Henry W. Howgate | |
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Birth name | Henry Williamson Howgate |
Born | Leeds, England, UK | March 24, 1835
Died | June 1, 1901 District of Columbia, US | (aged 66)
Allegiance | ![]() |
Branch | Army Signal Corps |
Years of service | 1862–1880 |
Rank | Captain |
Unit | 22nd Infantry Regiment |
Battles | Battle of Chickamauga |
Henry Williamson Howgate (March 24, 1835 – June 1, 1901) was an American Army Signal Corps officer and Arctic explorer who embezzled over $133,000 from the U.S. Government. He escaped custody while on trial and evaded the Secret Service and Pinkerton Detective Agency for 13 years, during which time he worked as a reporter and ran a New York bookstore.[1]
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How Does a Transistor Work?
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David Hockney
Transcription
In this phone, there are nearly 100 million transistors, in this computer there's over a billion. The transistor is in virtually every electronic device we use: TV's, radios, Tamagotchis. But how does it work? Well the basic principle is actually incredibly simple. It works just like this switch, so it controls the flow of electric current. It can be off, so you could call that the zero state or it could be on, the one state. And this is how all of our information is now stored and processed, in zeros and ones, little bits of electric current. But unlike this switch, a transistor doesn't have any moving parts. And it also doesn't require a human controller. Furthermore, it can be switched on and off much more quickly than I can flick this switch. And finally, and most importantly it is incredibly tiny. Well this is all thanks to the miracle of semiconductors or rather I should say the science of semiconductors. Pure silicon is a semiconductor, which means it conducts electric current better than insulators but not as well as metals. This is because an atom of silicon has four electrons in its outermost or valence shell. This allows it to form bonds with its four nearest neighbours, Hidey ho there! G'day Wasaaaaap!? So it forms a tetrahedral crystal. But since all these electrons are stuck in bonds, few ever get enough energy to escape their bonds and travel through the lattice. So having a small number of mobile charges is what makes silicon a semi-conductor. Now this wouldn't be all that useful without a semiconductor's secret weapon -- doping. You've probably heard of doping, it's when you inject a foreign substance in order to improve performance. Yeah it's actually just like that, except on the atomic level. There are two types of doping called n-type and p-type. To make n-type semiconductor, you take pure silicon and inject a small amount of an element with 5 valence electrons, like Phosphorous. This is useful because Phosphorous is similar enough to silicon that it can fit into the lattice, but it brings with it an extra electron. So this means now the semiconductor has more mobile charges and so it conducts current better. In p-type doping, an element with only three valence electrons is added to the lattice. Like Boron. Now this creates a 'hole' - a place where there should be an electron, but there isn't. But this still increases the conductivity of the silicon because electrons can move into it. Now although it is electrons that are moving, we like to talk about the holes moving around -- because there's far fewer of them. Now since the hole is the lack of an electron, it actually acts as a positive charge. And this is why p-type semiconductor is actually called p-type. The p stands for positive - it's positive charges, these holes, which are moving and conducting the current. Now it's a common misconception that n-type semiconductors are negatively charged and p-type semiconductors are positively charged. That's not true, they are both neutral because they have the same number of electrons and protons inside them. The n and the p actually just refer to the sign of charge that can move within them. So in n-type, it's negative electrons which can move, and in p-type it's a positive hole that moves. But they're both neutral! A transistor is made with both n-type and p-type semiconductors. A common configuration has n on the ends with p in the middle. Just like a switch a transistor has an electrical contact at each end and these are called the source and the drain. But instead of a mechanical switch, there is a third electrical contact called the gate, which is insulated from the semiconductor by an oxide layer. When a transistor is made, the n and p-types don't keep to themselves -- electrons actually diffuse from the n-type, where there are more of them into the p-type to fill the holes. This creates something called the depletion layer. What's been depleted? Charges that can move. There are no more free electrons in the n-type -- why? Because they've filled the holes in the p-type. Now this makes the p-type negative thanks to the added electrons. And this is important because the p-type will now repel any electrons that try to come across from the n-type. So the depletion layer actually acts as a barrier, preventing the flow of electric current through the transistor. So right now the transistor is off, it's like an open switch, it's in the zero state. To turn it on, you have to apply a small positive voltage to the gate. This attracts the electrons over and overcomes that repulsion from the depletion. It actually shrinks the depletion layer so that electrons can move through and form a conducting channel. So the transistor is now on, it's in the one state. This is remarkable because just by exploiting the properties of a crystal we've been able to create a switch that doesn't have any moving parts, that can be turned on and off very quickly just with a voltage, and most importantly it can be made tiny. Transistors today are only about 22nm wide, which means they are only about 50 atoms across. But to keep up with Moore's law, they're going to have to keep getting smaller. Moore's Law states that every two years the number of transistors on a chip should double. And there is a limit, as those terminals get closer and closer together, quantum effects become more significant and electrons can actually tunnel from one side to the other. So you may not be able to make a barrier high enough to stop them from flowing. Now this will be a real problem for the future of transistors, but we'll probably only face that another ten years down the track. So until then transistors, the way we know them, are going to keep getting better. Once you have let's say three hundred of these qubits, then you have like two to the three hundred classical bits. Which is as many particles as there are in the universe.
