The Vacuum Tube’s Forgotten Rival
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FEATURE
HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY
THE VACUUM TUBE’S FORGOTTEN RIVAL
Magnetic amplifiers, the alt-tech of the Third Reich, lasted into the Internet era
KEN SHIRRIFF
27 MAR 202212 MIN READ
A photo of an older woman in front of an early generation computer.
Magnetic amplifiers were used in the Univac Solid State, shown here being operated in 1961 by pioneering computer scientist Grace Hopper. COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM
DURING THE SECOND World War, the German military developed what were at the time some very sophisticated technologies, including the V-2 rockets it used to rain destruction on London. Yet the V-2, along with much other German military hardware, depended on an obscure and seemingly antiquated component you’ve probably never heard of, something called the magnetic amplifier or mag amp.

In the United States, mag amps had long been considered obsolete—“too slow, cumbersome, and inefficient to be taken seriously,” according to one source. So U.S. military-electronics experts of that era were baffled by the extensive German use of this device, which they first learned about from interrogating German prisoners of war. What did the Third Reich’s engineers know that had eluded the Americans?

After the war, U.S. intelligence officers scoured Germany for useful scientific and technical information. Four hundred experts sifted through billions of pages of documents and shipped 3.5 million microfilmed pages back to the United States, along with almost 200 tonnes of German industrial equipment. Among this mass of information and equipment was the secret of Germany’s magnetic amplifiers: metal alloys that made these devices compact, efficient, and reliable.

U.S. engineers were soon able to reproduce those alloys. As a result, the 1950s and ’60s saw a renaissance for magnetic amplifiers, during which they were used extensively in the military, aerospace, and other industries. They even appeared in some early solid-state digital computers before giving way entirely to transistors. Nowadays, that history is all but forgotten. So here I’ll offer the little-known story of the mag amp.

An amplifier, by definition, is a device that allows a small signal to control a larger one. An old-fashioned triode vacuum tube does that using a voltage applied to its grid electrode. A modern field-effect transistor does it using a voltage applied to its gate. The mag amp exercises control electromagnetically.

A photo of a rocket on a launcher with trees in the background. A photo of a man sitting at an early computer next to a typewriter.A photo of two men sitting at a terminal in front of an early computer.Magnetic amplifiers were used for a variety of applications, including in the infamous V-2 rockets [top] that the Germany military employed during the Second World War and in the Magstec computer [middle], completed in 1956. The British Elliot 803 computer of 1961 [bottom] used related core-transistor logic. FROM TOP: FOX PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES; REMINGTON RAND UNIVAC; SMITH ARCHIVE/ALAMY
To understand how it works, first consider a simple inductor, say, a wire coiled around an iron rod. Such an inductor will tend to block the flow of alternating current through the wire. That’s because when current flows, the coil creates an alternating magnetic field, concentrated in the iron rod. And that varying magnetic field induces voltages in the wire that act to oppose the alternating current that created the field in the first place.

If such an inductor carries a lot of current, the rod can reach a state called saturation, whereby the iron cannot become any more magnetized than it already is. When that happens, current passes through the coil virtually unimpeded. Saturation is usually undesirable, but the mag amp exploits this effect.

Physically, a magnetic amplifier is built around a metallic core of material that can easily be saturated, typically a ring or square loop with a wire wrapped around it. A second wire also wrapped around the core forms a control winding. The control winding includes many turns of wire, so by passing a relatively small direct current through it, the iron core can be forced into or out of saturation.

The mag amp thus behaves like a switch: When saturated, it lets the AC current in its main winding pass unimpeded; when unsaturated, it blocks that current. Amplification occurs because a relatively small DC control current can modify a much larger AC load current.

The history of magnetic amplifiers starts in the United States with some patents filed in 1901. By 1916, large magnetic amplifiers were being used for transatlantic radio telephony, carried out with an invention called an Alexanderson alternator, which produced a high-power, high-frequency alternating current for the radio transmitter. A magnetic amplifier modulated the output of the transmitter according to the strength of the voice signal to be transmitted.

One Navy training manual of 1951 explained magnetic amplifiers in detail—although with a defensive attitude about their history.

In the 1920s, improvements in vacuum tubes made this combination of Alexanderson alternator and magnetic amplifier obsolete. This left the magnetic amplifier to play only minor roles, such as for light dimmers in theaters.

