Otto schmitt biography

Otto was bitter and did not patent many subsequent devices, which included the cathode follower, the differential amplifier, the chopper-stabilized amplifier, and the Schmitt trigger. During the Second World War he made important contributions, which were top secret. One of his inventions was a magnetic anomaly detector to pinpoint the presence of enemy submarines.

Otto was an excellent engineer and biologist. His work in the well-known laboratory of Bernhard Katz in London and his participation in the Cold Spring Harbor Symposia brought Otto in early contact with many leading electrophysiologists. His work with Airborne Instruments Laboratories on Long Island during the s contributed to the development of his outstanding engineering talents.

A few examples will serve to illustrate his wide-ranging interests.

Otto schmitt biography: Otto was born in St. Louis,

Shortly after the war he constructed an automatic instrument that could evaluate nerve preparations and could rapidly determine its cable properties on-line. He used the instrument to study and publish on the topic of dynamic negative admittance components in statically stable membranes. He and John J. Almasi constructed a highly precise impedance-measuring instrument that extended the frequency range down to a few.

It was a forerunner of the precision impedance analyzers to come.

Otto schmitt biography: Otto Herbert Schmitt (April

He also could not help but become interested in the debates about bioeffects of weak electric and magnetic fields. So he and Robert D. Tucker worked on the perception of magnetic fields. This work was quoted often to demonstrate the extent to which one must be willing to go to exclude spurious confounding effects in their case, minute and weak vibrations of the magnets.

After the war Otto turned his attention to the relationship between cardiac sources and the surface electrocardiogram. His laboratory was one of four that contributed to this effort to understand the volume conductor problem, and led to the development of lead systems for determining the heart vector. One of us David B. Geselowitz got to know Otto well when we served together on an advisory board established by Hubert Pipberger in in connection with his efforts to develop a system for computer interpretation of the electrocardiogram.

We also served on the American Heart Association Committee on Electrocardiography, which developed standards for electrocardiographs, addressing such issues as frequency response and electric safety. It was at this time that David became aware of a game that Otto played. Often when he had an idea to propose, he couched it in obscure language.

On many occasions he propounded these ideas to people who nodded politely without having any idea of what Otto was saying.

Otto schmitt biography: › Otto_Schmitt.

When Otto was challenged to explain what he meant, he would rephrase his idea in a more intelligible form. When an understandable statement emerged, it was almost invariably a solid idea. Otto frequently offered ideas to others to develop. Otto believed in redundancy. He always carried about a dozen pens, no two of the same model to avoid simultaneous failures.

He always seemed to be able to fish out from one of his innumerable pockets a gadget someone needed at the moment. He had several working tie clips, including one with a slide rule, one with an abacus, and one with a gun that could be charged. On several occasions he brought dead silence to a large gathering by firing the gun. It is best illustrated by a topical list indicated by his publications, his biography, and our personal experience: Nerve impulse mechanisms, tridimensional oscilloscopic displays, bivalent computers; biological tissue impedance analyses; electronic circuitry; direct current transformers; trigger circuits; electronic plethysmography; antenna radiation pattern measurements; stereovector-electrocardiography; phase space displays; bioastronautics; electromagneto-biology; technical optimization of biomedical communication and control systems, Santosh Index for quality of life, strand epidemiology, personally portable whole life medical history, and biomimetic science and technology.

Otto was widely recognized for his outstanding achievements. Among his other honors are the Lovelace Award, ; the William J. Otto seemed to us to have an unlimited amount of energy and never grew tired of lively discussions. He also loved to laugh at others and himself and was always ready to tell great stories. Whenever he visited he offered to demonstrate a new gadget, which he had acquired.

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Otto schmitt biography: Otto Herbert Schmitt (April 6,

Wikidata item. For the hockey player, see Otto Schmitt field hockey. LouisMissouriUSA. It is the perfect example of inventing an artificial method to imitate a natural process for the benefit of humanity. Schmitt chose not to enforce the patent on this invention, choosing throughout his life to focus on ideas and methods, rather than the business side of life.

He learned a lot from watching frogs. Schmitt deduced that the frog keeps observing its position and sending feedback to its muscles until it has the perfect trajectory. He used this information to develop electronic feedback circuits that are self-adjusting. He coined the phrase "mental jogging" to describe his philosophy of giving the brain regular workouts with a varied regimen of exercise.

Inhe married Viola Elise Muench, his wife and secretary for 57 years. Page information. Browse properties. View source. View history. Log in. Request account. Jump to: navigationsearch. Otto Schmitt.