Thomas Townsend Brown's 1928 Brown paper on the Biefeld-Brown Effect: An...
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Thomas Townsend Brown's 1928 Brown paper on the Biefeld-Brown Effect: An Electrogravitic effect whereby high-voltage electrostatic fields effect local gravity. T.T. Brown was born in 1905 in Zanesville, Ohio. He discovered electrogravity while toying with a Coolidge tube. He later went on to produce an asymmetric capacitor which he termed the "Gravitator", Brown entered CalTech in 1922 and later left after his professors ignored his work on electrogravity. Brown transferred to Denison University where he worked with one of his physics professors Dr. Paul Alfred Biefeld. Myth Busters, Dr. Martin Tajmar, and Dr. R. J. Talley (USAF) have tried to debunk the effect with unconvincing results. In 1955-56 Brown conducted vacuum chamber experiments at, Societe Nationale du Constructions Aeronautiques du Sud-Ouest, a paris based aerospace company. In the March 9, 1992, issue, aviation week & space technology magazine it was disclosed that the B-2 Advanced Technology Bomber electrostatically charges it's exhaust stream. West Coast Aviation scientists and engineers revealed the information. At an aerospace sciences meeting held in New York in January 1968 Northrops Norair Division revealed it was conducting wind tunnel experiments on electrostatically charging the leading edges of speeding aircraft bodies. Similar research was conducted in 1965 by the Grumman and Avco corporations. Additional Links and Sources: 1960 electrokinetic apparatus U.S. Patent #2,949,550 (1960-08-16) (T.T. Brown)
Joan Miró i Ferrà (April 20, 1893 -- December 25, 1983) was a Spanish (C...
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Joan Miró i Ferrà (April 20, 1893 -- December 25, 1983) was a Spanish (Catalan) painter, sculptor, and ceramist born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain to the family of a Goldsmith and Watchmaker. His work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride. In numerous interviews dating from the 1930s onwards, Miró expressed contempt for conventional painting methods and his desire to "kill", "murder", or "rape" them in favor of more contemporary means of expression.
Young Miró was drawn towards the arts community that was gathering in Montparnasse and in 1920 moved to Paris. There, under the influence of the poets and writers, he developed his unique style: organic forms and flattened picture planes drawn with a sharp line. Generally thought of as a Surrealist because of his interest in automatism and the use of sexual symbols (for example, ovoids with wavy lines emanating from them), Miró's style was influenced in varying degrees by Surrealism and Dada, yet he rejected membership to any artistic movement in the interwar European years. André Breton, the founder of Surrealism, described him as "the most Surrealist of us all." Miró confessed to creating one of his most famous works, Harlequin's Carnival, under similar circumstances: "How did I think up my drawings and my ideas for painting? Well I'd come home to my Paris studio in Rue Blomet at night, I'd go to bed, and sometimes I hadn't any supper. I saw things, and I jotted them down in a notebook. I saw shapes on the ceiling..."
In 1926, he collaborated with Max Ernst on designs for Sergei Diaghilev. With Miró's help, Ernst pioneered the technique of grattage, in which he troweled pigment onto his canvases. Miró married Pilar Juncosa in Palma de Mallorca on October 12, 1929; their daughter Dolores was born July 17, 1931. Shuzo Takiguchi published the first monograph on Miró in 1940. In 1959, André Breton asked Miró to represent Spain in The Homage to Surrealism exhibition together with works by Enrique Tábara, Salvador Dalí, and Eugenio Granell.
By not becoming an official member of the Surrealists, Miró was free to experiment with any artistic style that he wished without compromising his position within the group and being accused of not being a "true" Surrealist. He pursued his own interests in the art world, both within and between groups which politicked and jockeyed for prominence. Miró's artistic autonomy, in that he did not adhere to any one particular style, is reflected in his work and his willingness to work with several media.
In an interview with biographer Walter Erben, Miró expressed his dislike for art critics, saying, they "are more concerned with being philosophers than anything else. They form a preconceived opinion, then they look at the work of art. Painting merely serves as a cloak in which to wrap their emaciated philosophical systems."
Joan Miró won several awards in his lifetime. In 1958 he was given the Venice Biennale print making prize, in May 1959 the Guggenheim International Award, and in 1980 he received the Gold Medal of Fine Arts from King Juan Carlos of Spain.
E=MC²