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The Pandora's-Volt incident

M

Max Hauser

Jan 1, 1970
0
The intrigue of mysterious, forbidden boxes seems to be timeless. An
ancient precedent probably informed the 1955 US film-noir _Kiss Me Deadly,_
an intense, sinister movie directed by Robert Aldrich, and credited with
inspiring the French New Wave film movement of the late 1950s. (Its
particular Box is vague, radioactive, and Bad News.)

One of the memorable anecdotes in the analog electronics world is an episode
in the late 1960s with another Box, this one benevolent. (It illustrates
the costs of accuracy.) The Box was a US standard voltage reference in use
for the Apollo manned space-flight program.

This particular reference was a registered primary standard cell, requiring
monthly trips to Washington, DC for certification by the US National Bureau
of Standards. (A technology later superseded at NBS, I understand, with the
combination of Josephson junction and Cesium clock.)

A laboratory near Boston used this cell, and monthly a technically skilled
courier carried it to Washington for certification. The cell, actually
cells (triplicate), in their carrier, made up an impressive Box with chrome
and heavy leather strap. It took a separate seat on the airplane.

On this particular run, the courier job fell to an employee who had never
done it before, I'll call him Herb. All was organized in advance; Herb got
instructions. Car will take you and Box to airport, another car will meet
you in Washington, etc.

Herb and the Box were strapped into their adjacent seats on the airplane.
It was a serious, unusual-looking cargo. It could even be mistaken for
something sinister. (For example, what Gert Fröbe, a few years earlier in
_Goldfinger,_ had called a "device.") On a flight to Washington. A
curious stewardess asked what it was. And what of all possible things did
Herb answer? "A bomb."

The flight attendant was professional, said nothing, made the required call;
the plane waited. Police arrived. They looked at Herb and at the Box and
were not reassured. "Come with us, please." Herb balked. He was on an
important mission for the Space Program, he had his duty. Things got tense.
The situation was explained to him more plainly, and Herb came along.

At a room in the airport, they demanded to know what was in the Box. Herb
told them. "OK," they said, "open it up." Herb balked again. (You don't
unseal a registered primary standard cell.) Another standoff. Herb
persuaded them to call his laboratory, where exasperated personnel got in
touch with their own government connections, leading to yet a further
impasse as one set of officials wanted to have their way with Herb and his
Box, and the other to liberate the pair. Eventually Herb was released to
his own officials. (What they thought at the time of his sense of humor I
don't know).

Herb came out of it OK in the circumstances, though with a great deal of
ribbing. The Box resumed its monthly trips; accuracy prevailed. Herb's
first experience escorting it was his last.



Max Hauser

Copyright 2004
 
P

Paul Hovnanian P.E.

Jan 1, 1970
0
Max said:
The intrigue of mysterious, forbidden boxes seems to be timeless. An
ancient precedent probably informed the 1955 US film-noir _Kiss Me Deadly,_
an intense, sinister movie directed by Robert Aldrich, and credited with
inspiring the French New Wave film movement of the late 1950s. (Its
particular Box is vague, radioactive, and Bad News.)

One of the memorable anecdotes in the analog electronics world is an episode
in the late 1960s with another Box, this one benevolent. (It illustrates
the costs of accuracy.) The Box was a US standard voltage reference in use
for the Apollo manned space-flight program.

This particular reference was a registered primary standard cell, requiring
monthly trips to Washington, DC for certification by the US National Bureau
of Standards. (A technology later superseded at NBS, I understand, with the
combination of Josephson junction and Cesium clock.)

A laboratory near Boston used this cell, and monthly a technically skilled
courier carried it to Washington for certification. The cell, actually
cells (triplicate), in their carrier, made up an impressive Box with chrome
and heavy leather strap. It took a separate seat on the airplane.

On this particular run, the courier job fell to an employee who had never
done it before, I'll call him Herb. All was organized in advance; Herb got
instructions. Car will take you and Box to airport, another car will meet
you in Washington, etc.

Herb and the Box were strapped into their adjacent seats on the airplane.
It was a serious, unusual-looking cargo. It could even be mistaken for
something sinister. (For example, what Gert Fröbe, a few years earlier in
_Goldfinger,_ had called a "device.") On a flight to Washington. A
curious stewardess asked what it was. And what of all possible things did
Herb answer? "A bomb."

[snip]

And another lesson on not joking around at inappropriate times
commences.

