16b Edison Capital Punishment – Alexander Skinner

Thomas Edison was considered the all-around expert on electricity in his day.  During the electricution trial periods, especially the Kemmler execution, there was a large debate on if Edison and Westinghouse’s positions were ethical.  The point that I believe is important to look at is the basis that the two men positioned themselves on. Particularly, Edison’s position was not ethical in my opinion.  Thomas Edison had the prestige to override opinions of a large majority of people. But I would argue, Edison was not qualified to make the assumptions that he made.  If any man were to agree with Thomas Edison’s position on execution through electricity they would need to completely understand the physical and medical effects of electricution.  At the time, no one completely understood the effects of electricity on the human body.  Though men on both sides of the case made many great arguements, the only way to prove that electricution execution was an ethical way to execute a man was to provide definite and clear proof of the proper and safe voltage to use for a painless and quick death.  Westinghouse stood on the opposite side of the fence than Edison, and argued against the execution.  Though Westinghouse may not have argued against it for the same reasons as I do, he understood that no man including himself could provide an accurate definition to the problem that eletric execution provided.  The problem was what electric shook would cause an instant (quick) and painless death.  The law states that you can not enforce cruel or unusual punishment on any criminal.  And what we saw in Kemmler’s execution was down right cruel.  The lack of understanding in electrical effects on the human body provided the strong posibility of a mess up in an execution.  And of course, the strong posibility occured for Kemmler.  Though Kemmler was a terrible human being,  Edison’s prestige and lack of developmental though in his arguements brought him a terrible execution that no man deserves no matter the case.

Tesla and the AC Motor – Alexander Skinner

Nikola Tesla was able to succeed in the invention of the AC Motor though a unique method.  The AC Motor used two different currents that were alternating.  This was efficient because the AC electricity was better than the DC electricity.  Tesla was an engineering geneous.  Tesla  changed the world with his invention of the AC Motor.

Memory – Alexander Skinner

The earliest digital computing devices used delay line memory.  Delay line memory, like our modern dynamic random access memory (DRAM), is a refreshable memory.  This means that information can be stored into a capacitator then be deleted to have new information stored into that capacitator.  The key difference between delay line memory and DRAM is the order at which information can be stored. 

In DRAM the order at which information can be stored into any capacitator is completely random and non-sequential.  If you were to look at a set of ordered capicators in DRAM, for this example I will use C1 through C3 meaning there are three capacitators, you could move information from C1 to C2.  Also, you can moved information from C1 to C3.  In DRAM you can move information to any capacitator in any order you like.  In delay line memory you can not do this random memory transfer technique that DRAM uses. Using the C1 through C3 example, delay line memory would have to move information from C1 to C2 and only then could that information make it to C3.  This means that delay line memory is completely sequential.

The main advantage that DRAM has over delay line memory is the requirements and efficiency.  Because of the random technique of DRAM, it only uses one capacitator and one transistor per bit of information being stored.  The delay line memory requires exponentially more capacitators and trasistors depending on the amount of bits to be stored in the memory.  Not only would the size needed to store the same information on the DRAM be incredibly smaller, but also the speed at which memory is accessed for computing is so much faster.

Micron Trip – Alexander Skinner

The Micron Trip had its ups and downs.  To start the trip, we were given a powerpoint presentation.  The presentation was well prepared and quite informative. I learned just how big the company Micron is.  Micron is a leading computer chip manufacturer in the world, with branches across North America, Europe, and Asia.  The main competitor that Micron has is IBM.  Although IBM is a household name and a much larger company, Micron manages to stay competitive with IBM from year to year.

During the trip I was given the impression that the type of engineers needed at Micron were mainly electrical, chemical, and mechanical engineers.  I am majoring in computer engineering, and I am not sure Micron would be a place that I would persue a future in internships or employment for this reason.  Although Micron may not be the place for me, the Manassas Micron site was a very nice facility.  The Manassas site actually has a fabrication lab that  manufactures the products that Micron makes.   In the fabrication lab they have over-head robots that moves the wafers from machine to machine.  The use of the over-head robot system did not come into play until the recent years when the switch to bigger wafers was made.

