On Mon, Dec 17, 2012 at 7:47 AM, Jones Beene <jone...@pacbell.net> wrote: > -----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. >
Yes it is ironic. Science comes from the Latin word scientia meaning knowledge The Renaissance had "heretical" science. Today we have "pathological" science. harry
