News Briefs
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Thought experiment: Just because the March 1969 issue of Radio−Electronics magazine announced in the "News Briefs" column the passing of Professor Erwin Schrödinger, does that mean he's really dead? Was his world−famous cat with him at the time? I'm asking for a friend. In other news, an account of what seems to be a grossly inhumane medical experiment of the type Josef Mengele might have performed during World War II is reported whereby a 700 Hz (yes, 700 cycles per second) signal of undisclosed power level was imposed on a patient's brain in lieu of traditional anesthesia gas during a stomach operation. No word of the long-term effects are included. It obviously did not catch on as an alternative method. Many other breaking news items are included as well. New Briefs: 11/1957 | 8/1958 | 11/1959 | 2/1960 | 4/1960 | 8/1960 | 3/1961 | 5/1961 | 6/1961 | 12/1961 | 3/1963 | 4/1963 | 8/1963 | 9/1963 | 8/1964 | 12/1964 | 1/1967 | 3/1967 | 4/1967 | 9/1967 | 4/1968 News Briefs
Prof. Erwin Schrodinger died in his native Vienna, Jan. 4, at the age of 74. His work, in combination with that of de Broglie and Dirac, formed the foundation for the modern concept of wave mechanics. He shared with P. A. M. Dirac the Nobel prize for physics in 1933. Professor Schrodinger conducted a seminar at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, N. J., in 1934. He left Austria at the coming of the Hitler regime in 1938 and taught at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in Ireland till 1956, when he returned to Austria. Electricity Replaces Ether An abdominal operation performed on a woman patient at the Medical Center of the University of Michigan depended on electricity as the anesthetic. A 700-cycle signal from a signal generator was fed through an amplifier to 1-inch diameter electrodes connected to the patient's temples. In less than a minute after the unit was turned on, the patient was unconscious. The patient remained asleep as long as current was fed to the electrodes. After the operation, the current was turned off and the patient regained consciousness in less than 60 seconds. The patient said she felt no discomfort or nausea upon awakening. The entire system costs about $150. This anesthetic system is highly desirable, since it works directly on the nervous system and does not seem to affect blood circulation or any body organs. The use of the electrical anesthesia was developed after 4 years of research by the university's Medical Center under an Army grant. The Army was interested because quick recovery from anesthesia is advantageous when operating under combat conditions. Earth, Too, Has Hum That the earth itself gives off a subsonic radio hum at 7.8 cycles per second has been discovered by scientists of the Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The low-frequency waves, they say, are excited by lightning discharges in the area between the earth's surface and the ionosphere. This space forms a resonant cavity, with waves reflected from the ionosphere at one boundary and from the earth at the other.
The Consumer Goods Div. of Hitachi Ltd., Tokyo, has released specifications on an electronic refrigerator, including a freezer compartment. The capacity of the refrigerator is approximately 3-1/3 cubic feet and the outside dimensions 20 x 46 x 23 inches. It uses 36 thermo-elements. The power consumption is given as 30 volts, 10 amps for the cooling space and 20 volts, 10 amps for the freezer. Box temperature is 40 °F, freezer temperature 9 °F at an ambient temperature of 86 °F. Television Classroom Takes to the Air A flying TV school 23,000 feet above Indiana was ready to start telecasting instruction over Indiana and portions of Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin and Kentucky early in the year, Westinghouse Electric reports. The Stratovision system was tested by Westinghouse some years ago. Two planes are allotted to the work, one being on the air at a time. Transmission is on uhf channels 72 and 76. Each plane is equipped with two 1-kw transmitters. The signal is a special narrow-band type-3 mc wide, and will be transmitted from video tapes. WWV Sets Its Clock Back The time signals from WWV, Washington, D. C., and from WWVH in Hawaii were retarded by 5 milliseconds early in January. The adjustment brought the signals of the U.S. stations into closer agreement with the standard-frequency broadcast stations of other countries throughout the world. At the same time, the two stations resumed broadcasting a special timing code that gives the day, hour, minute and second for 1-minute intervals ten times per hour.
Posted June 30, 2023 |
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