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Re: What do you say to people?

Subject:       Re: What do you say to people?
       Date:   Thu, 8 May 1997 17:33:34 +1200
       From:   "Malcolm Watts" <MALCOLM-at-directorate.wnp.ac.nz>
Organization:  Wellington Polytechnic, NZ
         To:   tesla-at-pupman-dot-com


Hi Jeremy, all,
                  Yeah, it seems that anybody you invite in for a 
look asks the same things.....

>   From:    Jeremy Bair <pwac-at-flinet-dot-com>
>     To:    tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
>     CC:    pwac-at-flinet-dot-com
> 
> 
> When someone approaches you with these question:
> 
> "Why? Why would you build such a crazy device?". or
> "What purpose could this device possibly have for you?".
> (I'm sure you have heard a thousand other variations)
> 
> How would we respond? I am asked this MORE than enough times maybe four
> or
> five times a day, depending on who is around. I've been asked by my
> parents, by friends, and by some nosy teachers (like some who have seen
> my
> strange photographs, you know, of my secondary, my caps etc). 
> 
> I simply respond something like:
> 
> "I'm recreating an invention by a famous inventor". or
> "I am expanding my knowledge in a very entertaining way". or
> "Mind your own damn business, teacher!".
> 
> I'm interested onto what other people think.

      I was skeptically asked this by someone a few months ago. They 
just couldn't understand when I said that it involves some 
interesting engineering problems, that not all is known and there is 
plenty to discover, and that there is always the thrill of 
threatening to get wiped out by your own creation at the end of the 
day ;) - well making something that's more spectacular than a lot of 
what passes for fireworks these days :(  I also put in a plug for 
Tesla.
      Some uses I list: Golka's use of the technology for 
investigating the effects of lightning attachment to aircraft (not 
stunningly convincing to a lot in the know. I would have thought a 
Marx Bank was much more real. Golka justifies it on the grounds that 
the coil will attach just about anywhere (which it will).
     Diathermy (die-what??) 
     Kirlian photography (hmmmm.....)

Malcolm
<snip>