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The urban legend:
So in many ways we have early RCA color TV engineers to thank for my discovery of the power generator. I am sure they are all dead now but they did contribute.
Perhaps a story which had impact on me at that time was told to me by my boss way back in 1970 I believe it was.
He told me that around 1965 or 66 there was an explosion in an apartment in Chicago. the authorities had concluded that for some unknown reason, a General Electric color television receiver had been the source of an explosion that killed a young black child in the apartment. My boss went on to relate that he was involved in the investigation because he was in Chicago at the time and he was invaluably experienced with television circuits and etc.
He told us that what they found was, the TV had exploded with some quick furry. The explosion did in fact kill the poor child who was sitting directly in front but sparred his mother who was some distance away in the kitchen.
The explosion was strange because of the absence of expected chemicals necessary to create the explosion. It appeared that the TV was the exact center of the explosion, however no one could find a reason for the explosion occurring. Also consider that there is not really much inside a TV to explode with enough force to kill people and destroy the living room a large apartment. Yes a CRT can explode and kill someone, however this was not the kind of explosion we are talking about. The most interesting part of the story is that according to our boss, metallic objects especially those containing large amounts of iron were dramatically displaced. He mentioned that some nails were actually removed from the walls and pulled toward the TV set. When they found them they were bent and shaped like cork screws! Everything in the room appeared to have moved or was moving toward the TV as it exploded, or imploded as the case may be. The child was apparently killed by way of these metallic objects traveling through his body on their way toward the center of the TV set.
As far as my boss knew, there was never a good explanation for the occurrence. We found out that this was not the only unexplained explosion of TV sets worldwide. However, the fact that all the sets exploded while in operation may bear some light. Also most of the TV sets were made by the GE company or were TV sets made using GE circuits and of similar design.
However, this man who had been my mentor for so many years had his own theory which he never told anyone as far as i know, except me. His theory was that the TV while in operation, somehow managed to become a receiver of more then just television waves and so for a millisecond in time became a receiver and the discharger of a huge amount of electrical and magnetic energy. This discharge of magnetic energy is vary similar to the discharge of magnetic energy during an atomic explosion. . . Now that is something I have thought about a great deal.
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