Chronicle-II

Maxwell's Four Equations

1961
1/1/0 This is an Up Side Down (upside-down) Year. Don’t worry, nobody surrendered or any ship sunk. Why? If you turn 1961 upside down, you still get 1961. In 20th century, this is the only year with this special attribute.
Remark:
In one English composition, I mentioned 1961 is an upside-down year without further explanation. The instructor didn’t understand & gave me a low mark. It taught me a lesson: Don’t assume anything. When in doubt, explain.
1/2/1 訪吾友江賢二兄, He subscribed 筆匯 magazine, Read ”趙無極的自白”, an interesting article.
Remark:
江賢二 likes music & art. He went to Paris later. I never heard from him since. I have heard that he becomes a 抽象派畫家 & has hold art exhibitions in Taipei frequently. 江兄是我小學和初中的同學. He once drew a portrait of Tchaikovsky, 微妙微肖, 真是精彩和傳神. I hang it on the wall in my room for about two years. Until one day he visited my place & saw the drawing, he liked it so much that he wanted it back.
1/4/3 第一次當家教. 王澤霖 always refers to this as 誤人子弟.
Remark:
Tutoring actually is a good experience for us. If you were a member of 台大電机系, you had no problem to get some tutoring job. I used to tutor various types of boy & girl. Most of them were in the senior class & desired to enhance their skills in taking exam. I enjoyed teaching them. Usually it was easier to handle boys. You know exactly what they need & what they are thinking. But the girls, it is a different matter. They usually don’t tell you how much they know or understand. You have to probe & find out some effective way to help them. Once in a while, you met some girls that you could hardly focus your teaching. Some of them were very good looking & some of them were very mature. 吾友 賴光善 asked me to tutor a girl. She really impressed me as she belonged to the former catagory. Sometime I read some biographies of composers. I understand how they felt when they acted as a pianist to tutor girls. As you know romances flourish frequently & the events spin to another level. The worst case of the tutoring is to teach a group of girls (typically 5 or 6). Usually they gang together to make fun out of you & you don’t have a clue until it is too late.