Overall I enjoyed the trip to Micron.  I learned many technical aspects to the computer chip industry from Micron.  I enjoyed seeing the multi-million dollar machines in action actually creating the computer chips.  I also enjoyed seeing that a smaller company could grow to compete with well-known companies like IBM and Apple.

How Transformers Work – Alexander Skinner

The Transformer is used in an AC (alternating current) system as a “secondary generator”.  The first transformer was created by Michael Faraday. The AC system uses very high voltages unlike the DC (direct current) system, and therefore must have a device that will lower those voltages to usable levels.  The Transformer steps in and lowers the voltages in the AC system in order to power small devices such as an individual incandescant light bulb.  The Transformer has a primary, and a secondary in it.  The primary is a copper wire that is fed electric current.  The electric current fed through the primary creates a magnetic field. The secondary is a copper wire that intercepts the primary’s field of force.  When the primary and the secondary interact, self-induction occurs. When the primary and the secondary are coupled just right a very high self-induction will occur.  At the time of Michael Faraday’s ground breaking transformer invention, no one quite understood how and why to couple the primary and secondary perfectly.  It took a man like George Westinghouse to realize the geneous of the transformer.  Westinghouse realized that the transformer could potentially revelutionize the world. As it turns out, Westinghouse was right.  The transformer plays a key role in the AC system and Michael Faraday invented one of the greatest electrical inventions in history.

Electric Nation – Alexander Skinner

I thought that the documentary, Electric Nation, sent a strong message that I learned from a lot.  The film showed what life was like directly after Edison’s great work, and how America took electricity and applied it to its cities.  The thing that Edison knew about the light bulb and electricity in general that no one else had been thinking of was the generator.  Without the generator the electricity could not been run.  So naturally as the cities such as New York City were wired they had a generator about every mile.  After a while they learned that the generator they were using worked at the small to medium size they had made it, but it could not be built into the very large size that they were looking to build.  This is when they Samuel Insull had General Electric build him a very large turbine, that ended up working.  Because of this innovation, the price of electricity was significantly lowered and able to be sold to everyday families.  Insull also did another thing, he sold shares of stock out to ordinary people thinking that not only would it benefit the company but also it would benefit the average day man.  At the time, only the richest people and business men owned stock.  The american people loved the idea of holding stock, and many people bought it. Well unfornately for the american people and Samuel Insull, the stock market crashed soon after and the great depression hit us.  The stock that the people invested into became nothing but worthless paper.  Insull was accussed of being a criminal at his old age, and he fled the country to various locations.  Eventually Insull came back and faced charges in the court of law.  Insull was found innocent of his charges and walked away a free man that could live safely in his country again.  Near the end of the film we see President Roosevelt pushing for privately owned electricty in America.  Luckily, Wilkie was a strong pusher for public owned electricity and he won that battle.

Edison, the Man – Alexander Skinner

Watching this film on Thomas Edison was actually entertaining, because of the comedic side that was presented to us of Edison.  Edison was presented as a shy man to the reporters, but a very sharp and outgoing men to those he knew well.  Edison was also portrayed as a extremely discipline man regarding to his work.  He would work for many days away from home with just a few cat naps to keep him going.  And another interesting side of Edison was his charming side.  He charmed his future wife and gained her love.  But then he neglected her once he was married and working hard with kids.  Also, Edison was portrayed as a good father, which from Jill Jonnes book, Empires of Light, we see a different father that neglected his kids just like his wife.

