https://www.amazon.com/Times-Blumlein-History-Management-Technology/dp/085296773X/ This guy practically invented electronics design. And seriously helped England win WWII. He invented the cathode follower and the long-tail pair.
Blumlein book
Started by ●December 31, 2023
Reply by ●January 1, 20242024-01-01
On Monday, January 1, 2024 at 9:38:56 AM UTC+11, John Larkin wrote:> https://www.amazon.com/Times-Blumlein-History-Management-Technology/dp/085296773X/ > > This guy practically invented electronics design. And seriously helped > England win WWII. > > He invented the cathode follower and the long-tail pair.Not to mention stereophonic recording and colour TV. I worked at EMI Central Research from 1976 to 1979. He'd died before I was born but he was still their star engineer, with 128 patents to his name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godfrey_Hounsfield was still around when I worked there and got his Nobel Prize at about the same time that I moved on, but he wasn't nearly as impressive. -- Bill Sloman, Sydney
Reply by ●January 1, 20242024-01-01
On Sun, 31 Dec 2023 14:37:45 -0800, John Larkin <jl@997PotHill.com> wrote:> >https://www.amazon.com/Times-Blumlein-History-Management-Technology/dp/085296773X/ > >This guy practically invented electronics design. And seriously helped >England win WWII. > >He invented the cathode follower and the long-tail pair.and the decibeelze.. "While at ISEC, Kaye and Blumlein encountered a member of staff who was 'very slow'. 'He was one of the old brigade [and] was so slow at getting any action going that it was almost unbelievable. For some reasons he had been nicknamed Beelzebub�quite a decent bloke [really]. So we had a unit called the 'beelze' [which was the] ratio of the time it took Beelzebub to do a job to the time it took any normal [person] in the office to do it. But it was such an enormous unit [that] for all practical purposes we all had to work in decibeelzes.'"
Reply by ●January 1, 20242024-01-01
On 31/12/2023 10:37 pm, John Larkin wrote:> > https://www.amazon.com/Times-Blumlein-History-Management-Technology/dp/085296773X/ > > This guy practically invented electronics design. And seriously helped > England win WWII. > > He invented the cathode follower and the long-tail pair. >He lives on in the trillion op-amps made each year! I think he used the long tail pair topology not only as linear low-drift diff amps but also as a fast current steering switch. Thanks for heads up, I will get the book. piglet
Reply by ●January 1, 20242024-01-01
On Mon, 1 Jan 2024 11:25:25 +0000, piglet <erichpwagner@hotmail.com> wrote:>On 31/12/2023 10:37 pm, John Larkin wrote: >> >> https://www.amazon.com/Times-Blumlein-History-Management-Technology/dp/085296773X/ >> >> This guy practically invented electronics design. And seriously helped >> England win WWII. >> >> He invented the cathode follower and the long-tail pair. >> >He lives on in the trillion op-amps made each year! I think he used the >long tail pair topology not only as linear low-drift diff amps but also >as a fast current steering switch. Thanks for heads up, I will get the book. > > >piglet > >There is some philosophizing on the nature of genius and invention, with comparisons to Edison and Marconi and some others. What's interesting is that Blumlein was very mathematical but could barely read. And his hand-drawn schematics were awful. Doing the 405-line interlaced video generation and reception with pre-WWII tubes is awesome.
