E-books that might be of interest to others

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Re: E-books that might be of interest to others

Postby Ellen Kuhfeld » Wed Sep 05, 2018 11:44 am

To move away from embalming, Sir William Snow-Harris' 1867 Treatise on Frictional Electricity is a magnificent mid-19th-century look at the state and technology of static electricity. I love it.

In my job at the Bakken Library and Museum, I did a lot of repair of 18th and 19th century frictional generators. This was the most useful book in the whole museum and library for that job. (The museum wasn't nearly as kid-oriented when I was there.)

I even made one while I was there: a presentation piece for Earl Bakken. (Actually, I made two. I almost always make two if there's not a great amount of extra work involved. Earl got the one kitted out with all the accessories, while I put the spare generator into the museum collections.) It was a 60% scale replica of a 19th-century generator by Alvergniat Freres of Paris

74-14.JPG


And the bastards didn't even include my generator in their online catalog! I'm pretty sure I accessioned it and entered it into the database. I ought to go down there and raise Hell.
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Re: E-books that might be of interest to others

Postby Té Rowan » Wed Sep 05, 2018 5:52 pm

Neat job. Of course, I don’t need a static generator — I bloody am one. It’s become a habit to touch any metal door or other large object with a knuckle before grasping it.
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Re: E-books that might be of interest to others

Postby Ellen Kuhfeld » Wed Sep 05, 2018 6:53 pm

It's your own fault for hanging around with all those catgirls.
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Re: E-books that might be of interest to others

Postby Spica75 » Thu Sep 06, 2018 11:47 am

It's your own fault for hanging around with all those catgirls.


:mrgreen:

Neat job. Of course, I don’t need a static generator — I bloody am one. It’s become a habit to touch any metal door or other large object with a knuckle before grasping it.


Check your clothing, especially shoes. As an example, a resort i visited a lot when i was a kid, i usually used indoor shoes while not out skiing, but the combination of one specific set of indoor shoes and the floor in one of their large rooms, i could take less than a dozen steps in there and then *zap* someone, VISIBLY literally ZAP, static lightning up to a cm or two that actually made clearly audible noise.
(which of course was wonderful fun for a kid to play around with in a room which was among other things used for dancing in the evenings :twisted: :mrgreen: )

Actually, I made two. I almost always make two if there's not a great amount of extra work involved.


Always. Never ever rely on making a single of anything.

It was a 60% scale replica of a 19th-century generator by Alvergniat Freres of Paris


Cool.

And the bastards didn't even include my generator in their online catalog! I'm pretty sure I accessioned it and entered it into the database. I ought to go down there and raise Hell.


At least a small hell. :wink:
Or the smell of sulphur will get into eeeverything. :P
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Re: E-books that might be of interest to others

Postby Té Rowan » Thu Sep 06, 2018 2:30 pm

Spica75 wrote:Check your clothing, especially shoes.

Oh, I already know. They are a pair of work shoes that didn’t fit the buyer so they ended up on my feet. Sadly, they do not have conducting soles unlike another pair that ‘walked away’ in the past. Those I had bought, both for the steel toes and the soles.

Also, much of what clothing I do find is either a synthetic mix or all synthetic. Not good news.

Location? Oh, boy, ever! It was at the (now closed) local grocer’s I got into the habit of first knocking on metal.

And that leads to another thought: How weak a current can one’s fingertips sense while stroking across a metal surface? I presume it was through electroadhesion. And, yes, I am sure it was a very weak electric current as the sensation disappeared completely when I grasped the check-out counter (all-metal) with the other hand.
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Re: E-books that might be of interest to others

Postby Ellen Kuhfeld » Thu Sep 06, 2018 3:30 pm

There is an apocryphal tale from the early days of computing. Mind you, it was already apocryphal when I met it in the mid-sixties, but I'd been using mainframes since '59.

Anyway, we had a CDC 3100, and a radiation door made of solid ferrocrete which was about four feet thick, seven feet high, four feet wide, and ran on rails. Nobody was able to open it by hand, so it was driven by a rather large electric motor. The door and the computer were maybe fifteen feet apart; and every time we opened or closed the door, the computer glitched. The motor was making inductive spikes in the electrical system, and they hadn't completely desensitized computers to electrical interference yet.

This got us all talking about computer glitches, and somebody mentioned a computer they'd dealt with that was just fine with male operators, but balked at females. They tried many things, and eventually they cleared the computer room and sent in a naked female operator. The machine was happy. It turned out static electricity from the nylon underwear was the problem, and everything was fine once they specified everybody had to wear cotton.

As apocrypha go, this one seems more grounded than most. Depending on your definition of "grounded".
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Re: E-books that might be of interest to others

Postby Spica75 » Thu Sep 06, 2018 5:13 pm

This got us all talking about computer glitches, and somebody mentioned a computer they'd dealt with that was just fine with male operators, but balked at females. They tried many things, and eventually they cleared the computer room and sent in a naked female operator. The machine was happy. It turned out static electricity from the nylon underwear was the problem, and everything was fine once they specified everybody had to wear cotton.


