one at Science Museum. If you know a youngster likely to be interested, instructions can be found on Internet by typing "Vandegraf static electricity generator" into Yahoo! search box.
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
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Wow, thanks, Dr. Bill, and Keiva too. Electricity is something I have always shied away from, including learning about it. Really learning, I mean. Isn't it amazing how our interest in a subject affects our learning of it?(hi, N)
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
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Dear Keiva: One of the unsung heroes or our modern electrical industry was a Brit named Samuel Insull. He first worked with Edison, but later with his own money got General Electric to build in Chicago a much larger power station than had been thought possible. He deserves the credit for making electricity in the home possible. I read a book that said he was wrongfully charged with fraudulent stock dealings that caused millions of dollars to be lost by investors. The book says the real culprit was J.P. Morgan, who was trying to get control of the industry.Insull also turned General Electric into the giant we know today.
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Joined: Oct 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dr bill--re:Insull also turned General Electric into the giant we know today. Neutron Jack (Welsh) of GE might take some issue with this. and those of us who live near the Hudson, and have a case against GE poisoning our river with PCB's would be just as happy if GE wasn't such a giant.
Insul might have been a good man, Neutron Jack and GE are not good neighbors.
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Joined: Aug 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
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dr. bill (and anyone else interested): Electric City is a pretty good book, currently in print I believe, on Insul and the development of the electric-generating industry. It does get a bit wordily thick at times, however.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear of troy: The tragic thing about the PCBs is that it took so many years to discover their dangers. It is so inert chemically it was quite reasonably assumed to be harmless.
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old hand
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old hand
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Thinking about Mr Insul/Insull. Tell me his name is a coincidence - nothing to do with insulation.....
stales
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Dear stales: shame on you. Insull really got a dirty deal. J.P.Morgan so diddled the stock market, where crookedness was very easy in those days, that investors panicked and sold out, causing Insull to go into bankruptcy, and as a crowning insult (sic) be labelled a crook. My enclopedia practically calls him a swindler. When I first heard of him fifty years ago he was called a swindler. He made a contribution of monumental proportions, and gets no credit.
Keiva spoke of early advocacy of a generator in every home. Terrible idea, inefficient, massive pollution, even dangerous. There is talk now of home generators run by fuel cells. Great for boondocks and third world, but suggesting it in big cities is insane.
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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In reply to:
There is talk now of home generators run by fuel cells. Great for boondocks and third world, but suggesting it in big cities is insane.
Where do you think the big cities are, Dr. Bill? Jakarta Raya (Greater Jakarta) had a population of 10 million last I heard.
Bingley
Bingley
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old hand
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old hand
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By the way, isn't the word armature also the term used by sculptors for the wire frame they sometimes construct to hold whatever materials they may lay upon the armature to flesh out their forms?I suppose a lot of you know that packaging on all products in Canada is bilingual. When you go bra shopping, boxes labelled underwire in English are labelled armature in French. This causes my mother and me no end of giggles!   It sure feels like "armature" is a better word for it sometimes!
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