1/7/6 I hang around 舊書攤, encountered a book “海外軒渠錄”. It sounded interesting. It turned out to be Gulliver’s Travels (小人國遊記) by Jonathan Swift.
1/20/5 Kennedy’s inauguration day in Washington DC
1/28/6 Went to movie, 遠東戲院. Ballet, performing by Margot Fonteyn.
Remark:
I have no record of its English title. The movie consists of three episodes: Swan Lake, Fire Bird & Ondine.
2/14/2 Visited 沈運申 to see his stereo set. Found that his set was better than mine.
Remark:
沈運申 likes music. He once played a piece of music with his stereo set & tested me. I couldn’t answer at that time. It turned out to be Brahms Violin Concerto. My familiarity of the “Three Big D” is Beethoven, Tchaikovsky & Brahms in that order. Apparently, 沈兄 was ahead of me at that time.
2/24/5 Registration of 2nd semester
2/27/1 2nd semester officially started.
3/1/3 Discussed 郊遊 matter after the class of 投影几何.
3/5/0 陽明山郊遊, wait 3 hours at the station? I can’t believe we spent such a long time in the bus station.
3/8/3 上次郊遊剩下兩件獎品. By taking lots, 何瑜笙 got two of them. 陳慶瀘 argued that because of the Woman’s Day, she & 沈安邦 should get the gifts.
Remark:
There is no record as to who actually got the 獎品. Perhaps 何瑜笙 can give us the answer.
3/14/2 Had some talks with 陳星華 in 國文課. 她是化工系同學. She sounded smart & fun, a nice girl.
4/6/4 “What is Mathematics” by Courant, Pirate edition appeared. This is a very good book. One section proves that 幾何三大作圖難題 can’t be constructed by straight edge & compass only.
4/10/1 化學系高材生 洪照玉, 報各參加中國小姐 競選
Remark: I have never met Miss 洪. I did see her photo in the yearbook. She looks nice & normal. With good cosmetics & right package, she can be a good contender. Later I also found that 葉秀卿 of 外文系也報名參加. I know her pretty well. Miss 葉 had a good look & nice personality that made her a good candidate. No wonder she got in the list of top ten contenders. I have no record as to who was the Miss China of 1961. Anyway, I admire both of them for their bravery just to show their body & elegant personality. I know the look of Miss 葉 off stage. But I was stunned at her look on stage. With a right package, you can transform a girl to a completely different woman. I remember one or two years later, 方瑀女士(植物病虫害系)也報名參加中國小姐 競選. 她倒是後來居上,成功登上中國小姐寶座,為台大爭光. Miss 方和我們同屆, 在中國近代史課, 他和我們同時上張基瑞的課. 可惜班上人實在太多,沒有机會好好研究她. 光是電机系加僑生就有七十多人, 再加上植病系 可說盛況空前. 可惜沒聽說有電机系高材生去 date 她. 也許她把我們這些男生當成動植物病虫害來研究. 後來他嫁給連戰先生,一帆風順. 後來聽說連戰有打夫人的習慣. 寫到此不禁替方女士捏一把冷汗.
4/20/4 Went to movie “玉碎塞班島”
4/23/0 Went to 新生戲院 to watch “雄才怪傑”, English title: “Inherit the Wind”. It is a debate between the Evolution & the Bible.
Remark: This movie recounted the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925. Edward Larson got Pulitzer’s prize (1998) with his book “Summer for the Gods”. Chinese translation: “眾神的審判”, 知書房出版社, 2002. If you like the movie, you will like this book.
5/3/3 Chemistry class, pop quiz. Murphy’s Law: I was absent.
Remark:
Pop quiz is equivalent to Calling Roll. Most students hate this. 葉炳遠 was never very popular perhaps due to his pop quiz. He walked while giving his lectures. That is a smart way to save time: exercise while working. He once said “蒲籣克常數很好記, 6 6 24…”. I had no clue about his logic. It dawned on me later that he forgot the details of the multiplication table. He thought 6 x 6 is 24 instead of 36.
5/8/1 Got NT$500, salary from the tutor.
5/13/6 Went to movie “琴琵怨" 市井小民,薪水階級的悲哀. It portrayed a couple struggling in making ends meet in the daily life.
5/14/0 台大學校運動會
5/20/6 張基瑞 said ref to Encyclopedia Britannica is a must for a serious student.
5/23/2 Soccer match, 電机系大敗經濟系. I watched the match. No record of the score.
5/24/3 電机系五子棋大賽 started
Remark:
五子棋起源於古代中国，发展於日本，风靡于欧洲. 先下的一方比較有利, So there are some rules that restrict the winning chance of the one who starts first. In Japan, it is called 五子连珠棋. There are more players with high caliber in Japan than those in China. I have no record as to who finally won the matches in our class.
5/29/1 Bought a LP record: Brahms Symphony #4.
Remark:
This one is listed in the top ten greatest symphonies in classical music.
6/9/5 王澤霖 got 三民主義 prize. He scored 90 points on the test.
Remark:
The prize was NT$1,000. I asked 王兄 about the secret in dealing with 三民主義. He said “無他,全靠吹牛也”. Once 葉秀卿 told me, in 北一女, 全靠名牌老師 盛載陽之講義. 建中名牌教師如過江之鯽,然獨缺三民主義大師. 王兄從建中出來有比成績乃一奇蹟也.
6/14/3 All the equipment of Chemistry lab were gone, the locks were cut. I felt so bad that I couldn’t do anything but go to movie, watch “夕陽西下”(Sundowner)
Remark:
I was very interested in Chemistry since junior high. I listed Chemistry right next to EE in 大專聯考. I thought I could use some of the tubes, beakers etc to setup a little lab in my home. So it was a big disappointment for me. We all underestimated what those senior crooks could do to us. The movie 夕陽西下 is a story about a couple roaming around the field in Australia. Finally the wife yearned to settle down when she saved enough money. To her dismay, she found her husband gambled all her money & lost. It sure mirrors the case that we lost all our lab equipment after we paid, used & saved them in the locked drawers.

