Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/pc/text/spacedig/v09_4/v9_424.txt

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Subject: SPACE Digest V9 #424

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 9 : Issue 424

Today's Topics:
          Re: space news from March 27 AW&ST
               Re: SPACE Digest V9 #416
   Tesla, X-Rays, photocopying, and the "microwave freezer effect"
         Re: Brilliant (but old hat) Pebbles
         Re: Brilliant (but old hat) Pebbles
           Re: Final Frontier June 1989....EXCELLE
     Hubble Space Telescope, orbit and data format/relay question
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 8 May 89 23:55:19 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (David Robinson)
Subject: Re: space news from March 27 AW&ST

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
| Discovery lands after highly successful mission. [...]
|  [...] A small
| leak in the #1 engine's cooling system was found, which permitted a bit
| of hydrogen to leak into the exhaust; it definitely was not there before
| launch.  The engine will be replaced before Discovery flies again in
| August.  There was an earlier pinhole leak in a similar area of an engine
| flown on STS-26, although the two do not seem related.  The next mission
| (Atlantis) is not expected to be affected.

Is this a similar problem to the cooling problem that caused the first
launch attempt of Atlantis to be scrubbed?  If so 3 failures in this
one system seems fairly high.

--
    David Robinson        elroy![e-mail]     ARPA
                [e-mail]      ARPA
                {cit-vax,ames}!elroy!david      UUCP
Disclaimer: No one listens to me anyway!

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 8 May 1989 10:55-EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: SPACE Digest V9 #416

>     Gerry O'Neill by and large ignores NASA, and SSI and Geostar and
> are doing lots of interesting things.  The effort spent NASA-bashing
> has accomplished nothing comparable.

That's the point. The effort spent NASA-cheerleading has accomplished
nothing comparable.

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 8 May 89 18:51:10 EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Tesla, X-Rays, photocopying, and the "microwave freezer effect"

In "Subject: Re: Tesla,"
att!chinet!mcdchg!ddsw1!corpane![e-mail]
(John Sparks) raises some interesting points about Tesla. I might
characterize these skeptical points as:

1)   Tesla and X-rays
2)   Could documents be photocopied in 1945
3)   The "Microwave Freezer" effect

With regard to X-rays, Margaret Cheney, a Tesla biographer has
this to say:
>
> When Professor Roentgen announced his discovery of
X-rays in December of that year [1894,] Tesla immediately forwarded
shadowgraph pictures to the German, who replied: "The pictures are
very interesting. If you would only be so kind as to disclose the
manner in which you obtained them."
>
> The [Michael] Pupin claim to have been the first in the United
States experimenting with vacuum-tube discharges would have been
unlikely even if Tesla had not preceded him. [...] after Roentgen's
announcement a dozen claims were made to "firsts" in the X ray.
Tesla never made any such claim on his own behalf. [...]
>
> But [according to an article by Noel F. Busch in Life magazine
for July 15, 1946...] "Nikola Tesla took a picture of Mark Twain
under a Geissler tube which proved to be no picture of Twain but a
good one of the adjusting screw of the camera lens. [...] Neither
Tesla nor [the reporter's source for the story, photographer
Edward R.] Hewitt realized until a few weeks later, when Roentgen
announced the discovery of X-rays, that the picture of Twain was in
fact an example of X-ray photography, the first ever made in the U.
S." This is, of course, hardly proof of priority of invention, which
includes more than achieving accidental effects, but it does suggest
how far advanced Tesla's research was at this time.(Cheney, pp.
100-103)
>
So Tesla has at best a claim to have accidentally produced
X-rays in the course of other experiments, without apparently giving
great thought to the phenomena at the time until after the fact of
Roentgen's announcement. Now, if he had gone out and held a press
conference first, maybe he could have applied for government funding in
advance of any substantial results anyway (;-!).

