Phenomena (1985) : Another of Dario Argento's classics.

I recently watched Dario Argento's 1985 Italian horror movie 'Phenomena'. After watching 'Suspiria' by the same director, which became one of my favorite horror movies ever, I am slowly checking off all of his movies. Dario has a unique style of horror. Something about it reminds me of gothic horror short stories. Phenomena is a story of a girl who realises she possesses a sixth sense of communicating with insects and uses this ability to track down a serial killer on the loose. If Suspiria created a sense of dread with exquisite, claustrophobic set pieces then Phenomena does the same with wide open spaces. Set in Switzerland, the stunning locations and pretty towns are shown in an eerie light. Especially the bit about the ever blowing wind. And as always the soundtrack by Goblin is perfect for the theme. The combination of Dario Argento and Goblin has to be one of the best in the industry. This was my third movie of Dario Argento and I am now a 'pakka' fan.

Mary Shelley : One of the women in history that I admire the most

Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, is one of the women in history that I admire the most. She is often credited with creating the genre of science fiction as we know it today. The story of how this masterpiece came about is legendary.

In 1815, Lord Byron, PB Shelley, Mary Shelley and John Polidori gathered together to spend some days in a hotel in Geneva, Switzerland. How these famous got together for a trip is altogether another story. To spend their time, Lord Byron suggested a competition to see who can come up with the best ghost story. This simple weekend challenge resulted in the renaissance of two separate genres, science fiction and horror. Mary Shelley came out with the groundbreaking Frankenstein and John Polidori with The Vampyre, which strongly influence Bram Stoker's Dracula. This whole story itself has a gothic quality to it and ranks up there with all my other favorite horror stories.

To be in the company of such great people and then trump them all with a book that has cemented its place in human history is no mean achievement esp. for a girl who was just 19 at that time. She was largely overshadowed in her lifetime by her more famous husband PB Shelley but over the years she has been recognized as a major figure in the romantic movement of that era.

10 things I learned from the book | Built: The hidden stories behind our structures

Book Post : 25

Book Name : Built : The hidden stories behind our structures

Author : Roma Agrawal

Genre : Non-Fiction/Engineering

What is it about?: 'Built', written by Indian-born engineer Roma Agrawal, is about how structures are built and the engineering that goes behind it. Each chapter she focuses on one aspect of the process. There are chapters on forces, fire, materials, water etc. Roma is, as she mentions multiple times in the book, a nerd when it comes to engineering.  Accordingly she goes back in history, looks at concepts which we wouldn't normally think about, visits places just to take a look at the buildings in person and strokes the concrete wherever she goes. All the while she takes us along on her journey. She talks about how humans have tunneled through mountains, bridged mighty rivers, built sky hugging buildings, built sewage systems to support populations of millions and many other feats. 

How I came to read it : Found this book while randomly scrolling through the library shelves. 

   

Did I like it? : Yes, absolutely. This is one of the finest books on engineering I have read. Roma makes it an easy read. There are no complicated descriptions or math anywhere though personally I wouldn't mind if they were included. The love Roma has for her subject can be clearly seen. And best part is she looks at the past to explain many of the themes she explores. Ranging from the Persians, Romans and Harappans she visits many famous builders of the past. I am a fan of history so this was something that I loved. There are also many personal anecdotes which gives the book a nice personal touch. In places where she is explaining any concepts there are hand drawn illustrations which gives the feeling of being present in a classroom. She almost takes a teacher like stance while explaining some of the concepts adding to the classroom feeling. 

Top 10 things I learned from this book:

1. There are 3 ways in which wind can affect a structure. One, wind can topple a structure if its light. Two, wind can cause a building to sink into the ground if the ground is weak. Third, wind can make a structure sway like a boat rocking at sea.

2. The Romans were master builders. They had a very good understanding of the concepts involved in building big structures. Marcus Vitruvius Pollio who was born in 80 BC is sometimes called the 'the first architect'. He wrote a hugely influential ten volume treatise on the design of structures called De Architectura.