Hah! Actually i dont doubt that at all. Once you get back to at least 70s computers, the sometimes dreadfully bad solutions created some very weird interactions.
When my brother started working with computers at a place where due to continuity they still had lots of older ones still running, they had a problem like that, after relocation a previously flawlessly running system("flawless" as in having run constantly for several years without reset or error) kept throwing tantrums, but only if someone was working in the same room, it never failed if you got it running correctly and then managed to leave the room without causing it to crash.
Apparently the floor interacted weirdly with the most common type of sole on shoes. When they measured, it was so minimal it was within margins of error, but everyone working shoeless in the room and voila, no crashing. They never managed to figure out how it worked or even what exactly interacted with the computer, but static from the floor did generate weird magnetic fields, even if weak.

As apocrypha go, this one seems more grounded than most. Depending on your definition of "grounded".


:mrgreen:


#####
And that leads to another thought: How weak a current can one’s fingertips sense while stroking across a metal surface? I presume it was through electroadhesion. And, yes, I am sure it was a very weak electric current as the sensation disappeared completely when I grasped the check-out counter (all-metal) with the other hand.


I have no clue on exact numbers, but from what i've been told, potentially VERY weak.
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Re: E-books that might be of interest to others

Postby Té Rowan » Fri Nov 23, 2018 5:23 am

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/58319 — “The Story of Paper-making” by Frank O. Butler for the J. W. Butler Paper Co.
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Re: E-books that might be of interest to others

Postby Té Rowan » Mon Dec 03, 2018 7:28 am

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/58391 — “The Engineer’s Sketch-Book” 4th ed. by Thomas Walker Barber (1902)
It’s full of sketches of various mechanical contrivances and thingamabobs.
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Re: E-books that might be of interest to others

Postby Té Rowan » Sun Feb 10, 2019 5:21 pm

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/58756 — “A Manual of Pyrotechny” by G. W. Mortimer (1824)
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48539 — “A System of Pyrotechny” by James Cutbush (825)
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40892 — “The Pyrotechnist’s Treasury” by Thomas Kentish (1878)
That’s the three books I know of from PG on Things That Go Boom In The Night. Of course, there are several ‘underground’ text files on pyrotechnics and fireworks, but whether one is any less likely to blow oneself up with these…
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Re: E-books that might be of interest to others

Postby Ellen Kuhfeld » Sun Feb 10, 2019 5:41 pm

This is not exactly what you are doing, but I'm running a "free e-book" promotion on Amazon for eight books. Just search for Monica Ferris Presents, and there they are.

Feb 04-08 - The Chronicles of Deer Abbey by Margaret of Shaftesbury
Feb 11-15 - Minnesota Vice by Ellen and Mary Kuhfeld
Feb 18-22 - Secret Murder by Ellen Kuhfeld
Feb 25-29 - Murder at the War by Mary Monica Pulver
Mar 04-08 - The Unforgiving Minutes by Mary Monica Pulver
Mar 11-15 - Ashes to Ashes by Mary Monica Pulver
Mar 18-22 - Original Sin by Mary Monica Pulver
Mar 25-29 - Show Stopper by Mary Monica Pulver

Through the miracle of Pen Names, there are only two authors involved. Ellen Kuhfeld is Ellen Kuhfeld; all the other names belong to the writer currently called Monica Ferris. Every book has murders; Secret Murder adds Vikings, barons, bailiffs and Finns, while The Chronicles of Deer Abbey has nuns, lords, ladies, and princes. (both are set in the past). Minnesota Vice has Norwegians, werewolves, and mad scientists.

The remaining books by Mary Monica Pulver are her first series, with show horses and detection. This series received one short, wonderful review: "Peter Brichter is a hard-boiled detective who has somehow wandered into a cozy series."

The free period for The Chronicles of Deer Abbey is over, but everything else will be available for free, sometime in the next seven weeks.
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Re: E-books that might be of interest to others

Postby Té Rowan » Mon Feb 25, 2019 5:22 pm

As far as I am concerned, they are e-books that might be of interest to others. I did send a link to the one of my sisters I know is a Kindle owner.
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Re: E-books that might be of interest to others

Postby Té Rowan » Mon Mar 25, 2019 6:11 pm

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/59118 “Ye Sundial Booke” by Thomas G. W. Henslow.
An ode to historic sundials with figures and mottoes.
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Re: E-books that might be of interest to others

Postby Té Rowan » Wed Apr 10, 2019 5:34 pm

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/59215 — “Rules for a Dictionary Catalogue” by Charles A. Cutter for the U.S. Department of Education (1891)
Always good to know how to classify and catalogue stuff, right?

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/59230 — “Ye Magick Mirrour of Old Japan” by Silvanus P. Thompson for a private club, the Sette of Odd Volumes (1893)
A book about the importance of the mirror in Japan’s Ancient Times.
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Re: E-books that might be of interest to others

Postby Ellen Kuhfeld » Wed Apr 10, 2019 7:45 pm

Té Rowan wrote:http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/59230 — “Ye Magick Mirrour of Old Japan” by Silvanus P. Thompson for a private club, the Sette of Odd Volumes (1893)
A book about the importance of the mirror in Japan’s Ancient Times.

Oooohh, Silvanus P. Thompson! I've read some of his books on electricity, and found them very good. This one, I just downloaded - with the pictures. Thompson is more fun with the pictures.
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