Reply by ●January 1, 20242024-01-01
On Mon, 01 Jan 2024 08:17:23 -0800, John Larkin <jl@997PotHill.com> wrote:>On Mon, 1 Jan 2024 11:25:25 +0000, piglet <erichpwagner@hotmail.com> >wrote: > >>On 31/12/2023 10:37 pm, John Larkin wrote: >>> >>> https://www.amazon.com/Times-Blumlein-History-Management-Technology/dp/085296773X/ >>> >>> This guy practically invented electronics design. And seriously helped >>> England win WWII. >>> >>> He invented the cathode follower and the long-tail pair. >>> >>He lives on in the trillion op-amps made each year! I think he used the >>long tail pair topology not only as linear low-drift diff amps but also >>as a fast current steering switch. Thanks for heads up, I will get the book. >> >> >>piglet >> >> > >There is some philosophizing on the nature of genius and invention, >with comparisons to Edison and Marconi and some others. > >What's interesting is that Blumlein was very mathematical but could >barely read. And his hand-drawn schematics were awful. >It seems to be you that cannot read. "As an aside: when a Greater London Council (GLC) commemorative 'blue' plaque, in memory of Blumlein, was unveiled at a ceremony held on 1st June 1977 at 37 The Ridings, Ealing, where he had lived, the press made much of the oft-quoted statement that he did not learn to read until he was 12. Sometimes this statement is given as: 'He could not read at 12 but he knew a lot about quadratic equations.' The story is apocryphal rather than anecdotal, as his school reports confirm. Miss Chataway's reports show clearly that Alan's reading was 'good'. Presumably he did not enjoy reading but he did enjoy mathematics." The above relates to his time at primary school. At secondary school a contemporary states:- "'Alan was, I well recall, a voracious reader, and [it] seems that this could well have been his defence against the eternal small cricket and the like which left him so cold. 'I can see him now, sitting with his nose in a novel, completely oblivious of the bear-garden around him in the House common room. And I can well re- call too his quick impatience, softened with a smile when I once offered him a book. A glance, then: "Oh, I have read that." � and he was gone, no doubt in search of something more attractive.">Doing the 405-line interlaced video generation and reception with >pre-WWII tubes is awesome.
Reply by ●January 1, 20242024-01-01
On Mon, 01 Jan 2024 23:24:32 +0000, JM <sunaecoNoSpam@gmail.com> wrote:>On Mon, 01 Jan 2024 08:17:23 -0800, John Larkin <jl@997PotHill.com> wrote: > >>On Mon, 1 Jan 2024 11:25:25 +0000, piglet <erichpwagner@hotmail.com> >>wrote: >> >>>On 31/12/2023 10:37 pm, John Larkin wrote: >>>> >>>> https://www.amazon.com/Times-Blumlein-History-Management-Technology/dp/085296773X/ >>>> >>>> This guy practically invented electronics design. And seriously helped >>>> England win WWII. >>>> >>>> He invented the cathode follower and the long-tail pair. >>>> >>>He lives on in the trillion op-amps made each year! I think he used the >>>long tail pair topology not only as linear low-drift diff amps but also >>>as a fast current steering switch. Thanks for heads up, I will get the book. >>> >>> >>>piglet >>> >>> >> >>There is some philosophizing on the nature of genius and invention, >>with comparisons to Edison and Marconi and some others. >> >>What's interesting is that Blumlein was very mathematical but could >>barely read. And his hand-drawn schematics were awful. >> > >It seems to be you that cannot read.Why do so many creeps, and so few electronic designers, post here? We won't miss google groups.
