As I write this President's Message I have had over a week of almost uninterrupted thought to contemplate the concept of a paradigm shift. I'll explain how I came about looking at the idea of paradigm shift in a moment. However, first let us look at the concept of a paradigm. A paradigm is any pattern or example. In life a paradigm is a set of rules that we follow. For example, before the electric light was invented, the paradigm for keeping a house lit at night was to light candles or oil lamps. However, with the invention of the electric light there was a paradigm shift. The new paradigm for keeping a house lit at night is simply to turn on light switches.
In science we are constantly faced with paradigms, and occasionally we must look at the possibility of a paradigm shift. A few years before ESA member Bernard Vonnegut died he wrote an interesting article (The Atmospheric Electricity Paradigm, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 75, (1994) pp. 53-61) in which he asked whether we needed to look at a paradigm shift in order to understand the mechanisms involved in the electrical thunderstorm. His argument is that if we start out with a basic set of premises and build a theory around these premises then the basic premises become our paradigm. If after many years of developing our theory we still do not get theory and experiments to agree, then perhaps we must abandon our basic premises and start over again. This abandonment of the basic premise is analogous to a paradigm shift. The alchemists believed they could use earth (base metals), fire, water and air in certain ratios to make gold. That paradigm was soon abandoned even though the wealthy and greedy who funded the alchemists thought the paradigm had a wonderful sound to it. In time the periodic table became the paradigm shift and the goal of making gold has been replaced by the goal of making plastics, semiconductors and other useful materials. I recently slipped on some black ice and broke my ankle in three places. This has given me the opportunity of looking at a paradigm shift in my life. The old paradigm to get to work was to just hop in the car and drive to work. The new paradigm is to accept dependence on others: my wife, our children, my colleagues at work and even perfect strangers who happen by and lend me a hand. My paradigm shift is only temporary (I hope), but a paradigm shift nevertheless.
The lightning storm, the electrical discharge and triboelectrification are three areas where we have had paradigms for many years and where we still must admit that we lack basic understanding.
Albert Einstein once said "You can never solve a problem with the same kind of thinking that created the problem in the first place." Perhaps we should look at our assumptions in triboelectrification and other electrostatics areas and determine if a paradigm shift is in order.
For the Friendly Society,
Al Seaver
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), the Croatian-American inventor who made numerous important contributions to the development of radio transmission and to the field of electricity. His inventions included the development of alternating current, an arc-lighting system, the Tesla induction motor, the Tesla coil, and various generators and transformers. His ideas had relevance to such fields as robotics, computers, and missile science, and paved the way for advances in satellites, microwaves, beam weapons, and nuclear fusion. His friends included author Mark Twain and industrialist George Westinghouse; his adversaries included Thomas Edison and Guglielmo Marconi.
In Tesla: Man Out of Time (1981), Margaret Cheney gives the following explanation of the Tesla-Edison feud:
The personality differences between the two men doomed their relationship from the start. Edison disliked Tesla for being an egghead, a theoretician, and cultured. Ninety-nine percent of genius, according the Wizard of Menlo Park [Edison], was "knowing the things that would not work." Hence he himself approached each problem with an elaborate process of elimination.
Of these 'empirical dragnets' Tesla would later say amusedly, 'If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search. I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety-nine percent of his labor.
The well-known editor and engineer Thomas Commerford Martin recorded that Edison, unable to find Tesla's obscure birthplace in Croatia on a map, once seriously asked him whether he had ever eaten human flesh. Even the most cometic genius has its orbit,' Martin wisely wrote, and these two men are singularly representative of different kinds of training, different methods, and different strains. Mr. Tesla must needs draw apart ... for his own work's sake.
In so basic a matter as personal hygiene they could not have been more different: Tesla, afraid of germs, fastidious in the extreme, once observed of Edison, "He had no hobby, cared for no sport or amusement of any kind, and lived in utter disregard of the most elementary rules of hygiene. If he had not married later a woman of exceptional intelligence, who made it the one object of her life to preserve him, he would have died many years ago from the consequences of sheer neglect..."
The irreconcilable differences, however, went beyond personality. Edison sensed the talented foreigner's threat to his [Edison's] direct-current system, erroneously thinking DC was vital to the manufacture and sale of his incandescent light bulbs. It was the old story of vested interest. At the beginning Edison himself had met with violent resistance from the
gas monopolies. He had beaten down the gas companies with his natural gift for propaganda, putting out regular bulletins in which he gleefully described the dangers of gas-main explosions. His salesmen were sent out to cover the country, reporting every incident of 'industrial oppression' in which workers' health allegedly had been 'injured' by gas heat or their vision damaged by gaslights. Now it looked as if he might have to lash out against an even newer technology than his own.
Our Archivist, Anne S. Benninghoff requests any member attending the conference who has materials which should be in the official ESA Archive to bring them to the conference with them for transfer to her.
- Atmospheric Electricity
- Biological Applications
- Breakdown and Discharges
- Charging and Neutralization
- Coating and Painting
- Computational and Analytical Methods
- Display Devices
- Electrets
- Electrohydrodynamics
- Electrophotography and Printing
- Electrostatic Propulsion
- Electrostatic Demonstrations
- Electrostatics Education
- ESD Prevention and Detection
- Instrumentation and Control
- Particle Control and Transport
- Precipitators and Cleaners
- Safety and Hazards
- Sprays and Droplets
- Triboelectrification
-Formal Paper: Authors may submit a full-length written paper to be published in the ESA proceedings. An oral presentation will be given at the conference.
-Oral Presentation With Abstract: Authors may submit a one to two page abstract which will be published in the ESA proceedings. An oral presentation will be given at the conference.
-Informal Oral Presentation: Speakers may offer informal presentations that inform attendees of recent developments, observations, or preliminary results that are not extensive enough to warrant a formal presentation. The author need only provide a title to the Conference Chair by the April 15 deadline.
-February 28, 1999: Tentative titles. (Submit to Conference Chair)
-April 15, 1999: Final deadline for all titles: formal, oral, and informal. (Submit to Conference Chair)
-April 15, 1999: Full manuscripts and abstracts (Send to Publications Committee Chair)
Instructions for preparing and sending full manuscripts and abstracts can be found on the ESA web site: www.electrostatics.org. Preparation instructions also will be sent to all authors who submit titles.
Registration and detailed conference information will be included in
the February ESA newsletter and also will be available on the ESA web
site: www.electrostatics.org. Information also may be obtained by
contacting the Conference Chair.
CONFERENCE CHAIR:
Dr. Mark N. Horenstein
Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Boston University, 8 Saint Mary's St.
Boston, MA 02215
Ph: 617-353-9052 Fax: 617-353-6440
email: mnh@bu.edu
PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE CHAIR:
Dr. Joseph M. Crowley
Electrostatic Applications
16525 Jackson Oaks Drive
Morgan Hill, CA 95037
Ph: 408-779-7774 Fax: 408-779-3638
e-mail: electro@electrostatic.com
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