Another anecdote:

A previous employer, the local power company, had recently withdrawn its
plans to build a nuclear (nucular?) power plant following bad publicity
from Three Mile Island. A couple of field engineers were surveying a
location for a pole and a local resident walked up and asked, "Watcha
dooin'?"

"Looking for a site for a nuclear power plant", one engineer answered.

The local said nothing and walked away. However, the next day, following
phone calls that had escalated through the regional press, the engineers
were both called into the CEOs office and explained the value of
maintaining a good corporate image.
 
S

Simon Hosie

Jan 1, 1970
0
Paul said:
(nucular?)

I'd like a device that would instantly vaporise the head of anyone that
said that pseudo-word.
 
B

Bill Bailley

Jan 1, 1970
0
Simon Hosie said:
I'd like a device that would instantly vaporise the head of anyone that
said that pseudo-word.

This mis-pronunciation is so common that the operation of a "Head Masher"
may put a serious dent in the population.
Even the man with the worlds largest "nucular" arsenal at his fingertips
cannot say this word properly.
I can only think that there is a tiny genetic brain kink that produces this
supreme irritant.

I shall pray for deafness. "Beam me up Scotty" doesn't work.

Bill.
 
J

John Larkin

Jan 1, 1970
0
The intrigue of mysterious, forbidden boxes seems to be timeless. An
ancient precedent probably informed the 1955 US film-noir _Kiss Me Deadly,_
an intense, sinister movie directed by Robert Aldrich, and credited with
inspiring the French New Wave film movement of the late 1950s. (Its
particular Box is vague, radioactive, and Bad News.)

One of the memorable anecdotes in the analog electronics world is an episode
in the late 1960s with another Box, this one benevolent. (It illustrates
the costs of accuracy.) The Box was a US standard voltage reference in use
for the Apollo manned space-flight program.

This particular reference was a registered primary standard cell, requiring
monthly trips to Washington, DC for certification by the US National Bureau
of Standards. (A technology later superseded at NBS, I understand, with the
combination of Josephson junction and Cesium clock.)

A laboratory near Boston used this cell, and monthly a technically skilled
courier carried it to Washington for certification. The cell, actually
cells (triplicate), in their carrier, made up an impressive Box with chrome
and heavy leather strap. It took a separate seat on the airplane.

On this particular run, the courier job fell to an employee who had never
done it before, I'll call him Herb. All was organized in advance; Herb got
instructions. Car will take you and Box to airport, another car will meet
you in Washington, etc.

Herb and the Box were strapped into their adjacent seats on the airplane.
It was a serious, unusual-looking cargo. It could even be mistaken for
something sinister. (For example, what Gert Fröbe, a few years earlier in
_Goldfinger,_ had called a "device.") On a flight to Washington. A
curious stewardess asked what it was. And what of all possible things did
Herb answer? "A bomb."

The flight attendant was professional, said nothing, made the required call;
the plane waited. Police arrived. They looked at Herb and at the Box and
were not reassured. "Come with us, please." Herb balked. He was on an
important mission for the Space Program, he had his duty. Things got tense.
The situation was explained to him more plainly, and Herb came along.

At a room in the airport, they demanded to know what was in the Box. Herb
told them. "OK," they said, "open it up." Herb balked again. (You don't
unseal a registered primary standard cell.) Another standoff. Herb
persuaded them to call his laboratory, where exasperated personnel got in
touch with their own government connections, leading to yet a further
impasse as one set of officials wanted to have their way with Herb and his
Box, and the other to liberate the pair. Eventually Herb was released to
his own officials. (What they thought at the time of his sense of humor I
don't know).

Herb came out of it OK in the circumstances, though with a great deal of
ribbing. The Box resumed its monthly trips; accuracy prevailed. Herb's
first experience escorting it was his last.



Max Hauser

Copyright 2004

I recall one interesting HP Journal article, 1960's vintage maybe,
wherein two HP cesium clocks were synchronized, and then an HP
engineer took one, battery-powered, on a flight around the world; it
had to have its own seat, of course. After the trip, the
well-travelled clock was fast (or slow... I forget) by about the
amount that Einstein predicted.

That HP is no more (sigh.)

John
 
K

Ken Smith

Jan 1, 1970
0
John Larkin said:
I recall one interesting HP Journal article, 1960's vintage maybe,
wherein two HP cesium clocks were synchronized, and then an HP
engineer took one, battery-powered, on a flight around the world; it
had to have its own seat, of course. After the trip, the
well-travelled clock was fast (or slow... I forget) by about the
amount that Einstein predicted.

