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Article: Overcoming Resistance;The Saga of The Superconductor
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- September 12, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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THE BREAKTHROUGH
The Race for the Superconductor
By Robert M. Hazen
Summit. 271 pp. $18.95
The foundation of the modern world rests upon a cloud of
electrons. We may fairly date the era from the time we could first
bend electrical force to our will, when Michael Faraday in 1831 was
able to induce a small but steady electrical flow in wire.
Since that time, electrical power has become useful in each part
of life, from food and shelter to the most detached forms of art and
expression. Nevertheless, its use has been bound by physical and
practical limits, expressed neatly by the formula that says
electrical current is the product of the electrical pressure divided
by the resistance to ...