265 lines
9.4 KiB
Plaintext
265 lines
9.4 KiB
Plaintext
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(word processor parameters LM=8, RM=75, TM=2, BM=2)
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Taken from KeelyNet BBS (214) 324-3501
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Sponsored by Vangard Sciences
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PO BOX 1031
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Mesquite, TX 75150
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There are ABSOLUTELY NO RESTRICTIONS
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on duplicating, publishing or distributing the
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December 7, 1990
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Faraday1.ASC
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On Michael Faraday
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by Waldemar Kaempffert
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I (Faraday) once showed Mr. Gladstone how an induced current of
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electricity could SPIN A LITTLE COPPER DISK WITHOUT TOUCHING
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ANYTHING.
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"What's the good of that?" he asked. He was a practical man of
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affairs, and I was not.
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So I gave him a practical answer, "Some day you will be able to TAX
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IT," I said.
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I believe that the practical man is OFTEN VERY IMPRACTICAL. He
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wants an invention or discovery that will work - that is, MAKE
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MONEY.
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But the time comes when the invention fails to meet a new set of
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conditions, so that the theorist must step in and explain the
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failure and suggest a theory out of which some really practical good
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will come.
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No experiment is worth much unless it is explained by a good theory.
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Great inventions always spring out of good theories.
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I never had a systematic education. As a pupil in a local day
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school, I learned no more than the rudiments of reading, writing and
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arithmetic. But I read much, especially when I was apprenticed to
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G. Riebau, a kindly bookseller.
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By chance I attended four lectures delivered by Sir Humphry Davy,
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made careful notes, transcribed them neatly, bound them and sent
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them to him with a letter in which I expressed the hope that with
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his aid I might forsake trade.
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To my astonishment he found a place for me in the Royal Institution.
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There I remained to the end of my days.
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I belong to a small, despised Christian sect called Sandemanians. I
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believe with them that it is futile to bring religion and science
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into harmony.
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Page 1
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Religion is based on FAITH, science on REASONING. I ask myself :
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Why am I here? SCIENCE cannot answer.
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It is not concerned with PURPOSE. But religion IS concerned with
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purpose, and what that purpose is must be a MATTER OF FAITH.
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I believe that without faith man would drift helplessly - that love,
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sacrifice, truth would have no meaning.
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All told I have performed about 2,000 experiments. Without
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experimentation I am nothing. Not one of my many experiments was
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performed with a PRACTICAL PURPOSE IN VIEW, though many proved to be
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of INDUSTRIAL IMPORTANCE.
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I never patented anything. I foresaw the uses to which my discovery
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of electromagnetic induction might be put, but preferred to leave
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its APPLICATION TO OTHERS.
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In my earlier years at the Royal Institution I had to eke out my
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slender salary with outside work and in that way made a few hundred
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extra pounds a year.
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I soon gave this up. It is not too difficult to make money if there
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is SELF-DENIAL AND INDUSTRY. To me money-making was an UNPLEASANT
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DISTRACTION.
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It always took my mind off the work that I WANTED TO DO.
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But what was that work? As I look back at it I see that it was the
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QUEST OF TRUTH.
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I know that a scientist has no way of recognizing truth when he sees
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it. But the QUEST GOES ON AND ON. It must go on. Without it there
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would be no SCIENCE.
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Suppose that science had succeeded in creating a living man -
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something that could be accepted as a counterpart of the men we see
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about us.
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And suppose that this creature could think as we do. Unless it was
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concerned with the TRUTH it would never be a REAL man, never a real
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SCIENTIST.
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That much I learned in my experimentation. I believe that THERE IS
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SOMETHING in the world of experience THAT IS INTENT ON TRUTH.
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The RESPONSIBILITY of the SCIENTIST is a responsibility to SEEK AND
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PROCLAIM the TRUTH AS HE SEES IT.
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We do not PATENT truths. We GIVE THEM TO OTHERS.
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It is because giving is part of their creed that scientists
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constitute a world-wide intellectual fraternity.
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Religion may PREACH the BROTHERHOOD OF MAN; science PRACTICES IT.
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The lesson is not always heeded. I believe that mankind will
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prosper the more it WIDENS AND DEEPENS the SCIENTIFIC HABIT of mind
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Page 2
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and that the greatest of all problems is that of making this
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scientific habit more EFFECTIVE.
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As that scientific mind is acquired there will be more and more
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giving. I BELIEVE in GIVING.
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By giving I mean MORE than presenting a single precious discovery to
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the world. I mean that NOTHING MAY BE WITHHELD - not even a crumb
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of KNOWLEDGE.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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Morse would not have invented his telegraph, (nor Tesla his rotating
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magnetic field motor), nor Bell his telephone, nor Edison his many
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electrical contrivances had it not been for MICHAEL FARADAY.
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He was probably the GREATEST EXPERIMENTER that ever lived.
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Electrical engineering as we know it BEGINS WITH HIM. When he did
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his work, which was largely in the first half of the last century
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(1800 - 1850), there was not even an electric doorbell.
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There were only TWO SOURCES OF ELECTRICITY. One was the electric
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machine with glass plates that had to be rotated and rubbed with fur
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to produce electric sparks; the other was the battery.
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Faraday was not only an experimenter but a theorist. As a theorist
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he ranks with Newton and Einstein. He belonged to a very
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materialistic period; yet he was a spiritual force in the
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development of science.
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A devoutly religious man, his profound belief in the spirit played
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as much a part in his scientific success as his skill and his
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industry. As one of the most distinguished scientists of his time,
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he made scores of experiments and observations.
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His crowning achievement, the one that enabled society to pass from
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steam to electricity, was the GENERATION OF ELECTRIC CURRENT by
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moving magnets and coils of wire relative to each other - the
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PRINCIPLE OF THE DYNAMO.
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Faraday lived from 1791 to 1876. One would call him the most
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remarkable bookbinder who ever lived, for he was trained for this
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occupation and actually practices it for a little while.
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Then at twenty-two he unexpectedly was appointed a laboratory
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assistant of the Royal Institute of Great Britain through the
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influence of the eminent chemist Sir Humphry Davy.
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Soon he was to spend two years traveling through Europe with Sir
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Humphry, and he promptly began making his important discoveries.
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Right away he discovered two new chlorides of carbon and
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successfully liquefied several gases.
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By the time he was thirty he published a sketch of history of
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electromagnetism and in that same year effected the revolution of a
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magnetic electric needle around an electrical current.
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He went on to discover the effect of one current on another in terms
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Page 3
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of their deflection and attraction, and the characteristics of the
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electrical current produced when a magnet is inserted in a coil of
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wire. It was this that led to the development of the MAGNETO, the
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DYNAMO and the GENERATOR.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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If you have comments or other information relating to such topics
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as this paper covers, please upload to KeelyNet or send to the
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Vangard Sciences address as listed on the first page.
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Thank you for your consideration, interest and support.
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Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson
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Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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If we can be of service, you may contact
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Jerry at (214) 324-8741 or Ron at (214) 242-9346
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Page 4
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