6/19/1 Final Exam started. English & Chinese Modern History went smoothly.
6/23/5 Finished Physics final exam, went to play basketball, felt fantastic. Afternoon, went to see movie “Alamo”, 邊城英烈傳.
6/24/6 Kidney got problem. Went to see doctor who treated me quickly & effectively. I was lucky. Otherwise I might miss the final exam of 軍訓 in the afternoon.
Remark:
The doctor I met turned out to be 翁通逢. I told him that his name sounded familiar. I asked if there is any relation to 翁通楹. He said 翁通楹 is his elder brother. What a small world, I told him that his brother was a great professor & really impressed on his "TighToSido". He was so glad that he gave me 50% discount on the cost of registration & treatment. Here is the lesson: 禮多人不怪, 嘴巴甜一點, make this world a happy one. I should add one more remark here about 軍訓. Usually it was very boring. But we got one 教官 鄧永金. He was someone to listen. In two classes, he talked about the WWII, 滔滔不絕, 行雲流水, 一氣呵成. I am not kidding, he never repeated a word. The only defect was that he slipped his tongue several time by saying 雲南中將 instead of 南雲中將(Japanese commander in the flagship in Pearl Harbor attack). The only teacher can match his talent perhaps is 李守孔 or 孫靜山. Both of them were history teachers of 建中.
6/25/0 Saw Dr. Kuller off in a farewell dinner.
6/26/1 Saw movie “Waterloo”, 魂斷藍橋
6/27/2 Read “The Sea Around US”, 海的故事, 華國出版社
Remark:
This book was written by Rachael Carson, translated by 夏道平. I have never seen a translated book that can be so good or even better than the original text. Here is just one example:
Original text:
Where great whales come sailing by,
Sail and sail, with unshut eye.
Translation:
千尋海底誰天下？ 睥睨逍遙有大鯨。
7/2/0 Started tutoring 陳偉, son of 陳和錦.
Remark:
陳偉 is the only son of 陳和錦, a well-known tea merchant. While he is the only son, he has at least 5 sisters, all older. So he acted like a little king in that environment. All his sisters were very understanding & tried to accommodate him, even forgave him most of the time for his bad behavior. I found a way to tame him. But I regretted that I didn’t stop him in various occasions that he was yelling at his sisters.
7/31/1 青年朝聖團出國, 經慕尼黑, 一去不回. 某雜誌評語: 大學之道在慕尼黑,在嘲聖,在止於 USA.
Remark:
It was said that 主教于斌, sponsored, supported or financed the trip. 一些青年才俊及名媛 包括沈斐文(某屆中國小姐第三名 after 林靜宜 & 汪麗玲) 紛紛參加,一去不返.

The 2nd semester ended here & so we all had a good time in the first year of our college life. In general, I was happy as a freshman. I read a lot, made several good friends & started to see the world in a whole new way. Although Taida was not a unversity with rich resources, we all learned the basics as to how to become a good engineer as well as a good citizen.

Chronicle-I

I found some old notes in my garage lately. Some of them relate to our good old college days. I list them in chronological order. Perhaps you can use the dates & events as a reference for nostalgic purposes. I also include some books & movies I read or watched in that period of time. This sort of indicates some cultural background we lived in then. The date is listed in month/day/day of week (0 means Sunday).

