Comments,
questions, suggestions?
Send us your feedback by emailing lab-notes@coe.berkeley.edu.
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The
Future of Oral History
I agree with your recent article on voice recordings of oral histories. The tone and mode of articulation is like the body language of the speaker. It adds special connotation to the meaning of the spoken words.
This is my observation after conducting several oral histories
of some of my more talented contemporary bridge engineers
at the Calif. Dept. of Transportation (Caltrans). Retired
Professor Alex Scordelis and I knew them all very well. Incidentally,
I believe the Caltrans Chief Librarian has sent hard copies
to your Bancroft Library where I expect they will attract
no interest. Maybe they belong in the Engineering Library.
But this is not the point of this correspondence. It follows.
I believe a major problem with oral histories is that they
tend to be "sanitized". That is, the interviewer the person
being interviewed do not want embarrass any of their contemporaries
or repeat anecdotes that others would just as soon forget.
And in doing so much of the "flavor" of the era is lost. Controversy
is part of the development process, especially in technology,
and without including this in history the young reader will
never learn that it is a normal and necessary part of any
endeavor.
— Don Alden, CE 1947
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Novel Nuclear Reactor (Batteries Included)
Of course the public is open
to new nuclear power plants.
They don't stand to lose money
when those plants start up.
It is the government that,
through its dependency on fossil
fuel taxation, is so exposed,
and it is government, not the
public, that out of one side of
its mouth says it wants new plants,
and out of the other says there will be
an approval process spanning several years.
I think it is important for new reactors
to have high-temperature capability,
suitable for driving chemical fuel production
processes. Then one country can build
hundreds of GW worth, and others can
import the fuel, and tax it as much as they wish.
— Graham Cowan
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Updated 11/26/02.
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