Lineman Death – David G

To who it may concern,

I believe that the damage cause to John Feek’s by the AC power lines, that he was unfortunate enough to come into contact with, is reason for review on the entire AC system. This is not the first time that the AC power system has caused death in humans. I am proposing a complete rework of the system to make it safer to all.

As stated above, the AC system, needs to be revised and replaced. I believe that the Alternating current wires need to be buried underground, where they can be out of the way, like my DC wires. Since my wires are underground, they pose very little, if any, threat to the people of your fair city. Forcing the electric companies to bury their wires underground, would cut back on the number of deaths caused by the system. I understand that the city is a busy place, and digging up the streets would be harmful to the economy of the city. The Edison Electric company has already placed all of our wires under ground. Allow us to continue supplying power to the city, as our wires, do not cause harm to innocent citizens.

Thank you,

Thomas. A. Edison

I take edison’s approach onto this case. I believe that this was good grounds for Edison to attach the  Westinghouse company and the AC system. The fact that westinghouse’s system could cause something like this above ground, is right, because of the damage it did to John Feek’s. I do not believe that this is grounds for saying that the AC system was an entirely wrong approach to how the world received it’s electricity. Edison should of attacked how the AC system was applied, not the system itself. If he had of said that it needed to be buried under ground instead of just hung in the street’s, he would of maintained a lot of his credibility. This would of also harmed the AC industry, as the Edison company already had all of it’s wires buried underground. The AC companies might of lost out to the Edison company, because the cities would have not let the AC companies dig up the cities, when the DC power lines are already buried underneath the city. I believe that if Edison had of taken this approach, and used the Lineman’s death as prove to back up his statement, he would of won, and beaten out the AC industry.

Edison and Electrocution – David G

I think that Edison was partially right and partially wrong when it came to his position on th electric chair. He says that Alternating current was more deadly, and I don’t know if he is right, but he had no evidence to back up his claim. I feel that it is alright to test on animals and humans, but only after a large amount of research. I feel that this test should of been done at some point, but not for the reason it was done. Edison got this electrocution done with the electric chair, because he wanted to discredit the Westinghouse company, by scaring the people that AC was dangerous. With all the evidence supporting the fact that the chair may not kill on the first shock though, there should of been more testing done, to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the electric chair will kill quickly and painlessly. The defence attorney had proof that extreme voltages do not always kill. For instance, they had someone talking about being struck with lightning directly, and it not killing them. They also had instances of people grabbing high voltage wires, getting shocked and living. This proved that the electric chair may not instantly kill people. With this piece of evidence, Kembler should not of been put in the electric chair, until it was proved to kill instantly and painlessly.

Edison and Electrocution – David G

I think that Edison was partially right and partially wrong when it came to his position on th electric chair. He says that Alternating current was more deadly, and I don’t know if he is right, but he had no evidence to back up his claim. I feel that it is alright to test on animals and humans, but only after a large amount of research. I feel that this test should of been done at some point, but not for the reason it was done. Edison got this electrocution done with the electric chair, because he wanted to discredit the Westinghouse company, by scaring the people that AC was dangerous. With all the evidence supporting the fact that the chair may not kill on the first shock though, there should of been more testing done, to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the electric chair will kill quickly and painlessly. The defence attorney had proof that extreme voltages do not always kill. For instance, they had someone talking about being struck with lightning directly, and it not killing them. They also had instances of people grabbing high voltage wires, getting shocked and living. This proved that the electric chair may not instantly kill people. With this piece of evidence, Kembler should not of been put in the electric chair, until it was proved to kill instantly and painlessly.

Edison Electrocution – David G

I believe that the campaign to put down the Westinghouse Electric company was very unethical, but a good business practice.

Edison was in the right to try to undermine his competitors. It is down all the time today. Companies as familiar as mac and windows are constantly saying how bad the other one is. There is a large amount of commercials on t.v. about how mac says that PC is a bad system. This is no different than Edison saying that the alternating current system was bad.  Edison honestly believed that the AC system was a dangerous system, and had the potential to hurt people, if they accidentally came in contact with one of the wires. This puts him in the right position to try to get the Westinghouse Company out of the business, but the way he did it was wrong. He did not first get the scientific proof that he needed in order to be able to back up his claims. He made claims that the system was unsafe, and hired a very unprofessional scientist to prove it. I am not against animal testing, but needlessly killing them is wrong. You have to be able to prove that something will happen, with science and math, before you can test it on the animals.

Ethically edison was in the wrong, just as to some degree i believe that mac is wrong for talking down PC and vice versa. All fo this backtalking is against what most people believe to be moraly right and just, but that does not stop them from doing it. Edison should not of tried to undermine the Westinghouse company, especially with so little evidence. If he could of proved that there was a safety concern there, instead of just throwing a hissy fit that he was being beat out, it would of been ethically correct.