 3.  Emily Warren Roebling was engineer who worked on the building of Brooklyn Bridge in the 1870s. In a profession dominated by men she made a mark for herself. Her husband was the Chief Engineer of the project but got bed ridden when he developed the Caisson's disease during the construction. She served as the liaison and supervisor of the construction communicating between her husband and the on site personnel. But slowly over the duration of the project she took on a more authoritative role and influenced many decisions. She was technically brilliant and was held in high esteem by all who worked with her. 

4. Every building has a core. It can be a concrete core or a steel core. A core is at the centre of the building and is usually well hidden. They usually house essential services like elevators, stairs, ventilation ducts etc. 

5. Taipei 101, which was at one time the tallest building in the world has a massive pendulum housed in some of its top floors. Weighing a massive 660 tonnes, it is the heaviest pendulum in a skyscraper anywhere in the world. The purpose of this ball is to damp the vibrations produced in the building during earthquakes or high winds. It absorbs the energy created by the movement of the building and avoids resonance. In August 2015 Taiwan was stuck by a typhoon which had winds blowing at around 170 km/h but Taipei 101 was unaffected because of the pendulum which recorded movement up to 1 m, which is its largest movement ever recorded.  

6. Fazlur Khan, a structural engineer from Dhaka, Bangladesh came up with the brilliant innovation of putting a building's stability system on the outside. Kahn created a external skeleton using large prieces of diagonal bracing to form triangles. This system is called Tubular system and it has been used in many famous buildings around the world including in Burj Khalifa which uses a variation of Fazlur's innovation. He is called the 'father of tubular designs for skyscrapers'. 

7. There is mention of one of my famous engineers, Isambard Kingdom Brunel (I like him for his inventions in the areas of railways and ships). He played an important part in building the tunnel below the river Thames (1825 to 1843). His father Marc Brunel was the Chief Engineer on this project. Marc invented the first tunneling shield which was an ingenious invention. He was inspired by the actions of a ship worm called Teredo Navalis. This worm, with the help of its horns on the top of its head, powdered the wood in front of it and ate it ast it moved forward. It then excreted this digested mixture behind it, which lined the tunnel it just created, shoring it up. This created a strong passageway behind it as it moved forward. 

8. When did humans started building sky scrapers? What happened that allowed us to build those tall structures? The answer to this question is Henry Bessemer. Before Henry we did not have materials strong enough to withstand both compression and tension. The materials used earlier like bricks and mortar are good in compression but not in tensions (when pulled apart). Steel, which is simply Iron with 0.2% Carbon content, was perfect. It was good at both compression and tension. But at that time it was very expensive to manufacture. Henry Bessemer, in 1856, solved this problem with his use of a closed furnace with warm air running through it. His method was a huge step and mass manufacture of steel started off. This lead to massive expansion of the railway networks and humans started to build skyscrapers. 

9. The idea of reinforcing concrete with metal started with a man who was fed up of his clay pots cracking up. Joseph Monier, a French gardener in the 1860s was frustrated seeing his clay pots constantly cracking so he tried making them with concrete. Those cracked too. He then randomly added a metal grill to the concrete. This solved the problem. Metals are good in tension, concrete is not. By combining these two materials Monier created a perfect combo. Steel reinforcement is a common way of building today. 

10. Romans built the world's first apartment buildings. These were called Insulae and sometimes they reached 10 storeys tall which was a first at that time. By AD 300 the majority of Rome's population lived in Insulae which numbered over 45,000 in the city whereas normal single family homes were around 2000. 

There are many more interesting concepts and facts in the book. Read it to find out more! 

10 things I learned from the book || The Battery : How portable power sparked a technological revolution

Book Post : 24

Book Name : The Battery : How portable power sparked a technological revolution

Author : Henry Schlesinger

Genre : Non-Fiction/Science

What is it about?: It is about the history of how batteries were developed over the years. From the twitching of a frog's leg to the the nickel hydrogen batteries in the Hubble space telescope the book traces the many observations, discoveries, inventions and break throughs that lead to the batteries that we see in everyday use today. 

How I came to read it : I like to casually browse books in a library and on one such visit I saw this book and given my background in energy I had to read it. 

   

Did I like it? :  Yes I did. It starts off nicely, becomes a tad bit bland in the middle but becomes interesting once again as the military uses of batteries section comes up. I learnt a lot of new facts and trivia about batteries and the equipment they power.  

