5 ms·
The Craft of Experimental Physics (2015)
- bmikkelsen 3y agoSuch an engaging read. Someone recently posted how utterly maddening it was as a physicist to identify and fix leaks. Wish I could find that comment again.
- dang 3y agoI think we put that one in https://news.ycombinator.com/highlights https://news.ycombinator.com/highlights if anyone can find it there... Edit: ah yes - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36812285 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36812285 (July 2023)
- trust_bt_verify 3y agoPrevious discussion: - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25876989 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25876989 - Jan 21 - 1 comment
- dang 3y agoYup, we invited the repost because it looked like a good article for HN and hadn't gotten much attention. There's a saga behind this - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37364619 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37364619 if anyone's interested...
- yodon 3y agoI'm not able to find a copy online but the 1933 book this article discusses is truly amazing. Full of techniques for fabricating all sorts of things. If you consider yourself a maker you want to read the book.
- cshimmin 3y agoWhat's the title of the book?
- yodon 3y agoFrom the second sentence of the article, The Craft of Experimental Physics, by P.M.S. Blackett.
- gtsnexp 3y agoThat seems to be the title of the essay, not the book in which it was printed
- wolfgang42 3y agoWorking backwards from the header in the linked PDF, I found “University studies, Cambridge, 1933”: https://www.worldcat.org/title/1197571 https://www.worldcat.org/title/1197571 (Contents: Introduction, by Harold Wright; Philosophy, by R.B. Braithwaite; Mathematics, by M.H.A. Newman; The craft of experimental physics, by P.M.S. Blackett; Chemistry, by C.P. Snow; Physiological research, by R.K. Matthews; Biology, by C.H. Waddington; History, by R.E. Balfour; The study of the classics at Cambridge, by B.L. Hallward; English literature, by F.L. Lucas)
- bramblerose 3y agoThere is a link to a scan at the bottom of the article (although it currently doesn't load for me)
- webnrrd2k 3y agoIf you like making things by hand, the old Machinist's Handbooks are also really good to have, with lots of old but still fascinating, and even occasionally useful stuff in 'em.
- OldGuyInTheClub 3y agoI love these, old books on engineering design, and historical technical drawings. The cost of errors must have been astronomical before CAD and Ctrl-Z. I can only imagine how much focus was required to do the complex shadings and exploded diagrams we now take for granted.
- OldGuyInTheClub 3y agoAs an aging experimenter, I wish I had known about this article decades ago. Leaks are a fine metaphor for the endless detail work that accompanies and often overwhelms the life. Freeman Dyson had great respect for Blackett saying that Bomber Command would not let Blackett anywhere near the place because he could and would speak facts to them about their failing policies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pVG3nYrXbE&list=PLVV0r6CmEsFzDA6mtmKQEgWfcIu49J4nN&index=37 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pVG3nYrXbE&list=PLVV0r6CmEs... "We had absolutely no communication with Blackett, and that was clearly not accidental, because Blackett had started Operations Research in the Navy and been extremely successful and done all sorts of good things for the Navy, and then it spread from there to Coastal Command, where they also did very well. In both places they were highly critical of what Bomber Command was doing. Blackett, of course, was a man of great character and he had no hesitations in speaking the truth, no matter how unpleasant the truth might be. And in Bomber Command it was totally different and it was clear that people of Blackett's calibre were just not going to get their nose in the door..."