From: mcelwre@cnsvax.uwec.edu
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic
Subject: UN-WISE QUOTES
Date: 29 Sep 92 19:21:06 -0600
Organization: University of Wisconsin Eau Claire

          
          
                                 UN-wise Quotes

               The following three quotations of past "scientists" were 
          supplied to a "Theoretical Mechanics" class at UW-EC: 
    
               "The demonstration that no possible combination of known 
          substances, known forms of machinery and known forms of 
          force, can be united in a practical machine by which man 
          shall fly long distances through the air, seems to the writer 
          as complete as it is possible for the demonstration of any 
          physical fact to be."  Simon Newcomb, 1901 
      
               "The popular mind often pictures gigantic flying 
          machines speeding across the Atlantic and carrying 
          innumerable passengers in a way analogous to our modern 
          steamships...  It seems safe to say that such ideas must be 
          wholly visionary, and even if a machine could get across with 
          one or two passengers the expense would be prohibitive to any 
          but the capitalist who could own his own yacht. 
               "Another popular fallacy is to expect enormous speed to 
          be obtained.  It must be remembered that the resistance of 
          the air increases as the square of the speed and the work as 
          the cube... If with 30 h.p. we can now attain a speed of 40 
          m.p.h., then in order to reach a speed of 100 m.p.h. we must 
          use a motor capable of 470 h.p.... it is clear that with our 
          present devices there is no hope of competing for racing 
          speed with either our locomotives or our automobiles."  
          William H. Pickering, 1905 
    
               "This foolish idea of shooting at the moon is an example 
          of the absurd length to which vicious specialization will 
          carry scientists working in thought-tight compartments.  Let 
          us critically examine the proposal.  For a projectile 
          entirely to escape the gravitation of the earth, it needs a 
          velocity of 7 miles a second.  The thermal energy of a gramme 
          at this speed is 15,180 calories...  The energy of our most 
          violent explosive - nitroglycerine - is less than 1,500 
          calories per gramme.  Consequently, even had the explosive 
          nothing to carry, it has only one-tenth of the energy 
          necessary to escape the earth...  Hence the proposition 
          appears to be basically impossible..."  A.W. Bickerton, 1926 

    
               Fortunately, a few SMART inventors and scientists did 
          NOT take such authoritative pronouncements to be the final 
          word. 
    
    
               Modern orthodox "scientists" are still saying SIMILAR 
          things AGAINST UFO Spacecraft, Gravity Neutralization, 
          Electromagnetic Propulsion, Free-Energy Technologies, 
          Biological Transmutations, Hollow Earth Theory, Natural Anti-
          cancer Remedies, Cold Fusion, Radionic/Psionic Devices, 
          Astrological Influences, etc., ETC.. 
    
               "THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME." 
    


               UN-altered REPRODUCTION and DISSEMINATION of these 
          quotes, WITH my comments, is ENCOURAGED. 


                                     Robert E. McElwaine
                                     B.S., Physics and Astronomy, UW-EC

    
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic