url: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/m61145.html
RE: CS>Re: Bob Beck interview
From: Ivan Anderson
Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2003 05:33:01
> You could be correct, but regarding the strobe flash, there are
> 170 odd patents in the electronic flash classification of which
> only 55 are searchable by text. It is my understanding that his
> patent was an adaptation of the original with regard to
> portability or camera mounting or some such.
>Regards
>Ivan.
Hi Ivan,
Very nice to see your posts again! Yes, you have to have a
subscription to Delphion to search the patent database before 1971.
However, there are a lot of myths surrounding Dr. Bob Beck. One is
that he made millions on his strobe flash patent. Another site has a
biography, which states he sold it for $500:
As a photographer, he applied his talents to developing an
electronic flash for his camera. "I learned to blow glass and I
bought a container of xenon for $70. It was too valuable to leave
at Wilcox Photo Sales where I was doing the work, so I took it
home with me. Mother said, `What's that?' I said xenon. `What did
it cost?' I said $70. She exploded. `You paid $70 for that empty
glass thing!' When she looked at that she saw nothing. The gas was
invisible. When I looked at it I saw the future of photography."
Bob sold the patent his low voltage flashcube to Ed Wilcox for
$500.
"That was the most money I'd ever seen in my life, paid for my
last semester at USC When the Olympics were held here in Los
Angeles and the coliseum was full of people, the announcer
suggested that they turn out the lights in the stadium and people
flash to signify they'd had a good time. I was sitting in my
bedroom looking at the television and here were these what looked
like hundreds of thousands of flashbulbs. Tears came to my eyes
because I realized that all of those things were my grandchildren
and it wasn't just one or two units or a dozen at Life magazine
that I built with my own hands, it was the whole world using my
grandchildren."
http://sharinghealth.com/researchers/beck.html
So, assuming he is blowing glass, he is trying to make a flash
strobe like Dr. Edgerton's. However, Krypton is normally used for
very high speed flashes, and is unsuitable by itself for color
photography. Other gasses such as Xenon are needed to obtain the
proper color balance:
http://photography.about.com/library/weekly/aa040201d.htm
This takes very expensive equipment to adjust the mixture and keep
it correct. So it doesn't look like something you could make on a
kitchen table at home.
In addition, I think the general school policy around that time was
for students to assign any patent rights to the University. It
certainly was true when I was at MIT in the late 60's. I had to
assign my first patent to MIT, and I still have the dollar they gave
me in return:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/add.automation/patents/3674930.htm
So I don't know how much truth there may be in some of these
stories.
But I think the important point is Dr. Beck was one of the early
adopters of colloidal silver.
I wrote Mark Metcalf and asked him where he got the idea for the
three nines. He replied that he always credited Dr. Beck for the
discovery in his articles. Also, Dr. Beck was mentioned very early
in the list archives.
So Dr. Beck's place in the history of cs is assured, regardless of
some of the myths that may surround his early career.
Anyway, it's great to see your posts again. I don't know if you
remember me - I was the one with a lot of questions that you gently
answered long ago:
http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/m17180.html
http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/m17312.html
Now, after searching the archives and learning as much as I can
about the subject, I have come up with a theory on the process of
making cs. If you have time, I would really appreciate if you
could take a look and let me know what you think:
http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/m61188.html
There is an additional post that may be relevant:
http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/m61190.html
I also have some other information on making cs with low current
that may interest you, but I'll wait to see if you have time.
Best Regards,
Mike Monett
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