1960
7/29/5-7/30/6 大專聯考甲組: 國文, 英文, 數學, 物理, 化學, 三民主義. 六門科目分兩天考. 炎炎夏日, 孜孜學子.
8/15/1 閱讀 “富蘭克林自傳”, 楊景邁譯, 協志工業叢書
8/21/0 閱讀 “約翰克利斯多夫” (Jean Christophe), Romain Rolland, 黃楊譯
8/26/5 Read 地球概論, 王安宅著, 商務印書館
8/30/2 大專聯考甲組放榜, 電机系最低分 419. 錄取大約 30人. 物理系最低分 427. 醫預科最低分 440. 狀元: 高鷹, 508分
Remark:
吾友徐惠康考了439分, 一分之差飲恨, had to go to 高雄醫學院,. He cried for a week. 我想他大概栽在三民主義上面 . He & I were in the same boat, 我的三民主義衹考 53 分. I got hold on him early this year. He is now a heart surgeon working at the unversity hospital of NY State Univ at Buffalo near Niagara Fall.
8/31/3 我很高興考上台大電机系. 去大同戲院, watched movie "鴛鴦譜", Description of the movie: 青年人如膠似漆, 中年人互相猜疑, 老年人互相掩飾. Don’t know the English title.
9/5/1 Read "傲慢與偏見" (Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austin)
9/9/5 Read Bertrand Russell "世界新希望" (New Hope for a Changing World, 1950), 張易譯, 國立編譯館
9/15/4 中央日報第一版: 蔣總統說“共匪在三年內必定崩潰”
9/17/6 台大入學註冊, 李純儀 &卞昭廣 捷足先登 (1 & 2), 陳英亮 was before me & Amo was behind me (my number is 30). I didn’t notice that Amo was behind me. He had to be very quiet on that day.
9/22/4 參觀台大工字院的各項設備. I was surprised that 台大電机系 was very spartan. I didn’t see anything in the Wireless Lab (無線電實驗室). It was really wireless.
9/29/4 第一天大學生活
Remark:
I had no further record on this day. However, I remember either this day or the day before, we were in the classroom in a very casual manner. I noticed one lady sat in the far corner of the room & watched us. However, while we were shooting bulls in the room, not one of us went to greet her or asked her anything. Later we knew that she was Dr. Kuller’s wife. She probably was curious about what kind of kids we were & might be disappointed that nobody greeted her. This showed how boring & woody we were in those days.
10/3/1 在腳踏車棚碰到蘇岳雄. He is 4 years senior to us & just ready to graduate from Taida.
Remark:
蘇岳雄 later became a known researcher on Fault Tolerant in the field of computer science.
11/4/5 Chemistry lab, a new experience
11/5/6 Play tennis, (軟式).
Remark:
I had no record as to whom I played with. Must be with 蔡宗元.
11/6/0 Read 盧梭懺悔碌 (Confession, by Jean J. Rousseau)
11/8/2 Physics lab
11/12/6 Read “Sailor Uncle”, from English textbook
11/14/1 五省立聯合迎新晚會, watched movie “Anne Frank’s Diary”(安妮少女日記)
11/15/2 台大校慶
11/19/6 遠東戲院, watched movie "兒子與情人”, D.H. Lawrence 之名作 “Son & Lover”
11/22/2 趙麗蓮 學生英語文摘, 早上七點半電台廣播, very popular program among college students
11/23/3 Textbooks used: General Physics--Sears/Zemansky; General Chemistry---Linus Pauling
Remark:
I had the chance to review these two books sometime ago. Sears’ book is not good compared to the textbook my daughter used 12 years ago. Pauling’s book is superior. Pauling wrote “Vitamin C & Common Cold” in 1969 & became very controversial. He also is the only person got two Nobel Prizes in Chemistry & Peace (he was anti-nuclear activist & used to live in Palo Alto near Stanford).
11/27/0 昨天考完中國近代史. 到國際戲院看電影 ”天使之歌”. I have no record of English title.
12/3/6 Went to movie “Song Without End”, 李斯特傳
Remark:
電影 started with Piano Concerto #1 by Franz Liszt, very impressive. 攝影(cinimatography) by 黃宗霑. This is a very good movie. You can check it out from Netflix. You can also listen to the famous Hungarian Rhapsody in the movie. I remember two or three months later, 洪輝雄(brother of 洪俊雄) held a concert in 中山堂. He played the same piece Hungarian Rhapsody in that concert.
12/7/3 今天考了投影几訶, 牛力小試,滿載而歸.
12/9/5 化學考試
12/13/2 物理實驗, 和助教爭吵. 物理期中考
Remark:
I found the quality of 助教 (this particular one) not very good. Most of them did not have the student’s interest in mind. This one is particularly bad: 幫忙不足, 刁難有餘.
12/18/0 Went to watch 許清浩 芭蕾舞團表演 "Symphony Fantastique (幻想交響曲, Hector Berlioz)", 第二樂章, The Ball (舞會).
12/24/6 三民主義課點名. Murphy’s Law: 我不在場.
Remark:
I didn’t know 三民主義 class also called the roll. 宋嘉賢's reputation was no match to 黃得時. But on the roll call, he was just as notorious as professor Huang. 越是不熱門的課,越需要點名.
12/31/6 49 年過去了,多災多難的中華民國進入五十大關
Remark: 光陰似箭, 時光流轉, 今年變成中華人民共和國進入六十大關. Must be the time for meditation.

