There was a man killed in this explosion. Either Feynamnn was guilty of manslaughter or Papp was guilty of manslaughter.
Neither ever got his day in court. On Mon, Aug 20, 2012 at 10:36 AM, Harry Veeder <hveeder...@gmail.com> wrote: > FYI Feynman on the Papp engine and explosion > > http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/comments/papparticle2.html > > Originally published in LASER, Journal of the Southern Californian Skeptics > > quote << The engine started to go around, and there was a bit of > disappointment: the propeller of the fan went around quietly without > the noise of an ordinary engine with powerful explosions in the > cylinders, and everything- it looked very much like an electric motor. > > Mr. Papp pulled the plug from the wall, and the fan propeller > continued to turn. 'You see, this cord has nothing to do with the > engine; it's only supplying power to the instruments,' he said. Well, > that was easy. He's got a storage battery inside the engine. 'Do you > mind if I hold the plug?' I asked? 'Not at all,' replied Mr. Papp, and > he handed it to me. > > It wasn't very long before he asked me to give me back the plug. 'I'd > like to hold it a little longer,' I said, figuring that if I stalled > around enough, the damn thing would stop. > > Pretty soon Mr. Papp was frantic, so I (Richard Feynman) gave him back > the plug and he plugged it back into the wall. A few moments later > there was a big explosion>> end quote > > > > Harry > >