As for the photocopying of documents, Margaret Cheney is quite
specific in saying that these were "photostats:"
>
> [...] between 19445 and 1947 an interesting exchange of letters
and cables occurred among the Air Technical Service Command at Wright
Field, Ohio, in whose Equipment Laboratory much top-secret research
was being performed, Military Intelligence in Washington, and the
Office of Alien Property -- subject, files of the late Nikola Tesla.
>
> On August 21, 1945, the Air Technical Service Command requested
permission from the commanding general of the U. S. Army Air Force
in Washington, D. C. , for Private Bloyce D. Fitzgerald to go to
Washington for a period of seven days "for the purpose of securing
property clearance on impounded enemy property."
>
> On September 5, 1945, Colonel Holliday of the Equipment Laboratory,
Propulsion and Accessories Subdivision, wrote to Lloyd L. Shaulis
of the OAP in Washington, confirming a conversation with Fitzgerald
and asking for PHOTOSTATIC COPIES [emphasis mine] of the exhibits
annotated by Trump from the estate of Tesla. It was stated that the
material would be used "in conjunction with projects for National
Defense by this department," and that all of it would be returned
in a reasonable length of time.
>
> That was the last time that the Office of Alien Property [OAP]
or any other federal agency admitted to having possession of Tesla's
papers on beam weaponry. Shaulis wrote to Colonel Holliday on
September 11, 1945,saying, "The materials requested have been
forwarded to Air Technical Service Command in care of Lt. Robert E.
Houle. These data are made available to the Army Air Force by this
office for use in experiments; please return them." They were never
returned.
>
> These were the full PHOTOSTATIC COPIES not merely the abstracts.
OAP has no record of how many copies were made by those who examined
the files with Dr. Trump. The Navy has no record of Tesla's papers,
no federal archives has any record of them.
>
> Curiously, four months after the PHOTOSTATS had been sent to Wright
Field, Col. Ralph Doty, the chief of Military Intelligence in
Washington wrote James Marham of Alien Property [OAP] indicating
that they had never been received: "This office is in receipt of a
communication from Headquarters, Air Technical Services Command,
Wright Field, requesting that we ascertain the whereabouts of the
files of the late scientist, Dr. Nichola [sic] Tesla, which may
contain data of great value to the above Headquarters. It has been
indicated that your office might have these files in custody. If this
is true, we would like to request your consent for a representative of
the Air Technical Service to review them. In view of the extreme
importance of these files, we would like to request that we be
informed of any attempt by any other agency to obtain them."
>
> "Because of the urgency of this matter, this communication will
be delivered to you by a Liaison Officer of this office in the hope
of expediting the solicited information."
>
> The "other" agency that had the files, or should have had them,
was the Air Technical Service Command itself! Colonel Doty's letter,
which was classified under the Espionage Act, was declassified on
May 8, 1980.
>
> [...] on October 24, 1947, David L. Baselon, assistant attorney
general and director of the Office of Alien Property, wrote to the
commanding officer of the Air Technical Service Command , Wright
Field, Dayton, Ohio, regarding the Tesla PHOTOSTATS that had been
sent by registered mail on or about September 11, 1945, to Colonel
Holliday, at the latter's request.
>
> "Our records do not reveal that this material has been returned,"
said Baselon. He sent a description and asked that it be returned.
>
> Obviously at least one of Tesla's papers had reached Wright
Field, because on November 25, 1947, there was a response to the
Office of Alien Property from Colonel Duffy, chief of the Electronic
Plans Section, Electronic Subdivision, Engineering Division, Air
Material Command, Wright Field. He replied, "These reports are now in
the possession of the Electronic Subdivision and are being
evaluated...." He believed that the evaluation should be completed by
January 1, 1948, and "At that time your office will be contacted with
respect to final deposition of these papers."
>
> There is no written record that OAP ever sought further to have
the documents returned, and they were not returned.
>
So, as far as can be determined, the documents remain at Wright
Patterson to this day. Perhaps Lt. John S. Karabaic
([e-mail]), who posted the first question
regarding Tesla and the book "Fer-del-lance, A briefing on Soviet
Scalar Electromagnetic Weapons", By T E Bearden, and who appears
to work at this self-same Wright-Patterson AFB would care to
comment. Perhaps Lt. Karabaic's boss REALLY has a "sense of humor."

