F. Alton Everest

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F. Alton Everest (1909–2005) was an American acoustical engineer, a cofounder of the American Scientific Affiliation, and its first president.

Acoustical engineering branch of engineering dealing with sound and vibration

Acoustical engineering is the branch of engineering dealing with sound and vibration. It is the application of acoustics, the science of sound and vibration, in technology. Acoustical engineers are typically concerned with the design, analysis and control of sound.

American Scientific Affiliation organization

The American Scientific Affiliation (ASA) is a Christian religious organization of scientists and people in science-related disciplines. The stated purpose is "to investigate any area relating Christian faith and science." The organization publishes a journal, Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith which covers topics related to Christian faith and science from a Christian viewpoint.

Contents

Academic and acoustic research career

He held electrical engineering degrees from Oregon State and Stanford University, where he conducted his early work with such prominent engineers as Lee DeForest (inventor of the triode vacuum tube) and Hewlett Packard founders William Hewlett and David Packard, [1] then taught at Oregon State College at Corvallis from 1936, specialising in radio and television. [2]

Electrical engineering field of engineering that deals with electricity

Electrical engineering is a professional engineering discipline that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. This field first became an identifiable occupation in the later half of the 19th century after commercialization of the electric telegraph, the telephone, and electric power distribution and use. Subsequently, broadcasting and recording media made electronics part of daily life. The invention of the transistor, and later the integrated circuit, brought down the cost of electronics to the point they can be used in almost any household object.

Stanford University private research university located in Stanford, California, United States

Leland Stanford Junior University is a private research university in Stanford, California. Stanford is known for its academic strength, wealth, proximity to Silicon Valley, and ranking as one of the world's top universities.

Triode electronic device having three active electrodes; the term most commonly applies to a single-grid amplifying vacuum tube

A triode is an electronic amplifying vacuum tube consisting of three electrodes inside an evacuated glass envelope: a heated filament or cathode, a grid, and a plate (anode). Developed from Lee De Forest's 1906 Audion, a partial vacuum tube that added a grid electrode to the thermionic diode, the triode was the first practical electronic amplifier and the ancestor of other types of vacuum tubes such as the tetrode and pentode. Its invention founded the electronics age, making possible amplified radio technology and long-distance telephony. Triodes were widely used in consumer electronics devices such as radios and televisions until the 1970s, when transistors replaced them. Today, their main remaining use is in high-power RF amplifiers in radio transmitters and industrial RF heating devices. In recent years there has been a resurgence in demand for low power triodes due to renewed interest in tube-type audio systems by audiophiles who prefer the sound of tube-based electronics.

During World War II he headed a National Defense Research Committee underwater sound research team. [1] [2]

World War II 1939–1945 global war

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

National Defense Research Committee government agency

The National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) was an organization created "to coordinate, supervise, and conduct scientific research on the problems underlying the development, production, and use of mechanisms and devices of warfare" in the United States from June 27, 1940, until June 28, 1941. Most of its work was done with the strictest secrecy, and it began research of what would become some of the most important technology during World War II, including radar and the atomic bomb. It was superseded by the Office of Scientific Research and Development in 1941, and reduced to merely an advisory organization until it was eventually terminated during 1947.

His book Master Handbook of Acoustics was described by Stereophile magazine as "the best-selling book on the subject of acoustics for more than 20 years." [1]

Stereophile is a monthly magazine that focuses on high-end home audio equipment, such as loudspeakers and amplifiers, and audio-related news, such as online audio streaming.

After his work for the Moody Institute of Science, Everest worked as an acoustical consultant during the 1970s and 1980s. [1]

Moody Institute of Science

After the war (from 1945 to 1971), he became the director of production for the Moody Institute of Science (MIS), a Christian evangelical ministry producing science films, described by American Cinematographer as "the biggest little studio in the world" in the 1960s. [1]

He published two books affiliated with the MIS: Dust or Destiny (Moody Press, 1949) and Hidden Treasures (Moody Press, 1951). [3]

American Scientific Affiliation

Everest grew up a conservative Baptist, reading the works of Harry Rimmer and George McCready Price (although favouring physician Arthur I. Brown as an influence on the relationship between science and religion). [2]

In 1941 he attended a meeting of five evangelical scientists, convened by Moody Bible Institute president William H. Houghton, in Chicago, Illinois, which led to the founding of the American Scientific Affiliation, of which he became the organizational leader and president. [2]

Everest led the ASA through its first critical decision, that of how to relate to the pre-existing Deluge Geology Society (DGS). Everest was enthusiastic about the DGS's ability to draw "large crowds of non-scientific folk", its offer to allow the fledgling ASA to publish material in their Bulletin of Deluge Geology until it could start its own journal, and the "dignified but definite" tone of that journal, but questioned whether it was wise to become entangled with the DGS due to what he perceived as its "strong Seventh-Day Adventist flavor." After meeting with a group of people with close ties to the DGS, Everest wrote to the ASA executive council advising against "becoming affiliated with a deluge society right off" and that he thought "[w]e would never hope to gain even the Christian geologists if we espoused [Price's] cause." He wrote to the DGS, gently rebuffing affiliation, but expressing a desire for amicable cooperation. Everest had himself already joined the DGS, but thereafter specifically requested that he be listed as a "subscriber" rather than a "member". [4] The influence of flood geology on the ASA was finally exorcised when, in 1948, Everest approached J. Laurence Kulp to explore the topic in the ASA's upcoming annual convention. Kulp presented a paper on the Antiquity of Hominoid Fossils at this convention and on Deluge Geology at the next convention, resulting in the discomfiture and isolation of Flood Geologists within the ASA. [5]

In 1996 he was nominated for the Templeton Prize by a fellow member of the American Scientific Affiliation. [6]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 F. Alton Everest: 1909–2005. Wes Phillips. Stereophile Sept 19, 2005.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Numbers(2006) pp181-182
  3. James Gilbert (1997-06-21). Redeeming Culture: American Religion in an Age of Science. University of Chicago Press. p. 133. ISBN   978-0-226-29320-2.
  4. Numbers(2006) pp182-183
  5. Numbers(2006) pp186-192
  6. Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith . Hearn, Walter R. Volume 57 No.4. pp.265-266. Dec. 2005.

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Further reading