August 09, 2019 Friday
Bedtime Story
Werner Siemens on Capitalism and Science
Werner von Siemens was one of those rare
and hugely successful entrepreneurs who was in favor of socialist democracy and
openly advocated against capitalism.
He wrote:
“A number of great factories in the hands
of rich capitalists, in which “slaves of work” drag out their miserable
existence, is not, therefore, the goal of the development in the age of natural
science, but a return to the individual labor, or where the nature of things
demands it, the carrying out of common workshops by union of workmen, who will
receive a sound basis only through the general extension of knowledge and
civilization, and through the possibility of obtaining cheaper capital.”
Siemens proved himself to be an early and
young inventor when just about the age of 20 he invented electrically-charged
sea mines for the Prussian Military Academy.
He was a gifted man who loved working with
machines and naturally aspired to improve the existing technologies.
Besides his love for tinkering and
engineering with machines he had a love for science even though he did not
indulge personally in any kind of fundamental research or published scientific
papers.
He defended science from those who claimed
that science would take away morality and lead to materialism that would
eventually lead to degradation of the society.
“Equally unfounded is the complaint that
study of science and the technical application of the forces of nature gives to
mankind a thoroughly material direction, makes them proud of their knowledge
and power, and alienates ideal endeavors.
The deeper we penetrate into the harmonious
action of natural forces regulated by eternal unalterable laws, and yet so
thickly veiled from our complete comprehension, the more we feel on the
contrary moved to humble modesty, the smaller appears to us the extent of our
knowledge, the more active is our endeavor to draw more from the inexhaustible
fountain of knowledge, and understanding, and the higher rises our admiration
of the endless wisdom which ordains and penetrates the whole creation.”
Alas it seems he too believed in creation
even though Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species” was published within his life
time and yet it is not surprising as it was not that uncommon for scientists of
those times to hold the creation belief.
Water by itself, that is pure water, is not
a conductor of electricity but when impurities such as salt is added it can
rapidly transform into a conductor.
This is very well illustrated by comparing
the electrolytic conductivity of three different samples of water.
Deionized water of high quality has a
conductivity of about 5.5 micro Siemens per meter at 25 degree centigrade.
An average drinking tap water on the other
hand has conductivity in the range of 5 to 50 milli Siemens per meter in the
same conditions which is therefore thousand times that of deionized water.
Sea water which Ida used to usually work
with has conductivity of about 5 Siemens per meter which is 1,000,000 or one
million times that of deionized water.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
Advertisements
Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
No comments:
Post a Comment