4 replies to this topic

[Jody Kruskal]

The other day I was having a long late night chat with my neighbor Jim. He’s West Indian and a soft spoken giant of a man. We were sitting on his stoop in Brooklyn talking about a wade range of subjects. He was telling me about working for 25 years for the NYMTA in our subway system as a master electrician. He told me that the power comes in at 27,000 volts and is stepped down by giant transformers and converted into 600 volts DC to power the third rail.

Then he asked me what I did. I told him that I’m a musician. What instrument do you play? Concertina. What’s that? Well, it’s a little hexagonal antique accordion invented back in the early 1800s by this German guy named Uhlig... and around the same time a different little music box also called the concertina was invented by Sir Charles Wheatstone in England (I was trying to make a long story short). I added that this was the same Wheatstone who invented the Wheatstone Bridge. Jim's eyes sparkled when he told me that they use that very bridge in maintaining his giant subway transformers today.

Somehow this unlikely connection made us better friends.

Edited by Jody Kruskal, 26 June 2012 - 02:12 AM.

[Anglo-Irishman]

Somehow this unlikely connection made us better friends.

Yes, unexpected connections ...
The only memer of my family who was familiar with the name of Charles Wheatstone is my brother-in-law - the Physics teacher!

Cheers,
John

[Constant Screamer]

Not to get all heavy and deep about it...but isn't it incredible how one simple connection can bring people of different cultures together? If all the world could just.....oh forget all this mushy crap...let's play some music!!!

[gcoover]

Does this mean Jody can control the New York subway with his concertina??? How cool would that be? I'd go see a movie about that in a NY minute!

Gary

[Lawrence Reeves]

A Wheatstone bridge is an electrical circuit used to measure an unknownelectrical resistance by balancing two legs of a bridge circuit, one leg of which includes the unknown component. Its operation is similar to the originalpotentiometer. It was invented by Samuel Hunter Christie in 1833 and improved and popularized by Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1843. One of the Wheatstone bridge's initial uses was for the purpose of soils analysis and comparison. <sup>[1]


With Concertina implications added.
A Wheatstone Concertina is a musical instrument used to measure an unknown musical experience by balancing two legs of a player, one leg of which includes the unknown component. Its operation is similar to the Rubik's Cube. It was invented by Erno Rubik in 1974. One of the Wheatstone concertina's initial uses was for the purpose of enjoyment and comparison (to other instrument makers) . [1]</sup>