Top 10 things I learned from this book: 

1. We all the know the 'Bazooka', the rocket launcher which can be fired from the shoulder. It forms a quintessential part of so many action movies. The original bazooka was ignited by two standard sized D cells on the stock though later models eliminated the batteries altogether. Fun fact: The name 'Bazooka' was given by soldiers, after a musical instrument played by a radio comic called Bob Burns. 

2. Its not perfectly clear who invented the Walkie Talkie and is credited to many inventors including the engineering team at Motorola. I will only mention the Canadian connection here. Donald Hings, working at the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company in Vancouver is said to have the invented a portable 2 way radio in 1937. 

3. Duracell was originally called P R Mallory company and it started off by manufacturing Mercury cells. This was the first new battery chemistry in over a century(better than the carbon-zinc config used in the majority of applications then). This was in the 1920s.  Sam Ruben was the one who invented the Mercury Cells. 

4. There is a law called Faraday's Law of Electrolysis which states that in order to double the output of any battery, the amount of material in that battery must be doubled. The battery industry hit this wall many times and found ways around it. 

5. World's first electric watch was released in 1957 by a company called Hamilton(this company was eventually taken over by Swatch). This electric watch was called Hamilton 500 and was priced at $175(around $1,300 today). It had a $1.75 energizer battery which was not too reliable. Elvis Presley bought a Hamilton Electric watch and so did Rod Sterling, the host of Twilight Zone. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones wore Hamilton Electrics in the 'Men in Black' movies. 

6. Sonotone Corporation, a manufacturer of hearing aids became the first company in 1952 to offer a consumer product using transistors. Transistors were mostly used in military applications till then. AT&T provided the license to Sonotone for the use of transistors. Interestingly the license provided to Sonotone was royalty free in observance of Alexander Graham Bell's devotion to the deaf. AT&T was established by Bell and his father in law. 

7. TR-55, a transistorized radio model was released by a then young 10 year old company called the Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Company. TR-55 was only available in Japan. The company wanted to release its next model TR-63 in the US too. For the exports the company changed its name to something that Americans can easily pronounce: Sony. TR-63 was a huge hit which ultimately popularized the pocket radios.  

8. This one is more of a fun fact. Its common that technical advances attract conspiracy theories. We are living in the age of misinformation so we are pretty used to this but the world was not short of conspiracies in the 50s too. One of these theories said that transistors were a product of reverse engineering alien technology salvaged from a crashed alien spaceship.

9.  In 1973, Sharp released a pocket calculator called Elsi Mate EL-805. It housed 5 Integrated Circuits and was less than an inch thick. It could run for 100 hours on a single AA battery. This power consumption was 1/9000 of other battery powered calculators on the market. This was chiefly because this calculator used LCD(Liquid Crystal Displays) for the first time ever. This was a big turning point. 

10. The Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990, had six 125 pound rechargeable nickel hydrogen batteries. Scientists and engineers at that time estimated their life expectancy to be around 5 years. They lasted for 19 years!   

10 things I learned from the book || Cool : How Air Conditioning changed everything

Book Post : 23

Book Name : Cool : How Air Conditioning changed everything

Author : Salvatore Basile

Genre : Non-Fiction/Science

What is it about?: A book detailing the history of Air Conditioning right from its earliest beginnings to the modern era. As the author states there were two struggles in the story of Air conditioning: one was actually making a perfect cooling device and the other was to convince people that they needed such a device.

How I came to read it : With my recent career change to energy efficiency in buildings I wanted to read books about Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning. A quick google search lead me to this book and I obtained it by making an Inter Library Loan request from the Okanagan Regional Library. Also the recent heatwaves in Canada resulting in a huge surge in demand for home ACs played a factor.

   

Did I like it? :  This was a decent read. Not overly exciting and at the same not too bland it was an okay read. It gets a bit repetitive in the middle but slowly pics up pace at the end. 

Top 10 things I learned from this book: 

1. The first proper Air Conditioning unit was invented by Willis Haviland Carrier in 1902. Yes the same Carrier which is a huge AC manufacturing company now. The first AC was built for a company called Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographic and Publishing company. The summers of 1900 and 1902 were very hot and humid and a large amount of paper stock was ruined because of it. So an Air Conditioning system was built for them by Willis Carrier (while working for Buffalo Forge) which not only kept the facility cool but also kept the humidity under control.  