母親節有感

Mother’s Day is celebrated worldwide. It was originated in America. In 1912, Anna Jarvis persuaded her home state of West Virginia to adopt an official Mother’s Day. Two years later, President Wilson established a national Mother’s Day. Since then Mother’s Day has been celebrated by Americans on the second Sunday in May. As to why it is observed worldwide is a mystery. We might think this is another American influence. But this occurred in early time of 20th century, well before the America becoming a world superpower. To set aside a day for mothers is actually a very natural idea since the bound between the mother & children is very strong. Why didn’t this idea come from China? If we take into consideration of Chinese culture & its tradition of cherishing mother’s love, we almost think this day must have been created from China. Perhaps Chinese think it is their duty to show piety & filialness to mother & so every day must be mother’s day. This kind of attitude works against Chinese interests. Chinese invented a lot of things but took them for granted. When time goes by, other people picked them up, refined & polished them. Without making them routines, other people took them seriously & eventually claimed them as theirs, ie part of their culture. We may point out the following: 圍棋,茶道,武術 etc. Lately, Korean claimed 端午節 event is theirs & 孫逸仙 is partly Korean. It sounds absurd, but it happened before our eyes. Japanese claimed a lot of stuffs theirs even most of them were originated from China. Chinese should change their thinking. Don’t take things for granted. Don’t make something meaningful a routine. It reminds me of a book by 張繼高(吳心柳), "從精緻到完美". The Chinese culture is 博大 (broad & comprehensive), but lack of the quality 精緻(refine & polish). 博大& 精緻 lead to 完美 (impeccable & finished).