For more information about photocopying at this time (early
1940's) see:

Greenwood, Herbert William.
Document photography, individual copying and mass recording
/ H. W.Greenwood. 2nd ed.
London, Focal Press <1943>  163 p. illus.

SUBJECT HEADINGS (Library of Congress):
     Photocopying processes
LOCATION: GRADUATE LIBRARY
CALL NUMBER:  TR 470 .G82

Since this book is listed on MIRLYN, it may be available from the
University of Michigan via interlibrary loan.

Moving on to the third question, that of the reported condensation
clouds ("microwave freezer effect") reported on the "World of Radio"
broadcast. This question is one which I really cannot resolve, and I
think it must be consigned to the department of rumors unless and
until someone else on the net can corroborate these claims.

Certainly, it is no solution to the greenhouse effect. Even if it is
possible to cool a local area through the use of some sort of Teslian
technology, the net result must still be more entropy in the system as
a whole. "Microwave milkshakes," perhaps, but don't hold your breath.
Other than this, I can offer only one final tidbit from the Cheney
book:
>
> [The magnifying] transmitter, which he developed in Colorado,
he would later claim as his greatest invention. Indeed, it is the
Tesla invention that continues to fascinate many of his modern
followers the most. Whenever and wherever in recent years phenomena
have been detected, resulting from powerful radio signal pulsed at
very low frequencies [a la Project ELF in Wisconsin and Northern
Michigan,] journalists speak knowingly [?] of the Tesla effect. The
Russians, it is claimed, are using a giant Tesla magnifying
transmitter to modify the world's weather, creating extremes of ice
and drought. It is said to cause periodic disruption of radio
communications in Canada and the United States with attendant
brain-wave interference and vague symptoms of physical distress, not
to mention sonic booms [like the New Jersey "airquakes" of the
1970's??] and almost anything else not otherwise explicable.
Indeed,it was this same fabulous invention that Robert Golka in
recent years tried to replicate, with considerable success, at
Wendover, Utah, for the study of ball lightning, in conjunction with
research in nuclear fusion.
>
> But, what exactly was it? [Tesla's explanation, quoted from
'Electrical Experimenter' June 1919:] "...it is a resonant
transformer with a secondary in which the parts, charged to a high
potential, are of considerable area and arranged along ideal
enveloping surfaces of very large radii of curvature, and at proper
distances from one another thereby insuring a small electric surface
density everywhere so that no leak can occur even if the conductor
is bare. It is suitable for any frequency, from a few to many
thousands of cycles per second, and can be used for the production
of currents of tremendous volume and moderate pressure [Tesla often
used fluid-mechanical analogies for describing electricity] or of
smaller amperage and immense electro-motive force. The maximum
electric tension is merely dependant on the curvature on which the
charged elements are situated and the area of the latter."
>
> [...] it is a resonant transformer which, besides possessing these
qualities, is accurately proportioned to fit the globe and its
electrical constants and properties, by virtue of which design it
becomes highly efficient and effective in the wireless transmission
of energy. Distance is then absolutely eliminated, there being no
diminution in the intensity of the transmitted impulses. It is even
possible to make the actions increase with the distance from
the plant according to an exact mathematical law." [!]
>
I hope that persons having more comments, information, or questions
on Tesla will feel free to message me at one of the addresses below.
I hope that this will have addressed adequately the questions raised
by the estimable Mr. Sparks.

