An Ocean of Air
Page 31
[>] development in modern times Degna Marconi, My Father, Marconi, p. 104.
[>] and thought passing in between Ibid., p. 105.
[>] almost summon at his will Dunlap, Marconi: The Man and His Wireless, p. 107.
[>] A few weeks later January 13, 1902.
[>] an electric wave across the Atlantic Dunlap, Marconi: The Man and His Wireless, p. 113.
[>] 'If Marconi says it is true, I believe it.' Ibid., p. 117.
[>] promoter to capitalize on his invention Ibid., p. 118.
[>] Though not very tall He was 5 feet 4/2 inches.
[>] conceited logic-choppers Nahin, Oliver Heaviside, Sage in Solitude, p. 17.
[>] fog created of our own efforts Ibid., p. 99.
[>] mind of the average man Ibid., p. 168.
[>] simply added "(by work)" Searle, in The Heaviside Centenary Volume, p. 9.
[>] much more difficult to write Sir Edward Appleton, in The Heaviside Centenary Volume, p. 3.
[>] O! He is a very Devil Nahin, Oliver Heaviside, Sage in Solitude, p. 293.
[>] never had the courage to call again J. A. Crowther, quoted by Searle in The Heaviside Centenary Volume, pp. 8–9.
[>] leaving me far behind Searle, in The Heaviside Centenary Volume, p. 94. 174 Found accidentally in pocket Searle, in The Heaviside Centenary Volume, p. 9.
175 come to be called the Heaviside layer About the same time, an American scientist, Arthur Kennelly, made a similar suggestion. Heaviside had earlier written a more detailed treatment of the idea and submitted it as an academic article to be published in the Electrician, but the article was never published. That could be why researchers at the time used the term "Heaviside" layer or at most, appended Kennelly's name to Heaviside's. See Ratcliffe's Sun, Earth and Radio.
[>] keep herself warm in winter Searle, in The Heaviside Centenary Volume, p. 8.
[>] my genius to keep me warm Sir George Lee, in The Heaviside Centenary Volume, p. 16.
[>] on 4 successive days Nahin, Oliver Heaviside, Sage in Solitude, p. 292.
[>] A lady for protection allowed Ibid., p. 292.
[>] regarded it particularly seriously One contemporary commentator joked that, rather than facing years of isolation, any modern Robinson Crusoe would simply need to fire up his ship's wireless apparatus, "call up the nearest stations and ships, and pass the time waiting for relief in listening to the latest stock exchange quotations." See Francis A. Collins, The Wireless Man, His Work and Adventures on Land and Sea (New York: The Century Company, 1912), p. 118. A few years earlier, two ships had collided, and one of them, the Republic, eventually sank. Help arrived thanks to a wireless distress signal, but all passengers had already been transferred to the remaining ship, the Florida, which still managed to limp into port.
[>] the hero of the hour See Harrison's The Story of the Ionosphere.
[>] ninepence per word thereafter Weightman, Signor Marconi's Magic Box, p. 230; this was the modern equivalent of nearly sixty dollars for the first ten words and nearly four dollars a word thereafter.
[>] recognize in Morse code "SOS" is a simple (dot dot dot/ dash dash dash/ dot dot dot), whereas "CQD" is the more complex (dash dot dash dot/dash dash dot dash/ dash dot dot).
[>] nobody else would spot Francis A. Collins, The Wireless Man (New York: The Century Company, 1912), p. 14.
[>] he was not moving New York Times, April 28, 1912.
[>] my eyes on things above Dunlap, Marconi: The Man and His Wireless, p. 188.
[>] Phillips is dead," he said One of the messages in Bride's pile was from Jack Thayer's mother. His father had disappeared with the Titanic. Mrs. Thayer's message had read: "Let anyone meet us but not children. Hope gone." The message was never sent. See Booth and Coughlan, Titanic: Signals of Disaster.
[>] she was postponing the trip Degna Marconi, My Father, Marconi, p. 190.
