Monday, December 11, 2017
Lost Shepardson
Shepardson in 1901 discussed feeding plants with electric charge, treating the subject as common knowledge. It's not common knowledge now!
How long had it been common knowledge?
Here's an enticingly brief description of a French application in 1755.
Transcribed: In the apparatus illustrated below, a hydraulic motor was employed to drive two frictional electrical machines which supplied electricity to the flower stand mounted on insulators. The apparatus was built in 1755.
The "hydraulic motor" is an unclear term, and the picture doesn't help. The static generators look like Vandegraaff types, apparently charging up the entire base for the potted plants, thus creating a strong field between the plants and the ambient air.
But what happens when the shoppers touch the railing? More likely the static machines were 'sprinkling' charge over the plants. The picture lends some credence to this guess.
From a newly posted Gernsback mag at American Radio History.
= = = = =
Later: Immediate answers to the questions posed by Shepardson, and to the practicalities of 'electric cultivation', in another issue of the same newly posted Gernsback mag. See p 39 of the PDF for a detailed set of experiments and answers.
How long had it been common knowledge?
Here's an enticingly brief description of a French application in 1755.
Transcribed: In the apparatus illustrated below, a hydraulic motor was employed to drive two frictional electrical machines which supplied electricity to the flower stand mounted on insulators. The apparatus was built in 1755.
The "hydraulic motor" is an unclear term, and the picture doesn't help. The static generators look like Vandegraaff types, apparently charging up the entire base for the potted plants, thus creating a strong field between the plants and the ambient air.
But what happens when the shoppers touch the railing? More likely the static machines were 'sprinkling' charge over the plants. The picture lends some credence to this guess.
From a newly posted Gernsback mag at American Radio History.
= = = = =
Later: Immediate answers to the questions posed by Shepardson, and to the practicalities of 'electric cultivation', in another issue of the same newly posted Gernsback mag. See p 39 of the PDF for a detailed set of experiments and answers.Labels: 1901, Alternate universe, Answered better than asked
¶ 3:43 AM