The clock that was accelerated was slow and the one that moved slow was
fast.

I hope this helps.
 
J

John Larkin

Jan 1, 1970
0
The clock that was accelerated was slow and the one that moved slow was
fast.

I hope this helps.


--

Wouldn't it depend on which way they went around?

John
 
K

Ken Smith

Jan 1, 1970
0
Wouldn't it depend on which way they went around?

I'm fairly certain they flew in the direction of rotation.

It only sort of matters which way they went. I think if you do the
numbers, the earths rotation doesn't have much effect in the final result.

It is very hard to come up with a way to take a clock from a place and
bring it back there without it having been accelerated more than the one
that stayed on the surface of the earth.

There is no absolute frame of reference. If we ignore gravity, we can
project a straight line of flight at a tangent to the surface of the earth
that undergoes no acceleration during the time of the experiment. Then
you can work both sides of the problem with that as a reference and
subtract the two results to get the difference seen.
 
S

Simon Hosie

Jan 1, 1970
0
Bill said:
This mis-pronunciation is so common that the operation of a "Head
Masher" may put a serious dent in the population.

But if we destroy them now we may stop it spreading. It's worth the
risk.
 
J

JeffM

Jan 1, 1970
0
(nucular?)
I'd like a device that would instantly vaporise the head
of anyone that said that pseudo-word.
Simon Hosie

This mis-pronunciation is so common
[, that would] put a serious dent in the population.
Even the man with the worlds largest "nucular" arsenal at his fingertips
cannot say this word properly.
Bill Bailley

Is anyone else nervous that the folks that
don't even know enough about the subject to pronounce it properly
seem to have the most opportunities to use the word?

....and how about in-TEG-ral?
 
P

Paul Burke

Jan 1, 1970
0
JeffM said:
...and how about in-TEG-ral?

The adoption of US pronunciation in the UK often accompanies a change in
meaning. For example, my mother often complained that we children were
harassing her. That's HARassing. Then in the 80s, other women complained
that men (not me I hasten to say) were harassing them. That's harASSing,
and was NOT what we were doing to Mum.

Paul Burke
 
R

Rich Grise

Jan 1, 1970
0
Paul Burke said:
The adoption of US pronunciation in the UK often accompanies a change in
meaning. For example, my mother often complained that we children were
harassing her. That's HARassing. Then in the 80s, other women complained
that men (not me I hasten to say) were harassing them. That's harASSing,
and was NOT what we were doing to Mum.

On the TV news they talk about "Sexual Harrisment", presumably because
the correct pronounciation has "her ass" in it.

Cheers!
Rich
 
D

Don Pearce

Jan 1, 1970
0
On the TV news they talk about "Sexual Harrisment", presumably because
the correct pronounciation has "her ass" in it.

Cheers!
Rich

The correct pronunciation has the stress on the first syllable HARRass
- I presume that is what you mean for your news quote. I'm afraid the
"her ass" pronunciation is quite wrong.

d
Pearce Consulting
http://www.pearce.uk.com
 
M

Max Hauser

Jan 1, 1970
0
Glad to see this interest in the Pandora's Volt incident! ;-)

Don Pearce said:
The correct pronunciation has the stress on the
first syllable HARRass

Don't blame everyone in the US for this. (Statistic in a moment, stay with
me.) It's an accent shift. Words start out in established form
(HARRassment, LAMentable, PATina) and for whatever reason, probably people
seeing them written more than spoken, the accent adapts to the speaker's
vocabulary. Many people in the US use those original British pronunciations
(though those who don't tend not to know this, and to find them strange or
affected -- I made the mistake of bringing this up with someone at a weekend
lunch party and got the usual argument in such cases, widely considered
definitive today in the US: " *I* never heard it that way!").

The full-size 1992 AHD (a very popular dictionary for US English among
people who work much with words) has a Usage Note on "harrass" mentioning
that its diverse Usage Panel split 50-50 between accenting first and second
syllables, and added "... each side regards itself as an embattled
minority." Touché!


Max Hauser
 
P

Paul Burke

Jan 1, 1970
0
Rich said:
On the TV news they talk about "Sexual Harrisment", presumably because
the correct pronounciation has "her ass" in it.

What's it like in Harrisburg then?

Paul Burke
 
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