Mendelssohn Bicentennial

Sometime ago we mentioned the bicentennial of Charles Darwin & Abraham Lincoln. They are truly great men in their fields---science & humanity. There is another great man (also born in 1809) in the field of music that deserves our admiration. His is Felix Bartholdy Mendelssohn. Most of us know some of his music. He was a child prodigy and born to a wealthy family. He was more conservative comparing with some of his contemporaries like Liszt, Berlioz, Wagner et al. Because of his Jewish blood (although he was converted to Lutheran), his music was shunned in Germany from time to time especially during WWII. He was one of the greatest composers in the period of Musical Romanticism.
He revived Bach’s St. Matthew Passion & made Bach’s music popular. He was the first to conduct Schubert’s symphony #9, the Great. This work was buried under a pile of papers in some attic for more than 10 years after Schubert’s death. Mendelssohn's most popular works include Wedding March (from Midsummer Night’s Dream), Violin Concerto in E Minor, Italian symphony, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Spring Song (song without word, piano work), auf flugeln des Gesanges (On Wings of Song) etc.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: He composed the overture while he was 17. He finished the work 16 years later. The overture is open with a theme & end with the same theme that sounds like a curtain call, the opening and the closing of the Shakespeare’s play.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUm1HU29TfI&feature=PlayList&p=C40130D5C035CDC3&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=6
(opening)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-SLeBjvg8g&feature=PlayList&p=C40130D5C035CDC3&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=7
(closing)
Wedding March: Mendelssohn befriended with Queen Victoria. This wedding march was played when the Queen married her daughter to Frederick of Prussia in 1858. If you have watched “Fall of Eagles” (BBC TV series), you know the episode. Since that time, this wedding march becomes one of the most popular classical music played in the wedding ceremony.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tDYMayp6Dk
Violin Concerto in E minor: This one was very popular while we were in Taida. It was played at least once a month from some radio stations in Taipei. This concerto is unique in its opening. The violin solo just ushers in playing the main theme without any introduction. If you are familiar with other great violin concertos by Beethoven, Brahms or Tchaikovsky, you will know what I mean. You can find the first movement of this concerto played by Heifetz from the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27n4rQ-VIT8
Spring Song: This is a piano work, song without words. It depicts the glorious spring will definitely come to an end. However, it is worth the effort & time to enjoy the last trace of the season. Almost everybody loves this song and I bet you all know the tune.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tkqdOB5bEw&feature=related
Italian Symphony: Mendelssohn composed this piece when he traveled to Italy. This is generally considered the best one among his five symphonies. The whole piece is filled with romantic mood & the lovely melodies flow effortlessly throughout the four movements. The following link is the 1st movement of this symphony.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIITKVYrHvQ
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing: One of the most popular Christmas carol in our time was composed by Mendelssohn. I bet we all listened to this hymn at least 20 times during Christmas holidays.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDPwNPAV6tA
Auf Flugeln des Gesanges: This is a lovely song composed for the work by Heine (1797-1856), a famous German lyric poet. Heine was like Mendelssohn with Jewish blood converted to Lutheran. His another famous poem is “Die Lorelei”. If you have ever cruised river Rhine, you know the Lorelei Rock, its romantic & tragic tale. Auf Flugeln des Gesanges is “On Wings of Song” in English. You will love it when you listen to it. I think most of you already familiar with the melody & will not get tired of it even you listen to it 10 more times. In the following link you will find the lyrics in German, English & Chinese (click “more info”). Please compare the content and meaning of the poem among different languages.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc4QC35LfhU
The soprano is Victoria de los Angeles (1923-2005), a well known operatic soprano.
In order to follow the music, you may note the following:
Die Lotosblumen erwarten
Ihr trautes Schwesterlein
(repeat once)
Und in der Ferne rauschen
Des heilgen Stromes Well'n
(repeat once)
Und träumen seligen Traum
(repeat once)
seligen Traum
(repeat once more)
PS: This one has nothing to do with Mendelssohn. If you have ever watched the movie "Death in Venice", (1971, based on Thomas Mann's Novel), you will not forget that moody melody permeated throughout the movie. The theme is from the 4th movement of Mahler's symphony #5. If you are interested, go to the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kpJehOi2p4

台大電机系軼事之一

Hedy Lamarr
Occupation: Actor, Inventor
Most Beautiful Electrical Engineer?

In our third year of EE life, most of us took a course called “Transmission Lines”. I remember the lecturer was not a resident professor. His name was 繆超鳳. He looked like a well-groomed gentleman. He was slim, clean-cut & soft spoken. For some reason, his lectures were not well received. A lot of time, we were all chatting or doing something else, even clipping finger nails in his class. I sort of felt sorry for him. Sometime I tried to focus on what he said. But it was in vain due to the high noise level, ie signal/noise ratio is too low. Professor 繆 had good temper. He seemed not upset at all, a truly gentleman behavior. He probably worked in 交通部 or 電信局 at that time. I had no doubt that he was well versed in the subject. He somehow just lacked some zest or charisma that would attract our attention. I don’t know how many of us still remember what we learned from that class. Transmission Line is a branch of knowledge or discipline nested between Lump Circuit Theory & EM Wave Theory. It was very useful when telegraphy ruled the world between 1860 to 1900. Even today, we see the transmission towers & high voltage lines across the island and continent. Theoretically, the lump theory & transmission line can all be deduced from Maxwell equations with suitable boundary conditions. Transmission line is also a one-dimensioned distribution of lump theory.