Germany’s later successes with magnetic amplifiers hinged largely on the development of advanced magnetic alloys. A magnetic amplifier built from these materials switched sharply between the on and off states, providing greater control and efficiency. These materials were, however, exquisitely sensitive to impurities, variations in crystal size and orientation, and even mechanical stress. So they required an exacting manufacturing process.

The best-performing German material, developed in 1943, was called Permenorm 5000-Z. It was an extremely pure fifty/fifty nickel-iron alloy, melted under a partial vacuum. The metal was then cold-rolled as thin as paper and wound around a nonmagnetic form. The result resembled a roll of tape, with thin Permenorm metal making up the tape. After winding, the module was annealed in hydrogen at 1,100 °C for 2 hours and then rapidly cooled. This process oriented the metal crystals so that they behaved like one large crystal with uniform properties. Only after this was done were wires wrapped around the core.

By 1948, scientists at the U.S. Naval Ordnance Laboratory, in Maryland, had figured out how to manufacture this alloy, which was soon marketed by an outfit called Arnold Engineering Co. under the name Deltamax. The arrival of this magnetic material in the United States led to renewed enthusiasm for magnetic amplifiers, which tolerated extreme conditions and didn’t burn out like vacuum tubes. Mag amps thus found many applications in demanding environments, especially military, space, and industrial control.

During the 1950s, the U.S. military was using magnetic amplifiers in automatic pilots, fire-control apparatus, servo systems, radar and sonar equipment, the RIM-2 Terrier surface-to-air missile, and many other roles. One Navy training manual of 1951 explained magnetic amplifiers in detail—although with a defensive attitude about their history: “Many engineers are under the impression that the Germans invented the magnetic amplifier; actually it is an American invention. The Germans simply took our comparatively crude device, improved the efficiency and response time, reduced weight and bulk, broadened its field of application, and handed it back to us.”

The U.S. space program also made extensive use of magnetic amplifiers because of their reliability. For example, the Redstone rocket, which launched Alan Shepard into space in 1961, used magnetic amplifiers. In the Apollo missions to the moon during the 1960s and ’70s, magnetic amplifiers controlled power supplies and fan blowers. Satellites of that era used magnetic amplifiers for signal conditioning, for current sensing and limiting, and for telemetry. Even the space shuttle used magnetic amplifiers to dim its fluorescent lights.

The image shows a Redstone rocket at the launch pad, with three space-suit-wearing astronauts in the foreground.Magnetic amplifiers were also used in Redstone rockets, like the one shown here behind astronauts John Glenn, Virgil Grissom, and Alan Shepard.UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP/GETTY IMAGES
Magnetic amplifiers also found heavy use in industrial control and automation, with many products containing them being marketed under such brand names as General Electric’s Amplistat, CGS Laboratories’ Increductor, Westinghouse’s Cypak (cybernetic package), and Librascope’s Unidec (universal decision element).

The magnetic materials developed in Germany during the Second World War had their largest postwar impact of all, though, on the computer industry. In the late 1940s, researchers immediately recognized the ability of the new magnetic materials to store data. A circular magnetic core could be magnetized counterclockwise or clockwise, storing a 0 or a 1. Having what’s known as a rectangular hysteresis loop ensured that the material would stay solidly magnetized in one of these states after power was removed.

Researchers soon constructed what was called core memory from dense grids of magnetic cores. And these technologists soon switched from using wound-metal cores to cores made from ferrite, a ceramic material containing iron oxide. By the mid-1960s, ferrite cores were stamped out by the billions as manufacturing costs dropped to a fraction of a cent per core.

But core memory is not the only place where magnetic materials had an influence on early digital computers. The first generation of those machines, starting in the 1940s, computed using vacuum tubes. These were replaced in the late 1950s with a second generation based on transistors, followed by third-generation computers built from integrated circuits.

Transistors weren’t an obvious winner for early computers, and many other alternatives were developed, including magnetic amplifiers.

But technological progress in computing wasn’t, in fact, this linear. Early transistors weren’t an obvious winner, and many other alternatives were developed. Magnetic amplifiers were one of several largely forgotten computing technologies that fell between the generations.

That’s because researchers in the early 1950s realized that magnetic cores could not only hold data but also perform logic functions. By putting multiple windings around a core, inputs could be combined. A winding in the opposite direction could inhibit other inputs, for example. Complex logic circuits could be implemented by connecting such cores together in various arrangements. //

FLYING looks at the differences in miles per gallon among piston, turbine and jet models.

For a month after the invasion of Ukraine, the high-speed Allegro train carried disaffected Russians to Helsinki. On Sunday, that final rail connection to Europe was severed.

