Good fortune has always followed me around. I'm reminded of it tonight. I'm working on a design that involves a thermistor. Modern thermistors are marvels of accuracy and repeatability. Wonderful things.
So, in the 1960s I lived in the Hillcrest area of West Los Angeles. We also had a beach house in Venice Beach. Our next door neighbor was the Link family, as in the child actor Michael Link. Michael's father was a chemist and retiring. He gave his entire personal laboratory to me, which we transported to the basement of our house in West LA and I added chemistry to my studies. Tremendous fun, very educational, even though I didn't become a chemist. Fortunately, he chose someone responsible because, while I was a crazy youthful experimentalist, I wasn't crazy enough to kill myself. The lab included lots of supplies and plenty of very dangerous reagents. Like I said, fun. This was not a child's toy or chemistry set and I was determined to learn how to use it properly. I mainly focused on chemical assaying. As in you give me a rock and I'll tell you what it's made of.
At the same time, one of my parent's many friends was Dr. Samuel Ruben. He visited Los Angeles from time to time. He and I would hang out and discuss chemistry. When he wasn't around, he was at his lab in New Rochelle, NY and we corresponded by written letters. He was my chemistry mentor. At that age and education level, I was not yet qualified to understand all that he had done. As time went on, I learned more about who had been teaching me.
Which brings us back to the thermistor. Dr. Ruben was an expert in electrochemistry. He held around 200 patents including the invention of the modern thermistor. He also invented the dry electrolytic capacitor, the modern alkaline battery, the mercury battery, the tantalum capacitor... on and on. Ruben co-founded with Mallory the Duracell company.
So I'm getting a kick out of closing the loop and holding a thermistor in my hand tonight.
[#]science #technology #chemistry #inventors #electronics #history
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