Tesla’s AC motor – David G

Tesla’s AC motor was a marvel of engineering at its time. It was the part of the electric system that enabled Westinghouse, and his company to outdo Edison’s DC company. The motor worked by using two different alternating currents. When one system peaks, the other is at a trough of its power wave. This causes the motor to turn towards the coils of copper wires that are arranged in a circle. As the power flips back and forth one hundred and twenty times a second the wire flips back and forth very quickly. Doing this took away the need for the brushes that transfered the electrical power from AC into DC for use in motors.

Memory – David G

The differences between delay line memory and the random access memory used today, are great and numerous. The most obvious difference between the two, is the size of them. The r.a.m. that we use today is much smaller than the delay line memory that was used in the first computers. The delay line memory was massive compared to today’s ram which can be only a few inches long. A second difference is that the delay line memory used tubes, while today’s memory uses resistors. The delay line memory, would let a signal go through the tubes of the memory, and by doing this delay it long enough to copy the signal and store it. Today’s memory uses transistors, resistors, and other electronic devices to store information.  DRAM, which is used in a lot of computers today. Video games use this ram as it is extremely fast. Other electronics, such as televisions, camera’s, and phones also use dynamic RAM.

Micron Tour – David G

For the most part I enjoyed the tour of MCV. The micron establishment in virginia. They used to just do design in this facility, but they upgraded to be able to construct the actual parts that later go into electronics. When we first got to micron, we were ushered into a classroom, which had computers under the desks. We were told about how micron started, what it does now, who it competes with, and who it has partnerships with. I found this section boring for the most part. They did not really talk about what my options could be if i was to try to intern at micron. Later on in the tour they took us to see the clean room where they do alot of the work. This room seemed really advanced. I liked how the tour guide told us a lot about how the clean room works, and how the machines inside the room work. I also really liked the robots that were there in order to move the FOUP’s around.

How Transformers Work – David G

Transformers are a device that is used to up the voltage to be sent over long distances. In order to send current a longer distance, the voltage in the wire needs to be ramped up. Voltage is to wires as water pressure is to pipes. The more water pressure there is behind the water in the pipe the more that will fit through it, and the futher it will go. Alternating current uses these transformers to up their voltage to 125,000-725,000 volts. This allows the electricity to be sent over a very large distance. Direct current can not use transformers, and therefor is limited to a short distance of travel, because the voltage acts the same way as a very small amount of water pressure would. Since the voltage in DC is limited to 110-120 volts, the electricity can only be sent so far.

A simple transformer works by having two wires wrapped around an iron core. There is one input wire, and one output wire. On each side of the transformer the wires complete a circuit and come straight back to the transformer. As the system is working with alternating current, the electrical flow through the wires cycles back and forth very quickly. This cycling of power, creates a magnetic field through the iron core. This magnetic field then creates the power in the other coil of wire. If the input wire has more coils than the output wire, the voltage will be stepped up. If the input wire has less coils than the output wire, the voltage will be stepped up.

Tesla Master of Lightening David G

I did not really like this movie at all. I do not find documentaries to ever be very entertaining, and I’m stuck thinking that movies are solely for entertainment. I know that there is movies out there that are meant to educate i just don’t understand why that would be done. The movie went into great deal about Tesla’s life. I managed to learn a lot more from this movie than i have done from any of the other movies we have watched so far.  I learned that he came to America as a poor immigrant, up until now, I thought that he never lived in America. He invented things such as the AC motor, and made the Niagara falls project a reality. Although he did all this, he became obsessed with transferring power wirelessly. I think that if he had of been able to do this the world would be a very different place. For instance it would be easily possible to create electric cars. I think that it would be possible, but Tesla was just once again way ahead of his time. Someday I think all of Tesla’s work will make sense to us as humans, but for now I think it will remain a mystery. A final point I have is that I strongly dislike how with both Edison and Tesla people say they are crazy people, and making false claims. I think that people should just understand that nothing is impossible, we are able to do things that are amazing, and they need to learn that.

Electric Nation – David G

This was not my favorite movie that I have watched so far. I think it is second to the black and white, fictional movie we watched about Edison. This movie taught me a lot though. It did not just talk about Edison and his struggle to introduce the lightbulb. Although he had a really hard time getting the city of New York to accept his idea. His secretary had a much harder time later in life. As he took over the company, he sold stocks to the public, because he thought that it would be a win-win situation for everybody. When the stock market crashed in 1929, he was blamed for a large part of it even though he was doing everything in his power to stop it. He poured tons of his own money into the project, because he was trying to save the public.  The government of the United States tried to charge Samuel Insoll with a scandal against the american people. He was not convicted, but he was still poor from trying to save the economy.

The other main thing that I learned from this movie is the part of TVA that helped to create the electric lines that powered farms and houses in rural areas. The private sector did not give these people electricity, because it was not worth running the lines, to get them electricity. When the TVA stepped in it had the governments budget behind it, and that allowed the association to get power to these farm lands.