The doomsday prophets obscure the phenomenal progress of the human species to feed itself, cure its diseases, and shape its world to improve the lives of all humans.

Washington Examiner:

Deaths from hurricanes, landslides, tornadoes, earthquakes, droughts, floods, food and energy shortages, severe heat and cold, and other disruptions from Mother Earth have fallen sharply over the past century. The property damage from acts of nature as a share of our GDP continues to drop yearly.

For example, more accurate weather reporting prepares people for deadly weather events. Building technologies make mankind smarter about weather and earthquake-proofing homes, buildings, bridges, and other structures to protect against collapse and rubble. The real “green revolution” on agriculture output has dropped rates of famine and hunger to all-time lows. My mentor, the late, great economist Julian Simon, taught us that the “ultimate resource” to save us from Armageddon is the human mind.

Indeed, Simon’s 1980 wager with Paul Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb, holds lessons for the climate change debate today.

Ehrlich wrote in 1980 that if he were a betting man, he would bet that England would not exist in the year 2000 due to a catastrophic rise in sea levels and unaffordable raw materials due to scarcity. Simon challenged Ehrlich to choose any raw material he wanted and a date sometime in the future. Simon said he would wager on the inflation-adjusted prices decreasing as opposed to increasing.

Ehrlich chose copper, chromium, nickel, tin, and tungsten, and 1990 as the payoff date. Erlich lost as all five commodities declined in price from 1980 through 1990. //

We have the supposed greatest minds in the world who have allegedly come to a solution to save the planet dramatically by hitting a “reset” button on energy by turning to some of the most inefficient sources. That’s the best they’ve got?

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson. And the consistently stupid “solutions” to any supposed climate crisis are advanced by little minds that don’t have the vision to see what the rest of us can see.

In our individualist society, both sexes are bombarded with the lie that living for your own pleasure is the most fulfilling thing you can do. //

In a 2018 interview, Ginni Thomas — who has been married to the Supreme Court justice for more than three decades — asked her husband about the best part of being on the bench.

“It’d be impossible without you. It’s sorta like, how do you run with one leg? You can’t. It makes it whole when I have my wife,” was his touching reply. //

Contrary to the deranged voices suggesting this clip is any kind of dunk on the Thomases, Clarence’s praise of Ginni reflects a beautiful truth about marriage. When two people become one, they are both part of something greater than themselves — and living for someone outside of themselves (even more true for parents of children!). Marriage and family are no substitute for finding purpose and meaning in one’s relationship with God, but they are institutions designed to reflect and complement the eternal.

While cultural, political, and career investments can all be gainful, rewarding, and even necessary — and often have meaningful human impacts — investing in another eternal human soul carries infinitely more reward (though they are far from mutually exclusive). This isn’t limited to marriage; it’s the reason parents, teachers, mentors, pastors, friends, doctors, missionaries, counselors, and anyone who serves their fellow man sees so much worth (and finds so much satisfaction) in what they do. It’s the invested time and energy that people on their deathbeds never regret.

For men and women alike, there is a deep dignity conferred by knowing that someone else lovingly looks to you and depends on you. Good men take pride in protecting and providing for their families and pleasing their wives. Good women take pride in similarly serving and loving their families, knowing that they are cherished and that, as Clarence said so adoringly of Ginni, their husbands’ lives would be “impossible” without them.

Disabling OneDrive will prevent it from running as well as remove it from File Explorer, and you can easily re-enable it later if you want to. Unfortunately Windows 10 Home users don’t have access to the group policy editor, so they won’t have this option. But if you’re running Pro or another version of Windows 10, go to the Group Policy Editor (type in “gpedit.msc” in the search box) and go to Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > OneDrive. Then enable the “Prevent the usage of OneDrive for file storage” setting.

To completely uninstall OneDrive:

1. Open Command Prompt in Administrator mode: Right-click on the Windows icon in the taskbar and select Command Prompt (Admin).
2. Type in taskkill /f /im OneDrive.exe to terminate any OneDrive processes and hit Enter.
3. Then type in either %SystemRoot%\System32\OneDriveSetup.exe /uninstall if you’re using 32-bit Windows 10 or %SystemRoot%\SysWOW64\OneDriveSetup.exe /uninstall if you’re using 64-bit Windows 10 and hit Enter.