Edison’s work ethic in this movie was shown to be that of a man that loved his work so much more than anything else in life nothing else could even compare.  His love for his own family seemed to not even come close to that of inventing the things that revolutionized the world.  Edison was shown to work 18-22 hour days frequently and always push his workers to do the same.  But, he knew how to push his works so that they would work long and hard.  Edison would stop every now and then to play on the organ and sing with his workers.  Or maybe every now and then they would all ride the train togther for fun.  Edison gave positive encouragement to all of his men and that is what kept them all going so long and so efficiently.

Lastly I think that this movie might have over done the drama side of Edison’s life.  As far as the having a woman drop a coin on the ground to pay for his dinner and that sort of thing, that seemed over done to me.  I appreciated some of it for the movies sake, but it really seemed to be all for the entertainment side of things and not really for the reality side of things.

Edison – Alexander Skinner

Edison was a man who did his research.  He knew from studying other people that the route of low resistance in the incandescant light blub was just not cutting it.  So Edison dediced that using a very high resistance, and a relativilely low voltage he could make a very practical light bulb.  Knowing ohms law was step one in this process for Edison.  He knew that E = I * R, which is voltage equals current times resistance.  Manipulating this formula for I read I = E/R, which is Current equals voltage divided by resistance.  The plan for Edison was to use around 200 ohms of resistance, and around 110 volts of voltage.  In our formula Edison simply plugged these numbers in to get 110 = I * 200. Manipulated as we did early we get I = 110/200.  Roughly this is around 1/2 amp of current.  This amount of amps is a very practical and efficient way to effectively light the world.

Engineering Specialities – Alexander S

I choose computer engineering for a definite reason.  The reason being is I have a strong backing in mathematics and also a deep love for technology and computers in general.  I have a lot of family that have choosen engineering, and it was always the biggest choice for me as far as a degree would be.  When I was about 10 or 11 I started really enjoying the computer.  I wanted to learn as much as possible, and ever since then I have been working on and learning about computing.

As far as the real world goes, I would love to work for a government defense contractor as a computer engineer.  I want to be cutting edge, and develop helpful things for the defense agency.  The feeling of doing something that serves a great cause, and at the same time do something I enjoy so much is  the best of both worlds for me.

My biggest weakness would be speaking to a large audience.  In a smaller crowd I have no problem talking and expressing my ideas freely.  But once I am on a stage, with a microphone, speaking to a group of people I definately become cautious and nervous.  I plan on taking some public speaking classes to conquer that fear and become an overall better communicator.

Edison Miracle of Light – Alexander S

What I learned from watching the film was more about Edisons personally than his life acheivements.  I think that a lot of people can list off most of Edison’s greatest inventions and acheivements, but I am not quite sure as many people could deeply describe Edison as a human being.  Edison was very hard headed, and stood strong in his beliefs.  He was the person that defended his opinions and choices to the fullest extent and would argue for ages that he was correct.  This is seen in the popular AC versus DC eletrical war.  Westinghouse manufacured AC devices and could acheive stronger effects than Edison.  But Edison would argue that his DC running devices are far safer.  In the end we all know that AC turned out to be the current for the future, but Edison would keep his position his entire life.

Thomas Edison not only stood strong in his opinions, but also knew how to keep his team in a positive spirit.  Edison was a master of moral.  He knew early on the best way to keep his team working harder and longer was to keep there spirits high.  He would let his men talk about how great they were doing, even if the work was not working as it was suppossed too.  He would stop and sing songs with his men at the organ.  The are examples of how Edison made sure that even though his team was highly worked, they did it out of pleasure.

Lastly to touch on Edison and the hats.  I believe that Edison was truely a master of all four hats.  This is why he is the greatest inventor in all of history.  But if there is one hat that really stood out to me, its the artist.  Edison manipulated and tweaked his inventions thousands upon thousands of times to finally come up with the solution he was looking for.  His patience was incredible, and his minds eye could see all the posiblilities for solutions with amazing precision.  Edison knew how to adapt in certain situations, and he knew how to be creative.  To me, Edison might be one of the most creative thinkers we have known in our history to date.