[>] four times their annual salaries Bride gained $1,000 and Cottam, $750. Each was earning about $350 per year; see Weightman, p. 257.
[>] even bigger and finer than this Clark, Sir Edward Appleton, p. 9.
[>] the silver and gold plate At this early stage in his career, there was no college silver for Appleton on the breakfast table. Nor was there fancy accommodation. During the war, he had married a woman from Bradford, and when his new wife first saw the unprepossessing terraced house that he had rented for them in Cambridge, she burst into tears.
187 he got it—nearly all round Clark, Sir Edward Appleton, p. 21.
[>] cup bearer to the gods Ratcliffe, Biographical Memoirs, p. 7.
[>] seemed to have taken away This was at a presidential address to the British Association in the 1950s. See Clark, Sir Edward Appleton, p. 45.
[>] a captured pill box Ratcliffe, Biographical Memoirs, p. 9.
[>] for almost inconceivable distances Collins, The Wireless Man, p. 100.
[>] Appleton and Barnett set up their equipment This was only a few months before Oliver Heaviside's death.
[>] was done on tea and sausage rolls Appleton, quoted in Clark, Sir Edward Appleton, p. 54.
[>] continually bombard our fragile planet This crackling region of air also turned out to be more complicated than anyone had realized. Appleton had named Heaviside's invention the E-Layer, to stand for electricity. But he later found another one higher in the sky, which he called F and most other people called the Appleton Layer, and then another, flimsier, one that lay below the E-Layer, and naturally came to be known as D. (Appleton explained: "I didn't use the letters A, B, or C because I felt I must leave a letter or two in case someone discovered other layers below the D-Layer. They haven't done so, so now it looks a bit off to start with the D-Layer. However I admit it's my fault.") See Clark, Sir Edward Appleton, pp. 60–61.
[>] received the Nobel prize for physics During his lecture at the ceremony in Sweden he told an elegant little joke to amuse the assembled guests. They should not, he said, place too much faith in the scientific method. For there was once a scientist who fed his friends a drink made up of whisky and soda water, and carefully observed the results. The next night he fed the same friends rum and soda water, and the next night gin and soda water. On each occasion, the friends got drunk. The scientist concluded that the agent responsible for this must have been the one thing the drinks had in common: soda water. The story went down well. Appleton didn't discover until later that the Crown Prince, later King Gustavus VI Adolphus, who was seated next to Lady Appleton, drank nothing but soda water.
[>] escape into the upper atmosphere Clark, Sir Edward Appleton, p. 45.
CHAPTER 7
[>] give us the green light and sixty days Green and Lomask, Vanguard: A History, chapter 11, p. 8 (Web version).
[>] whale oil to make solid margarine Birkeland was amazingly prescient—he would also try to raise funds to work on methods to exploit atomic energy before most of the world had even dreamed of this. Modern atomic theory didn't yet exist, and few people realized that atoms could be subdivided. But in 1905, Einstein published his famous paper on special relativity showing that mass was just another form of energy, and Birkeland made the connection that would later give rise to both the nuclear power station and the nuclear bomb. In 1906 he wrote to a Swedish banker: "The problem I propose to solve is to find a practical way to utilize atomic energy. Our most important energy sources are stored in the molecules. If we solve this problem, we can get more energy out of one kilogram of matter than we get out of 10,000 kg of coal today." See Egeland and Burke, The First Space Scientist, p. 127. Birkeland said he realized the problem was difficult and admitted it might not work, but added: "I have never had such a mind to take up a thing as I have with this problem." Unfortunately, in this case he didn't get his money. The banker called his idea "titanic" and "alluring," but said that he needed to wait for Birkeland's other inventions to turn a profit. See, for example, Devik, "Kristian Birkeland as I knew him," p. 5.
210 latest miscalculation on the blackboard Egeland, The Man and
the Scientist, p. 14.
[>] exchange from 300 down to zero Devik, "Kristian Birkeland as I knew him," p. 3.
