-----Original Message-----
From: Harry Veeder
I suspect there is something important missing from this account.
What prompted Moller to look at Langmuir's work in the first place?
The impetus was that Moller, who is Danish, found and read private letters
from Bohr (the great Dane) to Langmuir. These are in a collection of
memorabilia in Copenhagen - in the Bohr library but have never been
published. You will have to go there if you want to confirm this story -
which was told to me first-hand by Nicholas Moller.
These letters indicate that Langmuir when he was developing his hydrogen
torch found and documented anomalous and large thermal gain but could not
explain it.
Bohr who was Langmuir's mentor at this time and the most respected physicist
in the World (probably) strongly advised Langmuir NOT to publish this, for
fear that he would be laughed out of the physic's establishment.
Most ironic - in terms of what happened later. You remember the term
"pathological science", no? It has a twisted history.
Jones
