The wizard’s legacy

Thank you for the item on Don Herbert, TV’s Mr. Wizard. His science of everyday things never ceased to hold my childhood attention and was a major influence that eventually led me to a career in engineering. When his show was about to be canceled in the late 1950s, I asked my father to help me write a letter of protest to the network. I was elated when we read in the newspaper that the show was to be renewed the following year.

It would be hard to single out my favorite episode, though I do remember the toy steam engine that ran while it was all frosty and obviously quite cold. The challenge, to figure out what was going on, was a simple but very effective lesson in thermodynamics. We learned at the end of the show that the steam engine’s boiler had been filled with freon that was boiling off and driving the engine.

Thank you, Mr. Wizard, for many an enjoyable, informative, and challenging program.