Capital Punishment – Eric B

I believe Thomas Edison’s postition on electrocution was very unethical. Capital punishment should occur for one and only reason, that the person being executed was convicted of a crime worth being executed for. People should not be able to benefit in any way from such a terrible thing as capital punishment, especially financially. However, Edison used capital punishment to try and discredit his competitor George Westinghouse and gain further success in the electrical industry. By helping to implement Westinghouse’s alternating current into the electric chair Edison sought to show the great dangers of AC and convince the public to invest in DC because it wouldn’t kill people. In Empires of Light Jill Jonnes gives an example of Edison’s position on the issue “Arrayed on the DC side were, of course, Harold Brown and Thomas Edison, both delighted that a human being was to be officially and specifically electrocuted with the ‘man-killing’ Westinghouse generators.” Although Edison was without a doubt one of the greatest inventors and most brilliant men of our time, his business decisions were sometimes not thought out very well and also unethical.

Edison Electrocution – Eric B

The public relations campaign of Thomas Edison and Harold Brown against alternating was, in my opinion, very unethical. Although I am not necessarily against the experimentation of animals, I believe that it should be done in a way that is strictly scientific and not just to prove a point to the public. I believe that this business move by Edison had both its benefits and set backs. Because the public viewed Edison as a know-it-all wizard, they believed him for the most part on anything he said and therefore, by showing the execution of a fairly sized animal by alternating current to the public would, convince them that if AC was unsafe, then DC must be safe. But this move also discredited Edison, in my opinion, and made him look desperate because the reason he used the defend his direct current was that it was less dangerous than ac. A better approach would have been to focus on the positive aspects of DC and why it was better than AC.

Any form of electricity can be hazardous if used inproperly, that is why companies must take the necessary actions to design a safe and consumer friendly product. Edison may have been right that AC was more dangerous, but that should only mean that more measures should be taken to make it safer especially if the positives outweigh the negatives.

Memory – Eric B

Delay line memory was used in the earliest digital computers. It was a type of refreshable memory that was serial access (sequential). Delay line memory works by having tubes of mercury that store and sending in pulses then having the other part of the memory decode the pulses. Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) is used in most modern memory devices. It works by storing each bit of data in a separate capacitor in an integrated circuit. Like the delay line memory, it is a refreshable memory, but this is also a preventative measure because if power is not refreshed in a capacitor, they will leak charge and lose data. Neither memory can store data once power has been turned off.

Micron Trip – Eric B.

I found Micron a very interesting facility and maybe interested in pursuing  an internship or possibly future employment there. Micron was a much bigger company than what I thought it was. During the tour we learned about the history of Micron and how they make the products that are used in many household devices. They manufacture chips that are used by companies such as intel, sony, apple and many more. Not only is Micron one of the leading chip manufacturing comanies in North America, but it also has branches in Europe and Asia.

I was not satified, however, with the tour itself. Even though they showed us the very expensive and intricate equipment they use, I thought that the tour would have been much more then going from window to window down a long hallway. But overall i would have to say that the tour was very informative and i would like to look further into gaining an internship or maybe even furture employment with Micron.

Tesla Master of Lightening – Eric B

The documentary Tesla Master of Lightening was a very interesting and informative movie. It explained how Tesla grew up with the dream of going to a good school to study electricity and how he wanted to eventually harness the power of the Niagra Falls and use it to generate electricity. His dreams would eventually turn to reality as grew into one of the most famous inventors of all time.

Tesla came to America to work for the great Thomas Edison in hopes that they would be able to accomplish great things together. He eventually came up with the AC motor and knew that it would be much more efficient than DC. But, Edison was convinced that DC was much better; this dispute between the two great inventors led to Tesla’s departure from Edison Electric and he went on to open his own labs so he could perfect his AC motor. Once his AC motor was complete, the advantages of AC over DC became apparent to many people. One them was George Westinghouse who decided to buy all of Tesla’s patents and use them for his company.

Tesla went on to complete many more great inventions. One of them was the first radio/remote controlled device, which he tried to sell to the US Navy. This would not be the only device he tried to sell to the government. In his later years he continued experimenting with transferring electricity wirelessly and developed a device that would lead to the first the radio. He soon began developing more theories of the wireless tranfer of electricity, but he was unable to make any of them work. Then Tesla began developing a something that he thought would end wars by allowing all countries, weak and strong, to defend themselves; a “death ray”. This was another vision of Tesla’s that was never fufilled. He began to look like just another crazy old man in the eye of the public and eventually died in poverty.