Early life
Howgate was the son of a British shopkeeper. At age 21, Howgate immigrated to the United States and worked as a reporter. In 1866, he married Cordelia Day of Macomb County, Michigan.[2][3] Howgate and Cordelia had one daughter, Ida, born in 1866.[1]
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Howgate met Nellie Pollard (alias "Burrell"; alias "Nettie Burrill")[4] of Nebraska, or Massachusetts,[5] early in his military career.[when?] She got a job working as a hostess in the Treasury Department in Washington through the influence of Senator Algernon Paddock.[6][7] She remained Howgate's mistress for most of his life.
Career
In 1862, Howgate became a second lieutenant with the 22nd Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment. In 1863, he became a first lieutenant in the U.S. Signal Corps. In 1867, he joined the 20th Infantry before re-joining the Signal Corps where he served as a property and disbursing officer before becoming responsible for planning all polar expeditions.[1] Under his auspices, he was responsible for polar expeditions at a time when several countries were also supporting polar exploration and scientific studies. Fascinated with the Arctic, Howgate developed an extensive library of Arctic literature.[8]
Preliminary expedition
The Howgate Preliminary Polar Expedition had two phases. The 1877 phase was tasked with establishing relationships with local Inuit promoting scientific experiments, and whaling as a source of revenue.[9] Its vessel, the schooner Florence, was a fair sea-boat, but too small for the mission at 56 ton fore and aft. The Florence was captained by George Emory Tyson, Master, who had been assistant master and navigator of the Polaris under Charles Francis Hall. The Florence crew included Ludwig Kumlien, Orray Taft Sherman, and New London mariners.[10]
The 1878 phase, to be captained by Howgate, was to join forces with the first crew and establish polar colonization.[11] The Florence left New London on August 2, 1877, and first anchored at Niantilic Harbour, western Cumberland Sound, on September 12. It reached the winter harbor of Annanactook on October 6. While at Annanactook, Mr. Kumlien and Mr. Sherman engaged in notable scientific work, assisted by local Inuit.[12][13]
The Florence was unable to leave Annanactook until early July, and when it did embark, on July 5, 1878, it was pressed ten miles east by an ice floe before making Kickatiue Island. The expedition arrived in Godhavn Harbor on July 31. There, Tyson learned that the government expedition steamer they were expecting to join forces with had been deferred. With phase one complete and phase two abandoned, the Florence sailed home on August 22, reaching Boston harbor on October 30.[14][15][16]
Arctic expedition
The Howgate Arctic Expedition was tasked with scientific and geographical exploration of Greenland in preparation for an 1881 International Polar Year expeditionary force and Arctic colonization. However, the Army and Navy decided, in June 1880, to withdraw support of the Howgate Arctic Expedition as the expeditionary vessel, the steamship Gulnare, was unseaworthy. Howgate, not to be deterred, found private funding.[17]
The Gulnare departed in July, captained by Lieutenant Gustavus A. Doane.[18] The crew included Sergeant David Legge Brainard, George W. Rice, Dr. Octave Pavy and Henry Clay.[19][20] On August 3, in a heavy gale, the Gulnare was damaged and lost a deck boat and her entire deck load. The steamer reached Disko on August 8 and repairs lasted through August 21. Pavy did not join the crew for the home voyage, instead staying in Greenland to continue scientific studies.[21][22] Doane reported ironically:
