RankingsPrimerArbiterPhysicistMathematicianContrarianQESites logClaimsSourcesResearch notes

2026-10-08 — Google search (Chrome)

Investigator (Step I), project Morton-Wall. Searches run in a new Chrome tab. Result pages read with get_page_text (short pages only).

Queries and what they turned up

  1. "Houston" "new connection for the induction coil" — ScienceDirect record (EJ Houston 1871, "Cited by 4"); Scientific American June 1871 issue listing the reprint; Google Books record of the JFI volume; Coulson 1957 "Some prominent members of the Franklin Institute" citing Houston 1871 and Houston "Phenomena of Induction"; a YouTube video by "nat1971aa" ("Quest for free energy - Tesla's Disruptive Discharge Coil") citing the Houston note and E. S. Ritchie [web] https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Houston%22+%22new+connection+for+the+induction+coil%22
  2. Coulson 1957 "Some prominent members of the Franklin Institute" Houston Thomson — Coulson's article is "Elihu Thomson, 1853-1937", J. Franklin Inst. vol. 264 no. 2 (Aug. 1957) p. 87 ff.; it cites Houston 1871 as part of Thomson's story [web] (snippet only; ScienceDirect, paywalled, not opened).
  3. Elihu Thomson Houston 1871 induction coil gas pipe spark Central High School wireless 1875 — Susskind 1964 (Isis) snippet: Thomson "had made four years earlier, in 1871. He had used a Ruhmkorff coil..."; APS Elihu Thomson Papers; general biographies.
  4. Thomson Houston "etheric force" 1875 Franklin Institute induction coil earth "gas pipe" sparks distant — Wills, "Edison and science: a curious result" (Stud. Hist. Phil. Sci. 2009); Dyer & Martin, Edison, His Life and Inventions ("By connecting X to the gas-pipe we drew sparks from the gas-pipes in any ..."); Susskind snippet "between the vibrator and an overhead gas pipe turned the entire pipe into ...".
  5. sciencedirect "Journal of the Franklin Institute" 1876 Houston Thomson "induction" "so-called" OR "phenomena of induction" — Houston 1876 pp. 59-63 (cited by 5); Wills's bibliography lists Houston & Thomson (1876); Energetic Forum thread.
  6. "In 1872, Elihu Thomson took a large" — the free-energy literature's version of the story, repeated verbatim on Energetic Forum, AboveUnity, Slideshare/hobbielektronika (Patrick J. Kelly, Practical Guide to Free-Energy Devices, ch. 5 "Energy-Tapping Pulsed Systems"), avalonlibrary, Quora, fuel-efficient-vehicles.org. Text: "In 1872, Elihu Thomson took a large Ruhmkorrf Spark Coil, attached one pole of the coil to a cold-water pipe and the other pole to a metal table top ... any insulated metal object anywhere in the building would produce long continuous white sparks discharging to ground. This discovery was written up briefly in the Scientific American journal later that year."
  7. Ritchie induction coil "Henry Morton" Stevens Institute 21 inch spark 1870 — Paolo Brenni, "Very large induction coils", Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society no. 125 (2015), with a figure of "The large induction coil made by Ritchie for Professor Henry Morton" [web] https://www.academia.edu/13825373/Very_large_induction_coils
  8. "Very large induction coils" Brenni Ritchie Morton Spottiswoode Apps — same paper; figure 4 is Spottiswoode's Apps coil.
  9. Elihu Thomson 1875 Ruhmkorff coil "tin" OR "gas pipe" sparks "doorknob" OR "brass knob" Central High School electromagnetic waves before Hertz — Woodbury 1944 full text on archive.org; Atherton 1984 From Compass to Computer on worldradiohistory.com; Susskind snippet "Thomson drew sparks from the doorknob, from the eyepiece of the telescope ... son's tin still, Edison's overhead pipes, Dolbear's gilt kite and tin roof."
  10. Susskind 1964 Isis "Observations of Electromagnetic-Wave Radiation before Hertz" Thomson Houston 1871 tin still — only JSTOR.
  11. edison.rutgers.edu "etheric force" Houston Thomson 1876 — Edison Papers chronology; Wills 2007 PhilSci preprint; Wikipedia; Project MUSE (Edison Papers vols.).
  12. "Houston" "Thomson" 1871 "Central High School" wireless priority "Electrical World" OR "Electrical Engineer" 1899 sparks coil "water pipe" — Woodbury; Atherton.
  13. site:as.amphilsoc.org Elihu Thomson Papers Houston notebook 1871 OR 1875 "etheric" — APS finding aid entry for the April-May 1876 paper.
  14. "Thomson discovered electric waves fifty years ago" OR "A short story in wireless" Elihu Thomson 1922 — citation in Yates, Everyman's Guide to Radio (worldradiohistory.com): Thomson, "A Short Story in Wireless" (letter), The Electrician (London) vol. 89, pp. 242-243, 1 Sept. 1922.
  15. "Ritchie" "induction coil" "Stevens Institute" Morton coil museum OR collection OR "Scientific American" 1871 "21 inches" — only the JFI volume index (negative for a surviving coil or museum record).
  16. "Elihu Thomson" "cold-water pipe" "metal table top" Lindemann OR Vassilatos OR Kelly radiant energy Tesla — Scribd "Cold Electricity: Tesla and Gray's Innovations" (a version with "previously blue spark changed to white ... silver"), Kelly ch. 5, AboveUnity.
  17. Houston 1871 Inductionsapparat "Fortschritte der Physik" OR "Inductorium" Gasleitung Funken Erde — page did not render (AI-mode loading); "Fortschritte der Physik" 1871 Houston "Journal of the Franklin Institute" Inductionsrolle OR Inductionsapparat — no relevant result.
  18. "Houston" "induction coil" 1871 "gas pipe" "lecture table" earth connection spark quantity — ScienceDirect PDF of the 1871 page; nothing new.
  19. "Monroe B. Snyder" Elihu Thomson sparks observatory Central High School 1875 waves — Edmonds 1902 history of Central High (archive.org); NBS history (Snyder's later campaign for a national standards bureau).
  20. "Elihu Thomson" 1922 Electrician "short story in wireless" 1875 Houston tin still pencil points — Woodbury ("In 1871 and again in 1875 ..."); Susskind snippet "Elihu Thomson (1853-1936), then a young instructor … remembered an observation that he had made four years earlier, in 1871. Thomson's tin still"; Brian Winston, Media Technology and Society ("In 1875, Elihu Thomson of Philadelphia had detected a spark between a sharp pencil point and a brass door knob").
  21. "Houston" "Thomson" "tin still" 1871 OR 1875 sparks "Central High" radio history Susskind — Susskind snippet: "... Thomson's 1871 experiments while his own paper was in proof and that he ... Thomson and Houston were science instructors in a secondary school. Dolbear ..." (who learned of the 1871 experiments while in proof is cut off; to be read).
  22. Edison reply Houston Thomson "etheric force" 1876 "Scientific American" OR "Journal of the Franklin Institute" Edison response induction — Beard, "The Nature of the Newly Discovered Force", Scientific American 22 Jan. 1876 (cited on Wikipedia); ETHW; Wills.
  23. "Elihu Thomson of Philadelphia had detected a spark" — K. T. Compton, "Elihu Thomson the Scientist" (1939), JSTOR https://www.jstor.org/stable/1664186, snippet: "It was found that tiny sparks could be obtained from metal objects wherever they were, in the cases or outside, from the door-knobs or from apparatus"; APS memoir PDF https://www.amphilsoc.org/bulletin/20011/elihu.pdf (not opened, time limit).

Result: positive (leads to all four priorities).