Once in a while we heard of Oliver Heaviside. For example, Heaviside’s Partial Expansion, Heaviside’s Unit Function, Heaviside’s Distortionless line & Heaviside Layer. Actually he was instrumental in developing Transmission Line & Operational Calculus. He introduced D or P operator to solve differential equations in an algebraic fashion. We have learned all the trade under the title of Laplace Transformation. It is shameful that most textbooks fail to mention his genius and contribution to the Electrical Engineering.

There are some similarities between Heaviside (1850-1925) & Edison (1847-1931). Both of them lived around the same time. Both of them were telegraph operators, well versed in Morse Code. Both of them were self-taught engineer & lacked of formal education in mathematics. Perhaps due to this, their works lacked of rigorous proof & procedure. However, Heaviside got the credit to reduce Maxwell’s 20 equations in 20 variables to 4 equations & four variables. In fact, what we know about Maxwell’s equation is in the form worked by Heaviside. In 1902 Heaviside predicted that there was an conducting layer in the atmosphere which allowed radio waves to follow the Earth’s curvature. This layer is later called Heaviside Layer. Perhaps Heaviside has become widely known due to a song by Andrew Lloyd Webber: "Journey to the Heaviside Layer" in the American Musical Cats.

Edison was a great inventor but he missed out the industry of power transmission & distribution. He advocated Direct Current instead of Alternating Current. Here came another genius Charles Steinmetz we don’t hear often enough. Steinmetz was a German got problem with Otto Von Bismarck & fled to the US. He worked in GE & was instrumental in promoting Alternating Current over Direct Current. He worked out most of the mathematical & engineering details relating to how the alternating current would be used in the power transmission.

PS1: "Journey to the Heaviside Layer" can be found in the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvsRZ8FVx4o
The lyrics are very simple:
Up, up, up, past the Russell Hotel
Up, up, up, up, to the Heaviside Layer

repeated several times.

PS2: Do you know the most beautiful electrical engineer in history? The answer is Hedy Lamarr (海蒂拉瑪). She was the heroine of the famous movie “Samson & Delilah” (霸王妖姬, 1949). Here were some headlines:
How was Hedy Lamarr’s wartime invention revolutionizing wireless communications?
How “The Bad Boy of Music” and “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World” catalyzed a Wireless Revolution in 1941?
People assume that perhaps Hedy Lamarr wasn’t intelligent because she was so beautiful. But she really had a mind…she held her own with anybody.
Hedy Lamaar & Spread Spectrum
Frequency-Hopping Spread-Spectrum Invention & Hedy Lamaar
Spread Spectrum & Internet

The following link has info about her invention:
http://britneyspears.ac/physics/intro/hedy.htm

The issue June 23, 1997 of MicroTimes magazine was dedicated to her achievement. Sadly, she passed away in 2000. Her ashes were spread in the romantic Vienna Woods.

大一國文

國文課堂---臨時教室

The photos of our classmates & the campus of Taida remind me of our good old college days.  I wrote this down just in case I forget it later.  Our memory inevitably fades when time goes by.  We had to learn 國文 or 國語 since we were a kid in elementary school.  With so many years of learning, I wonder why we need to do it again in college.  As a matter of fact, 大一國文 was one of the worst I have ever experienced.  We had a famous professor 黃得時.  He was noted for his research in some area of Chinese literature.  But his accent was really out of place.  Fortunately we were not learning the pronunciation of Mandarin, otherwise it was going to be a disaster. The worst part was that we had to study 左傳 & 戰國策.  They are so ancient & the writing styles are so out of time.   It would be much better to study some modern Chinese literature.  But for some political reason, we just couldn’t do it.  Most famous literary figures were in mainland & couldn’t be mentioned.   Those who fled to Taiwan were second rate figures at best. Some good one like 胡適 or 林語堂 went to US & stayed there until late 1950’s. Who had heard of 鲁迅, 葉聖陶, 茅盾, 老舍, or 朱光潛 in Taiwan?  All in all, 大一國文 was totally a waste of time to me.