*     "Machines only will meet in mortal combat. It will be a     *
*       veritable war of Science" -Hugo Gernsback, c. 1925        *
*                                                                 *
*     Henry Edward [e-mail]                          *
*     Henry [e-mail]                          *
*     "Arbor" on MacNet                                           *
*       Computer Consultant, University of Michigan               *
*       sysop, Arbor Intelligent Systems                          *
*       President, Althing Communications                         *
*                                                                 *
*     disclaimer: "Just say know" -Dr. Timothy Leary, 1988        *

------------------------------

Date: 8 May 89 21:53:00 GMT
From: dogie.macc.wisc.edu!indri!aplcen!aplcomm!stdc.jhuapl.edu![e-mail]  (Jim Meritt)
Subject: Re: Brilliant (but old hat) Pebbles

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (JAMES WILLIAM SMITH) writes:
}Food for thought:  if only one missile per 1000 (or 10,000 or 1E8) gets
}through a Peace Shield, and you want 100 missiles to get through, how
}many missiles do you have to build to reach your goal?

1. More than they have.
2. More than they can afford to build.
3. A larger fraction of the GNP than it takes to defend against with (bigger
marginal cost)
4. Not enough to make it a safe proposition.


More food for thought:
if only one meteor per 100000 gets through the atmosphere, how safe are
you from "the big one", and why not live in a really deep cave?



The above was test data, and not the responsibility of any organization.

------------------------------

Date: 9 May 89 01:23:37 GMT
From: bfmny0![e-mail]  (Tom Neff)
Subject: Re: Brilliant (but old hat) Pebbles

Remember, when the Peace Shield is installed, only the very BEST nukes
will make it through!!!
--
Tom Neff                UUCP:     ...!uunet!bfmny0!tneff
    "Truisms aren't everything."    Internet: [e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: 9 May 89 04:33:16 GMT
From: bfmny0![e-mail]  (Tom Neff)
Subject: Re: Final Frontier June 1989....EXCELLE

The canard that "McAuliffe knew the risks" is really starting to get
my goat. First, neither McAuliffe nor anyone else on the crew knew
what Roger Boisjoly and company at Thiokol knew, which was that O ring
burn through was a tragedy waiting to happen. A fix was in the works
but NASA management was too scared of falling further behind schedule
(and Thiokol too scared of losing its contract) to play it safe till
the fix arrived. Roll tape:

    "MY GOD, THIOKOL, WHEN DO YOU WANT ME TO LAUNCH,
    NEXT APRIL?"    -- Larry Mulloy, NASA, Jan '86

It is one thing to say that the Challenger flight crew, like all
astronauts, knew there were risks.  It is another to realize that
RESPONSIBLE PEOPLE KNEW OF THE O-RING PROBLEM.  The bravery of the
crew was bravery betrayed.

Secondly, even if McAuliffe had personally known the risks, America's
schoolchildren did not -- and they, not Christa, were the point of
Teacher-In-Space. The glib curriculum handouts carried no footnotes of
the form "NOTE TO TEACHER: They may all blow up. If so, turn to page
38." The astronauts-to-be of my generation watched John Glenn and Neil
Armstrong and knew where their future lay. The future astronauts of
2006 have been handed the most exquisitely crushing aversion therapy
anyone could devise. We'll see how they feel (and vote) later on.
--
Tom Neff                UUCP:     ...!uunet!bfmny0!tneff
    "Truisms aren't everything."    Internet: [e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: 9 May 89 06:36:27 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (John R. Galloway)
Subject: Hubble Space Telescope, orbit and data format/relay question

There was some mention recently that data from the HST is passed around via
the TDRSS system.  I assume this means that the HST is NOT in a geosynchronus
orbit, right?

Some time ago during the Pioneer Jupitor fly by I remember some high school
using their dish to pick up the pictures.  These were not direct, but
rebroadcasts from JPL of processed data.  What is the possibility of doing
this for the HST?  In the ultimate it would be really neat to come home
after a long day and instead of mindlessly watching MASH reruns to be able
to tune in and see what the HST was looking at, wow.  What is the data format
of the direct HST transmissions, are procesed images routinely retransmitted
in conventional formats?  I just can't get over how neat this would be, I may
have to go buy a dish if it turns out to be possible.

to other

apple!jrg    John R. Galloway, Jr.       contract programmer, San Jose, Ca

These are my views, NOT Apple's, I am a GUEST here, not an employee!!

------------------------------

End of SPACE Digest V9 #424
*******************