You won’t see a confirmation dialog or progress bar when you do this, but if you try searching for OneDrive, the app will no longer be found. Your OneDrive folder and files, however, will still be available. //

Should you change your mind and want to reinstall OneDrive, head to the “%SystemRoot%\SysWOW64\” folder in File Explorer and run the OneDriveSetup.exe program. //

https://techjourney.net/disable-or-uninstall-onedrive-completely-in-windows-10/

MULawPoll @MULawPoll
Since July 2021, Biden job approval among whites has gone from 50% to 40%. Among Blacks, it has gone from 88% to 56%. Among Hispanics, it’s gone from 56% to 51%. @pollsandvotes points to the decline among Blacks as particularly striking. #mulawpoll
10:24 AM · Mar 31, 2022

In the 2020-2021 term, Thomas authored more concurrences and dissents than any other justice, including more solo concurrences and solo dissents.

As Nina Totenberg of NPR put it not too long ago, in a passage dripping with disapproval, “He is the only justice willing to allow states to establish an official religion; the only justice who believes teenagers have no free speech rights at all; the only justice who believes that it’s unconstitutional to require campaign funders to disclose their identity; he’s the only justice who voted to strike down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act; and the only justice to say that the court should invalidate a wide range of laws regulating business conduct and working conditions.”

But we are supposed to believe that his unexplained sole dissent in the Trump records case must be corrupt.

A while ago, the respected Supreme Court watcher Tom Goldstein wrote that if “the measure of a Justice’s greatness is his contribution of new and thoughtful perspectives that enlarge the debate, then Justice Thomas is now our greatest Justice.”

“The Gibson family appreciates the Court of Appeals’ thorough and thoughtful analysis which rightly rejected all of Oberlin College’s and Dean Raimondo’s challenges on appeal.”

The Ohio 9th District Court of Appeals has just issued a decision in the Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College case.

For those of you new to the case, Gibson’s Bakery was a 5th generation family business in Oberlin, Ohio, near the Oberlin College campus. It served baked goods to the public and also to the student dining service, as well as operating a general convenience store. As with many other small businesses, student shoplifting was epidemic, as we covered, Student journalist: Shoplifting at Gibson’s Bakery was part of Oberlin College’s “Culture of Theft”

A store clerk, a member of the Gibson family, caught an Oberlin black student shoplifting, a scuffle ensued that was joined by two other Oberlin black students. When the police arrived, they arrested the students who eventually pleaded guilty. But before that, the college officials and students accused the bakery of racial profiling, called a boycott, suspended Gibson’s business with the college, and organized protests outside the bakery.

At the protests, a flyer was handed out, according to witnesses who testified at trial, by Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo, who also handed out stacks of flyers for others to distribute. The flyers accused the Gibsons of a long history of racial profiling, including in the incident with these shoplifters. The Gibsons disputed that allegation and that they did anything wrong in this incident, and requested a public apology from the college in order to repair the reputational damage, but the college refused. (To this day it never has apologized.) //

Based on the actions of college officials in conveying and promoting the defamatory accusations, a lawsuit was filed, resulting in massive verdicts for the owners of the bakery, David Gibson and his father, Allyn Gibson. Legal Insurrection was the only national media outlet to have someone in the courtroom reporting, including when the verdicts came down:
Closing Argument: “When a powerful institution says you are racist, you are doomed”
VERDICT: Jury awards Gibson’s Bakery $11 million against Oberlin College
Oberlin College hit with maximum PUNITIVE DAMAGES (capped at $22 million by law) in Gibson’s Bakery case
Punitive damage verdict against Oberlin College “was like a seismic wave moving quickly through the courtroom”

Disable OneDrive Everywhere in Windows and Apps Completely

Press Win + R keyboard accelerator to open Run dialog box.
Type GPedit.msc and hit Enter or OK to open Local Group Policy Editor.
Navigate to Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> OneDrive.
In the right pane, double click on policy named Prevent the usage of OneDrive for file storage.
Select the Enabled radio button.
Disable OneDrive

Click or tap OK when done. //

Uninstall OneDrive

1. Open an administrator command prompt
2. Terminate any process of OneDrive by running the following command:
   taskkill /f /im OneDrive.exe
3. Uninstall OneDrive app by running one of the following command:
   1.1. In 32-bit Windows 10 (x86):
   %SystemRoot%\System32\OneDriveSetup.exe /uninstall
   1.1. In 64-bit Windows 10 (x64):
   %SystemRoot%\SysWOW64\OneDriveSetup.exe /uninstall

One you ran the above command, OneDrive desktop app is uninstalled completely and cleanly. Most of the time, no progress bar nor confirmation dialog is shown. However, when you search for OneDrive, the app no longer be found.