Re: geography nerds?

On Sunday, in article <T_mwj.73283$Ly.70309@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
     karljohanson@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 "Karl Johanson" wrote:

> "mike weber" <fair****tfan@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote
> > On Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:30:34 +0000 (GMT), dbell@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > ("David G. Bell") wrote:
> >
> >>This is, incidentally, how a crystal set works. A very strong radio
> >>signal (helped by a long aerial), a diode as detector (the original
> >>crystal), and the headphones which only responded to the audio. Oh, an

> >>a
> >>tuned circuit so you could listen to a particular transmitter.
> >
> > Don't even need a tuned circuit; as i recall reading, various spots on
> > the crystal can react somewhat differently.
> >
> > I once read a "scientific things to do for kids" book which included
> > making a "crystal radio" out of a blue steel razor blade, a pencil
> > lead and a safety pin.
> >
> > John W Campbell once published a little squib in Analog which claimed
> > that US Navy radio operators using crystal sets Way Back When had
> > discovered that adding a second "cat whisker" contact wire and feeding
> > a low DC voltage to it improved reception - they had no idea why, and
> > apparently it was an accidental discovery.
> >
> > What iw was basically an application of the transistor principle
> > thirty or so years before the invention of the transistor.
> 
> Woo. As major as thinking up geostationary satellites, but not patenting

> the idea.

I remember digging into the transistor history a few months ago, on a 
mailing list dealing with an alternate history setting. There were pre- 
WW2 patents. And the actual invention could as easily have been 
attributed to somebody else. It seems several people were working in the 
same area.

It's a bit like radar--a pre-WW1 patent, and simultaneous rather secret 
invention in several countries as WW2 loomed. But the patent has several 
elements on completely the wrong track, and they would never have been 
able to detect the echo with the tech they had at the time.

And there were other pre-WW1 patents which didn't hold up for the basic 
reason that, at the time of the patent, the tech wasn't there. For 
instance, dropping a torpedo from an aeroplane, when no aircraft, other 
than a zeppelin, could lift the weight.

-- 
David G. Bell -- SF Fan, Filker, and Punslinger.

On the horizon, a carrier task force of the Salvation Navy was 
turning into the wind, preparing to launch Zeppelins.