11 Jun
2003
11 Jun
'03
8:05 a.m.
TeoZ wrote:
Was it a click type plastic pencil or the ones with
wood you sharpen?
It wouldn't matter much which one you used. The one that needs
sharpening would have a somewhat higher volume of conductive
dust floating around, but both generate stray carbon dust, and
conductive chunks that break off when used.
I'd rather not have to worry about loose pieces of flamable conductive
dust floating around.
----- Original Message -----
From: "emanuel stiebler" <emu(a)ecubics.com>
To: <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2003 2:12 PM
Subject: Re: Magnetic Memory making a comeback?
>Gary Dean Hildebrand wrote:
>
>
>>As a humorous sideline: When NASA spent thousands of dollars trying to
>>make a pen work in zero-G, the Russians simply used a pencil . . . .
>>
This is just an urban legend.
http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.htm
Just because it sounds too good to be true, doesn't make it true. ;=)
>Which was a smart thing to do, this way they got
rid of all static in
>space having all this graphite flying around through the air ...
>;-)
>
>
Fischer saw a business opportunity, and designed a pen that would work
in space. They initially sold 400 to NASA at 2.95 each. That's a lot less
than 1.5 million. They made more selling them to the public as a pen that
could write upside down.