Se-lu 3, me-lu edition
Cool weather loosens me up. More concretely, with the air conditioner finally getting its well-deserved rest, the desk where I do electronic stuff is more comfortable. Since courseware work is under control at the moment, I decided to do electronic stuff.

Earlier I had redrawn Volney Mathison's electropsychometer circuit, which was stolen by Hubbard to create his fake religion. I speculated that it would be more interesting with a zero-center meter instead of Volney's one-way meter protected by diode. Redrew it again, substituting NPN transistors for the tubes, 18-volt power for 250-volt power, and eliminating the diode. Some of Volney's suggested R values aren't standard, so I sub'd the usual 20% standard values.



Built it on my usual breadboard using a zero-center meter. After fiddling with the pots, sure enough it works as specified.



Body resistance registers on the meter. In other words, it's a bridge-style ohmmeter. Not surprising at all, but it's nice to verify WITH ACTUAL EXPERIMENT that Volney's ckt does what it's meant to do! Also the pots do what the patent says they do. One is balance, other is sensitivity.

Next I'll try to rejigger it as differential, with an electrode for each side of the body and a centerpoint on the neck.

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Footnote: Volney's own use of the meter strongly implied a zero-center pattern, even though the meter itself was one-sided. So in some sense I'm retrofitting Volney's meter to match Volney's philosophy. Of course it was mostly** hooey, but Volney was vending harmless hooey, which helped some people to loosen up and solve their own problems. Hubbard used the same hooey to create a vicious Mafia that harnessed people to enrich and empower Hubbard. Crucial difference.

Toenote: Mostly hooey, but one of Volney's observations is real neurology that deserves exploration. More later.

Labels: Aberree, Experiential education, se-lu

  ¶ 3:45 PM