The Electricity of Life: A Historical Novel based on a true story

[Little.Egret]

Free

The Electricity of Life: A Historical Novel based on the true story of Otto and Viola Schmitt and their role in winning World War II and establishing a medical device industry. by T H. Harbinger

The focus of this historical novel is on Professor Otto Schmitt and his development of the first Magnetic Airborne Detector for use during World War II

It makes for an excellent illustration of the life and importance of scientists. Scientists are portrayed as oddballs, self-centered, single minded, and lacking common sense, which they are, but they mostly can solve problems that no one else has been able to solve. The case of Otto Schmitt, who convinced the military he could develop a method to detect submerged U-boats, proved the method, and then 200 systems were ordered, all in the matter of ten months, is a tight snapshot on the methods and lifestyle of a scientist. Most technical developments do not have such a compact and easily measureable result. On 18 February 1942 Otto first devised and prototyped his ‘unbalanced magnetometer’ and on 26 November 1942 Otto receives a letter from Vannevar Bush (the technical advisor to President Roosevelt) stating “new devices … have recently been used in combat with the enemy and have not been found wanting. …. We seemed to have reached the turning point of the war.”


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