2. Willis Carrier mentioned that when the problem of the above publishing company was assigned to him to solve he did not even know what Air Humidity was. Imagine Carrier, who is almost regarded as the father of AC, not knowing what Air humidity was. This only reinforces the fact that it doesn't matter if you don't know something, what matters is how you move from that point. Another modern example of this would be Elon Musk who knew nothing about Rockets. Now he has started off a revival of interest in space with his company SpaceX. 

3. In 1922 it was Willis Carrier again who invented the first centrifugal compressor, a very important piece in every modern AC system. 

4. The first Air Conditioned plane was the Boeing 247 operated by United Air Lines. It started operation in 1934 and was the first 24 hr coast to coast flight.

5. The first Air Conditioned skyscraper was the Milam building in San Antonia, Texas. For the first time 21 stories of office space were Air conditioned, a remarkable achievement at that time. It was Carrier who installed this system. This was in 1928. 

6. Fun Fact: When the 103 floor Empire State Building was built in 1931 it was the World's tallest building and it had no Air Conditioning. None at all. 

7. There was a time when theatres did not have ACs and watching a play in the summers was known to be a tough ordeal. People falling unconscious because of the heat was a common recurrence. This is the reason theatres were one of the earliest adopters of methods to try to cool the air. 

8. In those days (1800s and early 1900s) people believed that heat is something that is nature's way and it shouldn't be messed with. It took a lot of convincing by the early pioneers of ACs to change that view. ACs sort of had a 'Personal computer moment' in the early 1900s when most people believed that a personal home AC system is not needed and what use could an AC actually have for a small home. The 1950s changed all that and ACs were soon a rage. 

9. In 1911, Willis Carrier published a paper called the 'Rational Psychrometric Formulae' at a meeting of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. This is regarded as the most significant document prepared in Air Conditioning. It presented the correlation between temperature and humidity. Engineering students still learn those formulae and I did too when I was doing my Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering. '

10. A textile Engineer from North Carolina, Stuart Cramer was the first person to coin the term 'Air Conditioning' 

Book Post : Apollo's Legacy : Perspectives on the Moon Landings

Book Post : 22

Book Name : Apollo's Legacy : Perspectives on the Moon Landings

Author : Roger D. Launius

Genre : Non-Fiction/Science

What is it about?: Written by NASA's chief historian from 1990 to 2002 this book is a history of the Apollo program, which put humankind on the moon, and also talks about different points of view of the program and how some of them have changed or not changed over the years. 

How I came to read it : Casual browsing in my local library lead me to this book and since recent news have been dominated by Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson space flights I thought Ill read something about Humankind's biggest achievement till date. The moon landings. 

   

Did I like it? : A bit on the fence on this one. So unlike my usual posts I am going to keep this one a bit short. If you are looking at purely the story of the Apollo missions then this book is not the one. There are a few chapters on the actual story but the rest of the book is about the perceptions of the people about the achievement. The author also takes a look at the different aspects of the whole endeavor. The technology, the astronauts, useful research that has come out of it, its impacts on everyday life and how people remember it now. He also talks about the three main narratives that sprang up during and after the moon landing missions. One is that the whole mission was a technological high and it has resulted in many useful scientific advances which have translated into human life. The second is that there was no need for man to go to moon at that point in time as there were a number of other problems where efforts could have gone in and that would have resulted in much better results for humankind. The author explores these two points in depth often jumping from the past to the present. Surprisingly the author devotes an entire chapter to the third narrative: the conspiracy theories. The fact that a number of prominent people had to even entertain the existence of these conspiracy theories shows how ignorance and stupidity when spread into large numbers poses a real problem. Overall, the book is interesting if you are interested in the perceptions of the mission and not the mission itself. I am not in that category so this was a bit of uninteresting read for me. Twice I thought of abandoning the book but soldiered on just to finish what I started. 

PS: I believe that moon landings were indeed a technological marvel and it has helped humankind progress further in science and technology. Also, I believe that men have indeed landed on the moon and its not just some kind of a big fake set up. 

