Hey Gents; Just saw a docu on the Great Eastern, w/respect to the laying of the first transatlantic cable for telegraphy. Interesting story, that. One thing they didn't explain, was that it seemed from the visuals that a single large cable was used. What was the return circuit? The first cable failed after 23 days, due to shoddy design and lack of consideration of even the basics of electronics that were known at the time. The next attempt ( can't keep a good salesman down, failure only encourages them ) used the ship ( which also was an economic disaster ) to lay the cable. Thanks to congress, the next effort forced them to use Lord Kelvin rather than the shakey doctor employed for the first attempt. But the goverment is evil, so just ignore that. It worked, and we've been able to hear Frank Grimer ever since ( Hi Frank! ).
K. -----Original Message----- From: Jed Rothwell [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2005 1:46 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Laddermill Wind Generator Jones Beene wrote: Imagine a gigantic light-weight "Ferris wheel" built using kevlar spokes with a thin rim of kevlar and with the airfoils attached to that rim. The airfoils would be individually controlled in their "attack angle" . . . Ah, yes. It would resemble a marine paddle wheel. The later ones changed the angle of attack of paddles as they rotated. The largest ones ever made were on the Great Eastern. They were 17 meters in diameter. See photo here: http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/conMediaFile.28/The-paddle-wheels-during-the-building-of-the-Great-Eastern.html This idea incorporates my nutty plan to build a 1-km wheel. I still think it is out of the question, but this is better than having steel cables fall out of the sky. - Jed
