
Letters of a Radio-Engineer to His Son (1922) - jasperpilgrim
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/30688/30688-h/30688-h.htm
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hprotagonist
It’s always kind of wonderful to read older texts. For one, the style is often
much more approachably clear; for another, sometimes you find hidden gems of
history.

One of my favorite bits of science history is the first edition of a text on
metallurgy, that was meant for sales reps for a carnegie steel affiliate
company.

The purpose of the book was to give sales reps enough clue to not embarrass
themselves; it’s evolved and the book, now in its 8th edition or something, is
a standard reference text for undergraduates.

Anyway the first chapter or so of the 1914 text was explaining the basic
chemistry of the universe and went something like:

 _The three things that make up our physical universe are: matter, which is
stuff that has mass; energy, which is the capacity to do work; and the
luminiferous aether, which is the medium through which light propagates..._

~~~
mjklin
I’ve been reading a lot of H.G. Wells’ nonfiction. As a child in a one-room
English schoolhouse, he was still being taught the four “elements” of earth,
water, fire, and air. Aristotle would be proud!

~~~
hprotagonist
but everything changed when the martians attacked.

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_sbrk
I dislike reading a book in my browser. Here's the Project Gutenberg page with
all file types for offline viewing.

[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30688](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30688)

------
mikermcneil
“Why does it get hot? Because when the electrons stream through it they bump
and jostle their way along like rude boys on a crowded sidewalk. The atoms
have to step a bit more lively to keep out of the way.”

~~~
jasperpilgrim
I can be a bit dense sometimes, and the imagery helps me to grasp the concept.
Fortunately, the book is packed full of descriptions like this.

------
m463
You might enjoy this old radio program where Jean Shepherd discusses getting
his Class A ham radio license when still young and in school:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22fl5JtoZXU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22fl5JtoZXU)
part 1

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR46E_WV6vc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR46E_WV6vc)
part 2