The cruise of the Gulnare is the first acknowledged failure in Arctic annals. We did but little, but left a great many things undone requiring some moral courage to refrain from doing. We did not change the names of all the localities visited, as is customary, nor give them new latitudes to the bewilderment of the general reader. We do not dispute anyone's attained distance not declare it impossible that he should have been where he was. We did not hunt up nameless islands and promontories to tag them with the surnames ... We did not even erect cenotaphs ... We received no flags, converted no natives, killed no one ... The object of this report is to expose a few of the specious pleas, fallacious reasonings, and ill-grounded conjectures which are called scientific, and to place the subject of circumpolar exploration on a basis of facts and reasonable probabilities. One cannot explore the earth's surface from an observatory, nor by mathematics, nor by the power of logic. It must be done physically.[23]
International Polar Year
Howgate was active in soliciting international support, including with the Société de Géographie,[24] for the Howgate Plan, his vision of an Arctic colony. Karl Weyprecht, an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Navy who co-led, with Julius von Payer, the 1872–1874 Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition that discovered Franz Josef Land, made a presentation at the 48th Meeting of German Scientists and Physicians in 1875 where he, too, made recommendations for establishment of fixed Arctic observation stations.[25] The Smithsonian Museum's Spencer Fullerton Baird, in his 1877 Annual Record of Science and Industry, says that Weyprecht, and others, made recommendations for manned polar stations at that year's International Congress of Meteorologists, adding:
As these proposed international Polar stations are for purely scientific observations, and as their plan so perfectly harmonizes with the Howgate plan of an Arctic colony, it is to be hoped that our own government will establish, at least, two such scientific stations.[26]
While the Howgate Expedition of 1880 was ultimately a failure,[27] Howgate was able to pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars to plan a new expedition to coincide with the First International Polar Year. Named the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, its purpose was to establish and sustain, with adequate supplies, an Arctic colony near the northeastern tip of Ellesmere Island.[28] It was based on assumptions that Lady Franklin Bay could be reached every summer by ship, and that ships hindered Arctic adaptation. The colony was to be dropped off and left on its own in 1881 near the coal seam found previously by George Nares,[13] relief supplies were to arrive in 1882, and the expeditionary team was to be picked up in 1883.[29]
Though it was clear that some shared Howgate's enthusiasm for manned Arctic Circle stations, others did not. Captain Sir Frederick John Owen Evans commented:
This ... appears to be a renewal of the Howgate Expedition of 1880 ... which was unsuccessful. There is now engrafted on the Howgate Expedition the taking part in a scheme (not yet matured) for various nations to found stations in the Arctic Circle ... the time available, the money voted, the means proposed, all appear to be equally inadequate for the contemplated purpose.[13]
Legal issues
Fearing his embezzlement of government funds would soon be discovered, Howgate resigned his military commission on December 7, 1880.[30] In 1881, the Signal Corps was in turmoil over allegations of fraud, scandals, and embezzlement. An investigation began into Howgate's handling of fraudulent U.S. Government vouchers, totaling up to $237,000. Some alleged[who?] that Signal Service employees assisted Howgate with the embezzlement which amounted to between $370,000 and $380,000.[31] On August 15, Howgate was arrested at the Avery House in Mount Clemens, Michigan.[32] The government began actions on August 24 to recover $133,000 from Howgate. Plans for the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition continued despite Howgate's sudden departure and the subsequent investigation.
