The Intuitive Edge

Bohr: Scoffed at and ridiculed by some colleagues for suggesting electrons orbit the nucleus, he later received the Nobel prize for his imaginative model of the atom. Although no longer satisfactory to the atomic physicist, the Bohr model is still a useful approximation for the atom.

De Forest: In 1906, he invented the vacuum-tube triode, the first electronic device capable of amplifying a signal. His idea was so revolutionary that he was placed under arrest for using the mails to defraud: the charge was attempting to sell stock in a company to make "a strange device like an incandescent lamp which device has proved worthless."

Descartes: This original thinker offered four rules for solving a problem:
Never accept anything as true unless it is clear and distinct enough to exclude all doubt from your mind.
Divide the problem into as many parts as necessary to reach a solution.
Start with the simplest things and proceed step by step toward the complex.
Review the solution so completely and generally that you are sure nothing was omitted.

Edison: His teachers pronounced him "addled." This expert opinion notwithstanding, he became the most prolific inventor of all time. Most of his education came from home study. He worked 20 hours a day and patented more than 1100 inventions. He did have blind spots, the most famous being his indifference to the Edison effect, the foundation of electronics.

Euler: The most prolific mathematician of all time. His known writings would fill 60 to 80 books. Once in the court of Catherine the Great, the atheistic French philosopher Diderot was rambling on and boring the court. Suddenly, Euler stepped forward and said, "Sir, x = (a + b)/n; therefore, God exists. Your reply?" Diderot knew nothing about mathematics; Euler, everything. Because it sounded like sense, Diderot remained silent. The court then realized he was ignorant of even simple mathematics and laughed him all the way back to France.

Faraday: Known as the electrical wizard of the nineteenth century, his discoveries have had a major impact on world evolution. For advice on how to do it, listen to his words:
"Let your imagination go, guiding it by judgment and principle, but holding it in and directing it by experiment. Nature is your best friend and critic in experimental science if you only allow her intimations to fall unbiased on your mind. Nothing is so good as an experiment which, while it sets an error right, gives you as a reward for your humility an absolute advance in knowledge."

Fleming: In 1904, he saw what Edison missed---the commercial value of the Edison effect. He developed and patented a device that he called a "valve," because it allowed current to flow in one direction but not in the other. In the United States the Fleming valve became known as a diode, the first electronic device that was capable of converting alternating current to direct current.

Gauss: Known as the prince of mathematics, his great genius showed early in life. In Gauss' first arithmetic class, a somewhat sadistic teacher challenged the students to find the sum of all numbers from 1 to 100. The teacher had barely finished stating the problem when Gauss raised his hand and said "5050." The dumbfounded teacher asked Gauss how he had done it. He answered as follows: The numbers (1, 2, 3, . . . , 100) can be paired off as 1 and 100, 2 and 99, 3 and 98, and so on. Each pair of numbers has a sum of 101. Since there are 50 pairs, the total is 5050.

Gibbs: Many historians rate Josiah Willard Gibbs as the greatest American scientist, placing him close to Newton, Einstein, and other towering geniuses. In spite of his greatness, Gibbs remains unknown to most people. Perhaps, the reason is his incredibly obscure style of writing. It took years for scientists to understand what he was talking about, not because of technical difficulties but rather because of language difficulties. As many joked, "it was easier to rediscover Gibbs than to read him."

Biographies

Black: In 1928, he tried to patent a negative-feedback amplifier. Unfortunately, the patent office classified his idea as "another one of those perpetual-motion follies." As it has turned out, negative feedback has become one of the most valuable ideas ever discovered in electronics.