In article , Robert Swinney says...

Motorola's
famous engineer, Russ Larson, once found corrosion inside a large neon sign
to be the cause of extreme intermod on a building antenna site in Kansas
City. Russ proved the point by pouring some motor oil down into the sign.

I love stuff like this. This is the same as the doctor who proved
that ulcers are caused by bacteria, by infecting himself deliberately
and then curing it with antibiotics.

Or Manx's propensity to showing racers that their carbs bowls were
frothing on the track, by unhooking the carb bowl from the body
(this was when they were two piece btw) and suspending them from
the frame with one of his shoelaces. Smoothed the bike right out,
always.

Working in a research environment has lead me to understand that
the best *aha* moment often is accompanied by an educated guess
followed immediately with a practical test, using whatever materials
and tools are at hand. I worked with a guy named John Chi who was
famous for doing that sort of thing, he would say "I think that
rf is getting into the cryostat" and would wrap the thing in alumium
foil and festoon it with battery clips to hold it all on tight, and
the boing the real signal would show up as the interference went
away.

One guy like that is worth about a hundred others who only know how to do
powerpoint presentations. Give me the masking tape and aluminum foil
fellow any time to figure the stuff out. Only then do I ask for the
swiss modelmaker....
Jim


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