Indictment
Howgate was indicted for embezzlement in 1882, but slipped away from authorities on April 13, 1882, while on a court-supervised visit to his home where his daughter sang to the marshal for an hour while he was supposed to be changing his underwear but in fact was fleeing across the Potomac River. A judgment against Howgate was made in absentia on May 24, 1883, in the amount of $101,000 plus interest.[33]
Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln authorized Secret Service operatives to stake out Howgate's possible hiding place in New Orleans, but, spotting them, Howgate and his mistress departed quickly for Nebraska City. There, Howgate visited former Signal Corps officer, now attorney, Albert S. Cole for assistance to file a claim that the government actually owed Howgate money.[1] Howgate moved on to Escanaba, Michigan, where he assumed the alias H. W. Harrison and worked as a reporter.[1] Afraid that the Secret Service could not capture Howgate, Lincoln hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency, who tried but failed to bribe Cole for information on Howgate's whereabouts.[1]
Capture
Howgate was captured , in New York City on September 28, 1894 and spent the night at the Ludlow Street Jail. He was using the alias "Henry Williams" and had been leading the life of an old book and print dealer at 80 Fourth Avenue since 1888. Howgate was living with Burrell (alias "Mrs. Williams") on West Tenth Street. During this period he also claimed to have been a talesman for juries in trials assigned to the city's Court of General Sessions. Howgate was brought before Judge Charles L. Benedict, who signed the arrest warrant. The New York Times reported that Howgate was accused of embezzling $370,000 from the U.S. Government.[34] Found guilty of numerous crimes, Howgate served time in Albany Penitentiary.
Later life
Upon release in December 1900, Howgate moved to his daughter Ida's home in Washington, D.C., where he died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1901.[35]
References
Footnotes
- ^ a b c d e f Harper, Kenn (October 2007). "Henry Howgate". Nunatsiaq News. Retrieved April 14, 2008.
- ^ Eldredge, Robert F. (1905). Past and Present of Macomb County, Michigan. S.J. Clarke. pp. 521. ASIN B000892BF0.
- ^ "Capt. Howgate's Property" (PDF). The New York Times. August 26, 1881. Retrieved April 16, 2008.
- ^ "Captain Henry H. Howgate and Miss Ida Howgate". Newspapers.com. Washington, District of Columbia: Evening Star. December 28, 1900. p. 5. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
- ^ Buel, James William (1883). Mysteries and Miseries of America's Great Cities: Embracing New York, Washington City, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and New Orleans (Public domain ed.). Historical Publishing Company. pp. 191–.
- ^ "Howgate's Land Investments" (PDF). The New York Times. October 4, 1894. Retrieved April 16, 2008.
- ^ "Capt. Howgate is guilty" (PDF). The New York Times. June 22, 1895. Retrieved April 16, 2008.
- ^ Todd, Alden. "Adolphus Washington Greely" (PDF). Arctic Profiles. University of Calgary. Retrieved April 22, 2008.
- ^ Tyson, George E.; Howgate, Henry W. (1879). The cruise of the Florence; or, Extracts from the journal of the preliminary Arctic expedition of 1877–'78. Washington, D.C.: J.J. Chapman. p. 102. OCLC 6180781.
- ^ "The Howgate Polar Enterprise" (PDF). The New York Times. August 3, 1877. Retrieved April 14, 2008.
- ^ "Literary Norices". The Magazine of American History with Notes and Queries. A.S. Barnes: 234. 1893. OCLC 18894531. Retrieved April 16, 2008.
- ^ "The Howgate Polar Expedition: New-London {Conn.} Telegram" (PDF). The New York Times. July 16, 1877. Retrieved April 14, 2008.
- ^ a b c Levere, Trevor Harvey (1993). Science and the Canadian Arctic: a century of exploration, 1818–1918. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 310. ISBN 0521524911.
- ^ "The Howgate Polar Expedition" (PDF). The New York Times. July 28, 1878. Retrieved April 14, 2008.
- ^ "Ludwig Kumlien" (PDF). Wilson Bulletin. 49 (2): 85–90. 1937.