I have to say something about 黃得時.   His ancestry was from 福建泉州.  He made contribution in Taiwan literature, especially in the preservation of 臺灣鄉土戲曲 & 兒童文學之編譯.  His unfinished work is 臺灣文學史 .  He was a professor of 台大中文系.  I have a lot of respect for him though he had some interesting behavior.  Here is what I remember about him:

1. He had some problem in walking.  I don’t know whether it was due to polio or some accidents.  His head looked bigger than normal with his body size.
2. He called roll at the beginning of every class.  As far as I can remember: 每堂課點名,風雨無阻.  To make the whole thing worse, the class started promptly at 8:00 am.  To get up early in the cold winter & ride bicycle to 大一教室 before 8am definitely was a pain in the neck. My home was near 新生北路 & 南京東路, not really close to the campus.  Here I sort of envied my classmates from southern Taiwan.  They stayed at 台大宿舍 & could reach 大一教室 in no time. Anyway, worst thing did happen to me (Murphy’s Law), my name happened to be the first one in the roll call.   I still remember Professor 黃's voice (first thing in the class): 林幸峰, 黃肇崶, … If I was not in the classroom in time, I missed the class. I think 黃肇崶 must have shared the same misery.  So once in a while, I found that I was late about 5 minutes, I simply skipped the class & murmured “Go ahead, make my day”.  I still think it is a joke to do roll call in a university like Taida. It is an insult to freshmen.  I don’t know any professor did the same in our first year classes. Imagine if 徐照 or 葉炳雲 did the same thing, the class will be over before he finishes the roll call.
3. I met a lot of freshmen from 化工系 & 机械系 in the class.   I still remember two girls named 陳滿枝 & 陳星華 (化工系).  They were pretty nice looking. I forgot all the rest.
4. His Japanese or Taiwanese accent in reading Chinese text is not very polished. For a professor of 國文, it is definitely a minus. For 左傳 & 戰國策, it is ok.   But for "康橋的早晨”, it is going to sound like evening instead of the morning.
5. 黃得時 was noted for his research in Taiwan literature.  I wonder why shouldn’t he just teach Taiwan literature for the freshman class.   I think it was really a loss for us not taking advantage of his expertise.
6. Several years ago, while I performed my annual spring garage cleanup, I encountered something unexpected, three compositions of my freshman class.   Titles of the compositions are: 自敘, 我與國文, 台大一角.   I found the last one very refreshing & valuable.   It reminds me a lot of minor details about that little corner of Taida campus---Chemistry Lab & how we performed the experiments.  In the composition, I see all those hand-written comments in red by professor 黃得時. Ah…, that was almost 49 years ago. 往事如煙,字跡依舊.

PS: The early morning class forced me to get up early & reach the classroom before 8am.  Sometime I got there way early especially in the spring time.  Once I got into the classroom & found one girl was practicing violin.  She was probably from 女生宿舍 nearby.   In order not to disturb her, I sat way back in the corner & read a book.   I remember she played some scales & some work by Bach. A few minutes later, she started playing something slow & mellow.  I recognized it was Beethoven’s Romance #2(opus 50). Although her play was not that fluent, I could follow the main theme nicely.  After a few moments, I was sort of in a dream when the music kept flowing.  I didn’t know how long the time passed before she finished the playing & put the violin in the case.  She carried it in her hand & walked toward the door.   I kept watching her & finally decided to say hello to her.  But I was way back in the classroom & couldn’t catch her in time.  She simply disappeared from my eyes in no time. Since that morning, I had several occasions in that semester to be there early enough to catch her.  But she never showed up & I had never seen her again.

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