Book Post : Simply Electrifying : The Technology that transformed the world, from Benjamin Franklin to Elon Musk

Book Post : 21 

Book Name : Simply Electrifying : The Technology that transformed the world, from Benjamin Franklin to Elon Musk

Author : Craig R. Roach

Genre : Non-Fiction/Science

What is it about? : This book traces the journey of electricity from its earliest days when it was nothing but a curiosity to the present when we cant even think about living without electricity. The book is neatly divided into 5 major phases of electricity's journey. 

Part 1: The Age of Franklin : A Time of Awe and Discovery

Part 2: The Age of Edison: Let there be light (and power)

Part 3: The Age of Big: Big Government, Big Power Plants

Part 4: The Age of Harm: Crisis, Change, and Scandal

Part 5: The Age of uncompromising belief  

How I came to read it : When I moved to Kelowna one of the first things I did was check out the local library branch. Kelowna has the Okanagan Regional Library and while casually browsing through the books I spotted this book. I have been reading a lot of books on electricity lately and this seemed to be a good addition. 

   

Did I like it? : Yes I did. The book starts off nicely with Benjamin Franklin and James Watt, peaks with Michael Faraday, Maxwell, Tesla, Edison, Westinghouse, slowly starts to decline with Samuel Insull and gets a bit boring in the middle when talk moves to government, depression and policies. It ends on a high with George Mitchell and Elon Musk.  Overall what I loved about the book is how neatly the author has divided the different phases of electricity's journey. There is discovery, expansion, exploitation and finally a hope for a cleaner future. 

During the early years its mostly about how electricity was noticed and how curious minds like Ben Franklin set about investigating it. The author makes an interesting point here. Today we might know Benjamin Franklin as one of the founding fathers of USA and the general image is that his work on science was secondary. But the author says that he was a scientist first. His success, fame and respect he enjoyed both in America and Europe gave him the leverage to become a great statesman. The book is littered with interesting insights like these on many personalities and ideas. After, Franklin comes James Watt whos invention of the steam engine made the people dependent on machines and this set the stage for the development of the electricity run motors and the whole electricity infrastructure laid out by Edison, Tesla and Westinghouse. These days whenever discussions about inventors related to electricity come up people are quick to mention Edison vs Tesla. But there was a third person in this saga who seems to be forgotten in the general public. This was George Westinghouse. A famous inventor in his own right, his invention of the air brake changed the railways forever. After his success in the railway industry he turned his focus to the nascent electricity industry.  A brilliant entrepreneur in addition to being an inventor, Westinghouse took the path of developing the Alternating Current (AC) system. The war of the currents, AC vs DC was mostly Westinghouse (AC) vs Edison(DC). It was Westinghouse who recognized the talent of Tesla and employed him in his company. I feel its a shame that Westinghouse is largely forgotten today.

Next comes one of the most divisive personalities of the book Samuel Insull. Insull like Westinghouse remains largely forgotten today but he is the person responsible for spreading electricity across the country and made it accessible to a majority of the population. He is also responsible for the tariff structure of electricity later. Both sides of his story are presented here and the trial details of Insull make for interesting reading. Then comes Franklin D Roosevelt and his New Deal. Then there is talk of the time of big projects like building of Hoover Dam and Tennessee Valley Authority. The age of Harm stars off with talking about the person 'who started it all' Rachel Carson and her landmark book 'Silent Spring'. Then a large portion is dedicated to the California electricity crisis of 2003. A major portion of the book talks about deregulating of the electricity business. It was one of the most boldest moves in business and there are still debates about it going on even today. And the last part is about Obama, George Mitchell and Elon Musk. Leaving aside the criticism of Musk the author makes the point that at least he is making electricity and the science related to it cool again. 

One of the points I loved was that that electricity is a revolutionary force. The author says that during the early stages of electricity's development there was a sense of scientific adventure and excitement which seems have dwindled down recently. No longer do people associate electricity with scientific achievement or discovery. And this is so true. When I look at electricity related news its all about policies, regulations, prices etc, all important stuff undoubtedly but pretty mundane. There is no sense of scientific excitement, if I can use that term. Hopefully things change in the future!

Overall 'Simply Electrifying' is a pretty decent read and I enjoyed it!