- ^ "The Cruise of the Florence, additional details of the expedition, Capt. Tyson's disbelief in the existence of an open polar sea" (PDF). The New York Times. October 28, 1878. Retrieved April 14, 2008.
- ^ "Notes from Washington" (PDF). The New York Times. June 15, 1880. Retrieved April 15, 2008.
- ^ Stam, David H. 2019. Adventures in Polar Reading: The Book Cultures of High Latitudes. Grolier Club, New York. Page 95-96. ISBN 978-1-60583-084-1
- ^ Hamersly, Lewis Randolph (1904). Who's Who in New York City and State. New York City: L.R. Hamersley Co. pp. 85. OCLC 1673904.
- ^ Kleber, John E. (2000). The Encyclopedia of Louisville. Louisville, KY: University Press of Kentucky. p. 205. ISBN 0813121000.
- ^ "The Gulnare's Arctic Voyage" (PDF). The New York Times. September 26, 1880. Retrieved April 15, 2008.
- ^ Pavy, Lilla May (1886). "Dr. Pavy and the Polar Expedition". arcticwebsite.com. Retrieved April 15, 2008.
- ^ "Polar sarcasm, Lieut. Doane, of the Howgate expedition, presents an ironical report" (PDF). The New York Times. April 11, 1881. Retrieved April 15, 2008.
- ^ Bulletin de la Société de géographie d'Anvers (pdf). Anvers: Guil. van Merlen. 1879. pp. 149–159, 196, 231–236. OCLC 34564166.
- ^ Koerbel, H. F. (2003). "History of the Austrian Polar Exploration". eunet.at. Archived from the original on April 12, 2008. Retrieved April 22, 2008.
- ^ Baird, S. F. (1878). 1877 Annual Record of Science and Industry. New York: Harper & Brothers. p. 64. OCLC 6138330.
- ^ Scott, K. A. (January 16, 2007). "Early explorer of Yellowstone finally gets his due". eurekalert.org. Retrieved April 15, 2008.
- ^ "The Lady Franklin Bay Expedition". New York Sun. 1881. Retrieved April 14, 2008.
- ^ Andrews, E. B. (1903). The United States in our own time; a history from reconstruction to expansion; being an extension of the history of the last quarter century. New York: C. Scribner's Sons. pp. 424–430. OCLC 670878.
- ^ "U.S. Supreme Court, Moses v. United States, 166 U.S. 571". April 19, 1897. Retrieved April 17, 2008.
- ^ Grice, G. K. (October 28, 2004). "The beginning of the National Weather Service: The signal years". Retrieved April 16, 2008.
- ^ Leeson, M. A. (1882). History of Macomb County, Michigan. Chicago: Leeson. p. 517. OCLC 6930550.
- ^ "U.S. Supreme Court, MOSES v. U S, 166 U.S. 571 (1897)". oscn.net. April 19, 1897. Retrieved April 14, 2008.
- ^ "Howgate must go to Washington" (PDF). The New York Times. September 29, 1894. Retrieved April 16, 2008.
- ^ "Henry W. Howgate Dead" (PDF). The New York Times. June 1, 1901. Retrieved April 14, 2008.
Bibliography
- "U.S. Signal Office circulars, 1870–1873". United States. Army. Signal Corps. Division of Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit of Commerce and Agriculture. 1870. OCLC 46980832.
{{cite journal}}
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(help) - Polar colonization the preliminary Arctic expedition of 1877. Washington?. 1877. ISBN 0665070292.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - "Congress and the North Pole: an abstract of Arctic legislation in the Congress of the United States". Kansas City, Mo.: Kansas City Review of Science and Industry. 1879. OCLC 32624028.
{{cite journal}}
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(help) - Tyson, G. E., & Howgate, H. W. (1879). The cruise of the Florence, or, Extracts from the journal of the preliminary Arctic expedition of 1877–'78. Washington: J.J. Chapman. ISBN 1446011909.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - "Notes on Florida prepared with special reference to the Howgate grant, on Lake George". New York: B.H. Tyrrel, printer. 1881. OCLC 31164549.
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External links
- Henry W. Howgate Manuscript at Dartmouth College Library
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