peterm@rwing.uucp (Peter Marshall) (03/30/91)
From, Langdon Winner, "A Postmodern World's Fair," TECHNOLOGY REVIEW, Feb./Mar., 1991 An interesting counterpoint to the George Gilder article posted here recently, this column is by a member of the Dept. of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Insititute: As I begin making plans to attend the World's Fair in Seville, Spain, in 1992, I'm also girding for the ideological onslaught these events always bring....the underlying message is always the same: celebration of limitless progress through technological change. The Spanish fair seems ready to echo this weary theme with uncritical devotion.... But shouldn't the experience of the past two centuries lead us to reexamine the contexts and consequences of "progress"? I've tried to imagine what an alternative World's Fair might offer. How about "Humanity in a Postmodern World" as a colorful, overarching theme? Here are a few of the fair's possible attractions: The Pavilion for the Social Construction of Science...the social dynamics of science in intricate detail...places where knowledge products, sometimes mistakenly called discoveries, are crafted as within a complex, mulit-centered social process....The pavilion would ask spectators to ponder the question, Science in whose interest?.... Palace to the Ironies of Progress. As they enter the great hall, spectators would compare predictions of past World's Fairs to today's realities.... The palace would also contrast the conventional signs of technological and ecomeconomic advance...with the uncounted costs of these developments.... Theater of Futures Foreclosed. A series of entertainments would show how decisions we make today close off paths that future generations might take.... In short, a Postmodern World's Fair would playfully debunk old myths while encouraging people to try some new ideas on for size. It is unlikely, of course, that such an event could be financed. By removing the need for people to think critically or to demand a share in making decisions, old-fashioned rituals of progress serve the reigning power structure. Thus World's Fairs will go on projecting glossy utopias said to be just around the corner and assuring us that the future is in good hands.
larry@uunet.uu.net (Larry Lippman) (03/31/91)
In article <telecom11.238.2@eecs.nwu.edu> 0004133373@mcimail.com (Donald E. Kimberlin) writes: > > By the way, there is another Ohio name to add to the saga. C. P. > > Stocker designed the first magnetic 60-20 hz converter, called it the > > Sub-Cycle, and founded Lorain Products Inc. just west of Cleveland. > > They also made no end of telco power equipment. > > Lorain Electric is, of course, still in business, providing many a > Sub-Cycle to this very day. Lorain Products has unquestionably been the largest outside supplier of power plants to WECo and the Bell System. It is interesting to note that while WECo designed and manufactured many power plants, in many instances they simply chose to use a Lorain product - which says a great deal about the engineering and manufacturing quality of Lorain Products. One thing I could never figure out was what motivated WECo to design and manufacture a power plant internally as opposed to obtaining one from Lorain Products under a KS-spec. No one I knew at WECo had the answer either, and the best we could figure was that with every new power plant requirement, someone in upper management at WECo would flip a coin having two sides: WECo on one, and Lorain on the other! :-) > Voltages of 24, 48 or 52 Volts at 2,000 or > 5,000 or even 10,000 Amps weren't (and still aren't unusual to provide > talk battery for a whole telephone exchange. They consist simply of > an AC-powered set of rectifiers charging ("floating") a large string > of lead-acid batteries, just like the one in your car, to power the > phones and for that matter the switching and transmission equipment as > well. What's fun is to happen to be near the cells when the AC fails. > The current draw is such you can see the plates in the glass cell > tanks bend and flake under the stress. One can also *hear* the plates in the cells creak, along with hearing an immediate evolution of hydrogen gas bubbles which are thus displaced when the plates are stressed. > It consisted of *forty-two* 6 Volt automobile batteries > connected in series, floated across a rectifier. THAT not only could > shock you; it could do a nice burn at the same time. Needless to say, > one works *very* carefully in such plant! While I did not see it happen, I once saw the aftermath of a 500 MCM 130-volt power feeder cable which shorted to a cable rack when its aged rubber insulation disintegrated during cable "mining" work. The resultant arc burned through a 1/4" by 1-1/2" piece of steel like a knife through butter. The craftsperson doing the work suffered only minor injuries - not from the arc or spewed molten metal, but from falling off a ladder in surprise! :-) A truly scary experience is to move a piece of old RH or RHW rubber-insulated power feeder cable, watch both the outer insulation and the rubber flake into dust, and see exposed conductor within a fraction of an inch of grounded metal! I could never understand why WECo continued to use potentially unstable rubber-insulated power cable for almost forty years after far superior plastic insulation was available following World War II. A cardinal rule in working around batteries is to always use tools that are wrapped with insulating tape - in order to prevent accidental short circuits. I must confess that I did not always follow this rule, and that I have suffered the consequences - which fortunately were minor. Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp. "Have you hugged your cat today?" VOICE: 716/688-1231 {boulder, rutgers, watmath}!ub!kitty!larry FAX: 716/741-9635 [note: ub=acsu.buffalo.edu] uunet!/ \aerion!larry