Early geodynamo work
DOI: 10.1063/1.4797299
The different research groups cited in Bertram Schwarzschild’s story about experiments using a laboratory analogue of the geodynamo may have been unaware of my old paper published back in 1963. 1 The diagram of the apparatus in the Physics Today story and the corresponding diagram in my paper show almost identical designs. Apart from the Helmholtz coils needed for a dynamo seed field, both figures show two propellers driving the liquid metal in opposite directions. My paper was stimulated by the pioneering work of Walter M. Elsasser.
[Editor’s note: Daniel Lathrop, one of the researchers consulted for the original story, was invited to respond to Friedwardt Winterberg’s comments.]
References
1. F. Winterberg, Phys. Rev. 131, 29 (1963) https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.131.29 .
More about the Authors
Friedwardt Winterberg. winterbe@physics.unr.edu, University of Nevada, Reno, US .
