She Wore A Red Germanium, January 1965 Popular Electronics

Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Popular Electronics, published October 1954 - April 1985. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged. Allegory is not an often seen style of prose in the electronics writing world, and typically is not meant to be humorous; however, there have been a few instances of it in the vintage electronics magazines I read. One of the most famous examples of allegory is a story by Paul Bunyan titled "Pilgrim's Progress." "She Wore a Red Germanium," by Leta Foster Ide, is a more contemporary form of allegory that RF Cafe visitors will appreciate. Mike R. Fonic (microphonic) is the lead character in the story who complains to his doctor, "I'm off my feed. Got no capacity. Fact is, I'm in a breakdown." Mike's wife's Aunt Enna (antenna) is no help, evidently. Come to think of it, the author's name, Leta Foster Ide, almost sounds like it might be a play on words, to wit, "Let A Foste Ride" or "Let a Foster Ide" (whatever those might mean).

Nope, Leta's byline can be found in many magazines of the era. Mike R. Fonic, chief technician for Happy Henry's Hi-Fi Hippodrome, went to see his doctor. He reached for his patient's wrist. He pushed a thermometer into his patient's mouth, probed deeply into his diaphragm, and examined his solenoids. The doctor reached for his prescription pad. He scribbled on the pad. Yes, yes, I know. She keeps you under high tension; but that's because she lives in a vacuum. Having no interests of her own, she channels her energies into disrupting your balance. I suggest you getter into a bridge circuit. You couldn't cell her on the bridge, Doc. The trouble is, you resister. I can't even interrupter! She isn't married, I take it, I see. She's probably starved for affection. If you'd tweeter nicer, maybe you could transformer. Play a.c.-d.c. with her. That's no good, Doc. You're positive, then, that the plan has no potential, I've thought of that. There are times I'd like to decapacitator, but I don't know if I conduit. What if she puts up resistance, I had in mind. There's a better way to transmitter. Well, then, here's another brain wave. If she's so noisy, she probably disturbs the other tenants. She'd raise such a howl, she'd get us all evicted. This old lady is at loose ends. Your attitude is negative, Mike. Can't you engineer an induction , The idea gives you a charge, I can see the pictorial now! There's my boss, Happy Henry. You think they deserve each other, Sure, Doc. A matching pair! We pull a switch. Instead of both bugging me, they can bug each other. Do I detect a flat response, Why the image rejection , How am I going to make this hookup, Where's my lead-in ,

In addition to the research knowledge base, Sandia can tap into a pool of industry partners. “We’re not starting from square one,” Ho concluded. The next step is a two-year design phase. For this phase the Energy Department selected three teams including the one spearheaded by Sandia. The winning team will get additional funding to build a test facility, so this is going to take a while. So, Mars. This came up when Ho mentioned that high temperature CSP is a hot topic in Saudi Arabia, which has lent King Saud University and the Saudi Electricity Company to the Sandia effort. That brought up the use of sand, and that brings to mind NASA’s idea for 3-D printing habitats on Mars. The idea would be to transport printers and a binding agent to Mars and use local material — sand or dirt — for the main ingredient. Now that we’re on Mars, the gravity situation could help resolve one of the main challenges for falling particle technology.

On Earth, the particles fall too quickly for optimal results, so the lower gravity on Mars would be an easy tweak (Sandia is looking at Earthbound solutions for now). Lower gravity would also help save energy on the lift part of the system. On the other hand, solar irradiance is lower on Mars, and then there’s that thing about dust storms. Earth that are similar to Mars. What do you think, Drop your thinks in the comment thread if you have another angle on that. Follow me on Twitter. Image via Sandia National Laboratories: In the falling-particle receiver, sand-like particles fall from a bucket-elevator hopper, at the top of the receiver tower, past the focused solar energy from the heliostat array. The hot particles are kept in the top tank and released into the middle one as energy is required for power generation. In the middle tank, thermal energy is extracted for the power-generation cycle (not shown). The now cooler thermal-storage particles are released from the bottom of the middle tank into the lower tank where the bucket elevator scoops them out to return them to the top of the receiver tower. The bucket elevator’s speed and hopper size are optimized to deliver a particle density to the central receiver focal point that can capture the maximum available concentrated solar energy. Support CleanTechnica’s work via donations on Patreon or PayPal! Or just go buy a cool t-shirt, cup, baby outfit, bag, or hoodie. Tina Casey specializes in military and corporate sustainability, advanced technology, emerging materials, biofuels, and water and wastewater issues. Tina’s articles are reposted frequently on Reuters, Scientific American, and many other sites. Views expressed are her own. Local Scientist Lobs Solar Glitter Bomb At Fossil Fuels!