Electric Nation – Eric Burns

Election Nation was a very informative documentary about the developement and spread of electricity across the US. It showed how electricty was first distributed everywhere in a dangerous power line network until Edison came up withh the idea over putting them underground. Then there was the issue of how they could make electricity cheap eneough to spread it to middle class also instead of just the very wealthy. One of Edison’s workers named Samuel Insull believed getting people involved in the stock market would help electricity become more affordable for them. He believed so strongly about this that he even put up alot of his own money for them. But, when the stock market crashed in 1929, all of the stocks own by those people became virtually worthless and they were all now broke. Luckily, FDR was about to become the next president and had a plethora of ways to end the Great Depression. One of them was called the Tennessee Valley Authority which was designed to modernize most of the south eastern United States. The TVA generated electrity there using dams and turbines, they also provided people with lights and appliances.

Edison-Eric B.

Thomas Edison was still seeking to perfect his incandescent light bulb and find a relatively inexspensive way to put light in everyones homes. Copper was a great material with high resistance, but it was very costly. Although inventors in the past thought that low-resistant materials would be better suited, Edison knew otherwise and so he began to look for a way to ultilize copper in his work with lower cost. He studied Ohm’s law (E=I*R) and found that if he were to just make the copper wire thinner and run a lower current through it, not only would it reduce costs but it would also make it so all he would need to do would be to develope a higher-resistance light bulb.

Engineering Specialties-Eric B.

The reason i chose the field of Computer/Electrical Engineering is because it is one of the fastest growing careers in the United States and I believe it will give me the most opportunities in the future. My plans are to gain my masters degree in either computer or electrical engineering and get a job with a major company somewhere around DC. To acheive this I’m going to have to work very hard throughout my college career and try to gain an internship.

My strengths are in mathematics and computers which is one of the main reasons why i chose computer engineering.I also think that I have great communication skills and work well in group activities. These are very important qualities in the world of engineering and I believe that is why I’m going to be very successful in whatever field of engineerig that I choose.

Edison Miracle of Light-Eric B.

The Movie “Edison Miracle of Light” taught me alot about the type of person Edison was and about his countless contibutions to our society. Its hard to believe that a poor, self-taught; half-deaf man could overcome so much in his lifetime.

One of the things that really interested me about him was the fact that he put his work before anything else, this was most likely the reason why he was able to accomplish so much. He had alot of self-motivation and determination. Even when everyone told him that an incandescent light bulb was impossible, he wouldn’t listen, not because he was deaf, but because once he set his mind to do something the only person’s opinion that mattered to him was his own and if he thought he could do something he normally did. Although Edison’s stubborn attitude helped him to accomplish so much, it also back fired on him heavily when he decided on DC power versus AC. Although the benefits of AC over DC were obvious, Edison still insisted that was not the case but Westinghouse was able to prove him wrong and this ultimatley became the downfall of Edison.

Because of Edison’s brilliant mind and endless determination I would say that he wheres the explorer and warrior hats.

Self Evaluation-Eric B.

I think the hat i wear most would be that of the explorer because I am constantly looking for the facts and don’t go off what people tell me. I also double check behind everything I do and try to be specific by not leaving out any important details. The only traits that I feel I don’t meet as an explorer would be my inability to break out of ruts and I also have yet to slay a dragon(I’m also bad at recognizing metaphors).

The hat I believe i wear second most would the artist. I’m very good at looking at things from different points of view and constantly try to manipulate problems to find an answer. I fool around a lot in almost anything I do and when I’m stuck on a particular part of a problem sometimes I’ll just “do nothing” and come back to it later only to see how simple the solution really was. My biggest weakness as an artist is that I’m not very good at connecting or joining together all of the facts that i have gathered and then comparing them to find the right answer.

The judge hat also fits my personality quite well because of my constant questioning of everything. I try to be as precise as possible when doing any type of assignment whether it be an individual or group effort. This can sometimes cause problems with my decision making because not only do i question everthing in the assignment, I also question my own thinking.

The warrior hat is my biggest weakness of all. I am a terrible motivator and decision maker which leads me putting off things until the last minute and eventually not doing it altogether. Although i will sometimes take the role as a leader in group activities, my indecisiveness will sometimes make the group suffer and lag behind. To become stronger in this area i would probably have to gain a lot of self confidence that will help me to not question my own decisions.