[>] he explained his idea to Eyde Devik poetically wrote that Birkeland became "all fire and flame."
[>] noses and complained of the smell Birkeland's furnace was eventually supplanted by the Haber process, which is the modern basis for nitrogen fertilizers and involves splitting nitrogen by means of an iron catalyst. But for several decades, his sparking furnace reigned supreme.
[>] of such a sinister sight Brekke and Egeland, The Northern Lights, p. 111.
[>] noiseless kneading of a cat's paws There have been persistent reports that auroras are accompanied on rare occasions by a hissing sound. Though this has been rubbished by scientists for years, recent research suggests there may be something in them. See Harriet Williams, "Sizzling Skies," New Scientist (January 6, 2001), p. 14.
[>] traveled some 35,000 miles "Carrington's Flare," at www.istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/Education/whcarr.html.
[>] one might say excessive—6,638 readings See, for instance, Jago, The Northern Lights, p. 23.
[>] concentrate wholly on work Egeland and Burke, Kristian Birkeland: The First Space Scientist, p. 134.
[>] all went flying off the table Jago, The Northern Lights, p. 172.
[>] that is possible for me to give Ibid., p. 199.
[>] A moment later it was gone Ibid., p. 118.
[>] seemed the surest way of trying He had also decided to try to measure the heights of the auroras by recording them from two adjacent mountaintops connected by telephone lines. He had hoped that if each team took a picture of the same aurora at exactly the same time, but from a slightly different position, simple geometry should tell him how high the lights were. However, his cameras didn't work properly, so the idea came to nothing.
[>] in the face of the wind again Birkeland, The Norwegian Aurora Polaris Expedition 1902–1903, p. 3.
221 dreams of becoming a surgeon Note: In spite of his handicap, he did, however, become a world-famous oceanographer.
[>] the fjord like a dark channel Birkeland, The Norwegian Aurora Polaris Expedition, p. 5.
[>] the storm outside by the noise within Ibid., p. 6.
[>] I'm too stupid to be frightened Ibid., p. 9.
[>] the heating pipes were ceramic See Egeland and Burke, Kristian Birkeland: The First Space Scientist.
[>] entirely absorbed by the atmosphere Birkeland, The Norwegian Aurora Polaris Expedition, section 1, preface, and section 2, p. 608.
[>] periods has been mere coincidence See, for instance, Jago, The Northern Lights, p. 81.
[>] such a mighty attraction on him Ibid., p. 267.
[>] voice of reason in a world gone mad Martin Walt in "From Nuclear Physics to Space Physics by Way of High Altitude Nuclear Tests," p. 255, in "Discovery of the Magnetosphere," History of Geophysics.
[>] were in no way intimidated "Energetic particles in the earth's external magnetic field," by James Van Allen, p. 235 in "Discovery of the Magnetosphere," History of Geophysics.
[>] flickering lights of the auroras Protons do this, too, but the auroras they make are not visible to the naked eye.
[>] our protective air is doing its job well The system even works for astronauts. Missions such as the space shuttle don't fly as high as you might think, and apart from the Apollo missions, every human space flight has taken place beneath the shelter of our atmosphere's outermost protective layer. Between Apollo 16 and 17 came a solar outburst massive enough to give any lunar astronauts a lethal dose of radiation within ten hours. Fortunately, no one happened to be flying. Any future human space flight back to the moon, to Mars, or anywhere else outside the air's aegis would have to be very heavily shielded.
[>] are replaced by new ones The inner Van Allen belt is populated with protons that come from cosmic rays, rather than from the sun.
[>] Birkeland currents in his honor He was slightly wrong about these—though there are indeed vertical and horizontal currents in the atmosphere, the ones whose influence he measured were only off-shoots of the real things. But nobody has felt the need to quibble, and the name stands.
[>] planted a fingerprint on the spacecraft Christine Hallas, "The James Van Allen Papers."
INDEX