Reply by ●January 1, 20242024-01-01
On Tuesday, January 2, 2024 at 3:18:37 AM UTC+11, John Larkin wrote:> On Mon, 1 Jan 2024 11:25:25 +0000, piglet <erichp...@hotmail.com> > wrote: > >On 31/12/2023 10:37 pm, John Larkin wrote: > >> > >> https://www.amazon.com/Times-Blumlein-History-Management-Technology/dp/085296773X/ > >> > >> This guy practically invented electronics design. And seriously helped > >> England win WWII. > >> > >> He invented the cathode follower and the long-tail pair. > >> > >He lives on in the trillion op-amps made each year! I think he used the > >long tail pair topology not only as linear low-drift diff amps but also > >as a fast current steering switch. Thanks for heads up, I will get the book. > > > There is some philosophizing on the nature of genius and invention, > with comparisons to Edison and Marconi and some others. > > What's interesting is that Blumlein was very mathematical but could > barely read.Not true.> And his hand-drawn schematics were awful.That might have been a social class thing. When I was working in the UK any circuit diagram I created had to be redrawn by draughtsmen to conform to all the company rules about schematics, They were technicians - a blue-collar job - and I was an engineer, a white-collar job. I got jeered at when I sat down at typewriter and typed a memo for myself - that was a typists job.> Doing the 405-line interlaced video generation and reception with pre-WWII tubes is awesome.Blumlein was reliably awesome. I first ran into the name when I was graduate student - H.K.P. Neubert's book "instrument Tranducers" has four references to the "Blumlein bridge". My second-hand copy of the book came from the Sandia Lab library at Livermore, California, via Amazon. -- Bill Sloman. Sydney
Reply by ●January 1, 20242024-01-01
On 2/01/2024 11:50 am, John Larkin wrote:> On Mon, 01 Jan 2024 23:24:32 +0000, JM <sunaecoNoSpam@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> On Mon, 01 Jan 2024 08:17:23 -0800, John Larkin <jl@997PotHill.com> wrote: >> >>> On Mon, 1 Jan 2024 11:25:25 +0000, piglet <erichpwagner@hotmail.com> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> On 31/12/2023 10:37 pm, John Larkin wrote: >>>>> >>>>> https://www.amazon.com/Times-Blumlein-History-Management-Technology/dp/085296773X/ >>>>> >>>>> This guy practically invented electronics design. And seriously helped >>>>> England win WWII. >>>>> >>>>> He invented the cathode follower and the long-tail pair. >>>>> >>>> He lives on in the trillion op-amps made each year! I think he used the >>>> long tail pair topology not only as linear low-drift diff amps but also >>>> as a fast current steering switch. Thanks for heads up, I will get the book. >>> >>> There is some philosophizing on the nature of genius and invention, >>> with comparisons to Edison and Marconi and some others. >>> >>> What's interesting is that Blumlein was very mathematical but could >>> barely read. And his hand-drawn schematics were awful. >>> >> >> It seems to be you that cannot read. > > Why do so many creeps, and so few electronic designers, post here? We > won't miss google groups.You are the creep here. JM is no less an electronic designer than you are, and much better informed on the history of the subject. He used to correspond with Peter Baxandall, which is an honour I never aspired to. I have talked to Jim Williams, Barry Gilbert and Bill Percival but what they had doesn't seem to have rubbed off onto me. -- Bill Sloman, Sydney
Reply by ●January 2, 20242024-01-02
On 1/2/24 01:50, John Larkin wrote:> On Mon, 01 Jan 2024 23:24:32 +0000, JM <sunaecoNoSpam@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> On Mon, 01 Jan 2024 08:17:23 -0800, John Larkin <jl@997PotHill.com> wrote: >> >>> On Mon, 1 Jan 2024 11:25:25 +0000, piglet <erichpwagner@hotmail.com> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> On 31/12/2023 10:37 pm, John Larkin wrote: >>>>> >>>>> https://www.amazon.com/Times-Blumlein-History-Management-Technology/dp/085296773X/ >>>>> >>>>> This guy practically invented electronics design. And seriously helped >>>>> England win WWII. >>>>> >>>>> He invented the cathode follower and the long-tail pair. >>>>> >>>> He lives on in the trillion op-amps made each year! I think he used the >>>> long tail pair topology not only as linear low-drift diff amps but also >>>> as a fast current steering switch. Thanks for heads up, I will get the book. >>>> >>>> >>>> piglet >>>> >>>> >>> >>> There is some philosophizing on the nature of genius and invention, >>> with comparisons to Edison and Marconi and some others. >>> >>> What's interesting is that Blumlein was very mathematical but could >>> barely read. And his hand-drawn schematics were awful. >>> >> >> It seems to be you that cannot read. > > Why do so many creeps, and so few electronic designers, post here? We > won't miss google groups.Creeps want attention. Unfortunately, they often get it here. Jeroen Belleman
