Re: Paschen paper online

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Jim Lux" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net> 


----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2004 8:22 PM
Subject: Re: Paschen paper online


 > Original poster: "Christopher Boden" <chrisboden-at-hotmail-dot-com>
 >
 > You're most welcome, and you're right, it was a nightmarish task. The
 > document wasn't originally written in German (we don't know what it was
 > originally, but it was obviously translated into it's present form).

It was not translated in the current form.  That's a copy of the original,
right out of the Annalen der Physik. It WAS originally written in fairly
normal technical German. It reads much like any other papers from the late
19th century.  Certainly, it's not colloquial common German, but I suspect
that any native German speaker would have no problem reading it.  The
grammar and style is a bit stilted, but so are technical papers today.  It's
basically a summary of Paschen's dissertation work, and reads just like
stuff produced today at that level.

  Wha'ts
 > worse, when we started with it, it's not current German, it's OLD German
 > which is a lurching mess unto itself.

It is certainly NOT old German, or even middle German.  That would be like
Beowulf in the original language (Old English).  I have an old family bible
that is probably 100 years older, and even it isn't in old German, although
it IS printed in Fraktur (that old style script where "f"s and "s"s look
real similar).



  There's no way we're doing another
 > one of these, lol
 >
 > Please post all corrections and revisions to
cboden-at-thegeekgroup-dot-org
 > and I'll make sure to update it. I'm fairly certain there are a few errors
 > in there. We came across words in there that haven't been in a scientific
 > dictionary for over half a century!

Not surprising...

If you were to read original papers by Maxwell (cited in the Paschen paper),
Rayleigh, etc. written around the same time (in English) you'd find the
vocabulary, etc. somewhat different than currently used.

Certainly, if you try to translate it with babelfish, or with your handy
Cassells compact or Langenscheidt's  German-English dictionary, you're going
to find a lot of missing words.  However, since we all know what Paschen is
talking about, one can usually figure stuff out from context. There ARE a
number of idomatic phrases that are probably "terms of art" for the 1880s,
and don' t translate exactly.

I've encountered similar problems trying to read French technical papers
from that era.  With the German, since I have some experience reading
technical German (both old and new), I can usually figure out what they were
talking about (sometimes, idiomatic technical phrases translate very
differently than they would in colloquial usage).  In French, I'm lost.

Technical jargon can be tricky, even in English. Example from my work, which
has received some press interest:
"MER-A ratted Adirondack yestersol while solar groovy, even though it was
high tau in Gusev."

 >
 > I'm very glad we could help out the coiling community and make this
 > publicly availible in English though.
 >
 > Thank you to Jim for supplying the original!
 >
 >
 > Christopher "Duck" Boden Geek#1
 > President / C.E.O. / Alpha Geek
 > The Geek Group
 > www.thegeekgroup-dot-org
 > Because the Geek shall inherit the Earth!
 >
 >
 >
 >
 >
 > >From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
 > >To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
 > >Subject: Re: Paschen paper online
 > >Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2004 19:29:56 -0700
 > >
 > >Original poster: Bart Anderson <classi6-at-classictesla-dot-com>
 > >
 > >Woo Hoo!
 > >Thanks, guys.
 > >That must have been quite an undertaking!
 > >
 > >Super! Thanks again,
 > >Bart
 > >
 > >Tesla list wrote:
 > >
 > >>Original poster: "Christopher Boden" <chrisboden-at-hotmail-dot-com>
 > >>http://www.thegeekgroup-dot-org/archives/paschen.htm
 > >>
 > >>For all of you courtesy of The Geek Group.
 > >>
 > >>You're welcome.
 > >>
 > >>
 > >>
 > >>Christopher "Duck" Boden Geek#1
 > >>President / C.E.O. / Alpha Geek
 > >>The Geek Group
 > >>www.thegeekgroup-dot-org
 > >>Because the Geek shall inherit the Earth!
 > >>
 > >>
 > >>
 > >>
 > >>
 > >>>From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
 > >>>To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
 > >>>Subject: Re: Paschen paper online
 > >>>Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 08:10:30 -0700
 > >>>
 > >>>Original poster: Bart Anderson <classi6-at-classictesla-dot-com>
 > >>>
 > >>>Wow! Cool Chris! I was dreading the task after a few words of
translation.
 > >>>
 > >>>Thanks for doing this!
........