Bernard L Feldman: Difference between revisions

Bernard L. Feldman
Bernard L. Feldman
Born	February 17, 1921
Died	September 1, 2009
Residence	Watsonville, CA, United States
Nationality	USA
Known for	Aether, Black Holes
	Scientific career
Fields	Electrical Engineer, Inventor

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Revision as of 08:44, 17 July 2026

Bernard L. Feldman (February 17, 1921 – 2009), known to friends as Bernie, was an American electrical engineer and inventor. Over a career spanning several decades he was awarded numerous patents, including early work on electrical resistors and, later, methods for etching the metal-oxide films used in liquid-crystal displays. Late in life he developed an interest in theoretical physics and cosmology, formulating critiques of the theory of black holes and a discontinuous model of the aether, which he presented through the Natural Philosophy Alliance.

Biography

Feldman was born on February 17, 1921, in Pennsylvania, the fourth of five children of Russian Jewish immigrants; his father worked as a window washer after the family settled in the United States. When Feldman was about a year old the family moved to Chicago, where he grew up, and he was the only one of his siblings to graduate from college. During World War II he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces and served in England as a radar specialist, reaching the rank of second lieutenant. An encounter with a French civilian who asked why the Allies were bombing his country was later cited as an influence on his pacifism.

Feldman attended the University of Chicago, where he earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and a master's degree in chemistry. In later life he lived in Watsonville, California, and married late in life. He died in 2009.

Work

Early in his career Feldman worked with Nathan Pritikin — later widely known as a diet and nutrition advocate — as part of a team developing electrical resistors, a technology later superseded by the semiconductor. Patents associated with this early resistor work include:

U.S. Patent 2,617,741 – Electroconductive article and production thereof
U.S. Patent 2,927,048 – Method of making electrical resistors
U.S. Patent 2,934,736 – Electrical resistor

Feldman subsequently developed glass refrigeration display technology for an employer and, beginning in his fifties, increasingly earned his living from his own inventions, describing himself as an engineer and inventor. His later patents, assigned to his Feldman Technology Corporation, covered methods for etching metal-oxide films—including tin-oxide films—used in the manufacture of liquid-crystal displays, as well as a method and system for compensating for the response characteristics of a display using field-sequential addressing and pre-processing. He also held a provisional patent for a congestion-pricing scheme intended to charge road-use fees based on factors such as time of day without requiring special equipment aboard vehicles.

Scientific contributions

Although not trained as a physicist or astronomer, Feldman became interested in cosmology in his later years and sought to refute the mainstream theory of black holes. He also proposed a discontinuous model of the aether and wrote on the philosophy of science. His ideas fell outside mainstream physics; he presented his papers through the Natural Philosophy Alliance, including at the organization's 2009 conference held in Storrs, Connecticut.

Abstracts

2009 - "On the Philosophy of Science: Some Razors" (Read in full)
2002 - "The Doctrine of Original Spin" (Read in full)
2000 - "Discontinuous Ether Model" (Read in full)

External links

Patents by Bernard L. Feldman (Google Patents)

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 | alt = Bernard L. Feldman
 | birth_date = {{birth date|1921|02|17|mf=y}}
-| death_date = {{birth date|2009|09|01|mf=y}}
+| death_date = {{death date|2009|09|01|mf=y}}
-| fields = [[Electrical Engineer]], [[Inventor]]
 | residence = Watsonville, CA, United States
 | nationality = USA
+| fields = [[Electrical Engineer]], [[Inventor]]
 | known_for = [[Aether]], [[Black Holes]]
 }}
-<em>by Kathleen O'Hara</em>
+'''Bernard L. Feldman''' (February 17, 1921 – 2009), known to friends as Bernie, was an American [[Electrical Engineer|electrical engineer]] and [[Inventor|inventor]]. Over a career spanning several decades he was awarded numerous patents, including early work on electrical resistors and, later, methods for etching the metal-oxide films used in [[liquid-crystal display]]s. Late in life he developed an interest in theoretical physics and cosmology, formulating critiques of the theory of [[Black Holes|black holes]] and a discontinuous model of the [[Aether|aether]], which he presented through the [[Natural Philosophy Alliance]].
-I met Bernard Feldman, Bernie to his friends, when he was in his seventies. He and my mother became late-in-life sweethearts and eventually married several years ago, after a long courtship.
+==Biography==
-Bernie was very unusual in his family. His parents immigrated from Russia and his father was a window washer after they moved to the United States. Bernie was born February 17, 1921, the fourth of five children, and was the only child in his family to graduate from college. He was born in Pennsylvania, but the family moved to Chicago when Bernie was a year old and he spent his youth there. His immediate family and many of their offspring remain in the Chicago area.
+Feldman was born on February 17, 1921, in Pennsylvania, the fourth of five children of Russian Jewish immigrants; his father worked as a window washer after the family settled in the United States. When Feldman was about a year old the family moved to Chicago, where he grew up, and he was the only one of his siblings to graduate from college. During World War II he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces and served in England as a radar specialist, reaching the rank of second lieutenant. An encounter with a French civilian who asked why the Allies were bombing his country was later cited as an influence on his pacifism.
-Bernie enlisted in the Air Force during WWII and served in England where he reached the rank of second Lieutenant. His specialty was radar. While serving in Europe he once met a French civilian on the road who asked him, "Why are you bombing us?" That experience helped spark his pacifism in later years.
+Feldman attended the University of Chicago, where he earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and a master's degree in chemistry. In later life he lived in Watsonville, California, and married late in life. He died in 2009.
-Bernie attended the University of Chicago, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and a master's degree in chemistry. I remember a story in which one of his professors told him not to pursue electrical engineering because "It will go nowhere."
+==Work==
-Early in his career, Bernie worked for Nathan Pritikin who later became the famous diet doctor. However at the time they were part of a team developing electrical resistors, an alternate technology that was superseded by Intel's semiconductor. Bernie and Pritikin are co-inventors on several related patents such as.
+Early in his career Feldman worked with Nathan Pritikin — later widely known as a diet and nutrition advocate — as part of a team developing electrical resistors, a technology later superseded by the semiconductor. Patents associated with this early resistor work include:
-* 2617741 - Electroconductive article and production thereof
+* U.S. Patent 2,617,741 – Electroconductive article and production thereof
-* 2927048 - Method of making electrical resistors
+* U.S. Patent 2,927,048 – Method of making electrical resistors
-* 2934736 - Electrical resistor
+* U.S. Patent 2,934,736 – Electrical resistor
-Bernie also developed glass refrigeration display technology for one of his employers for many years. He sometimes reminded us that he earned a very good living working only part-time starting sometime in his fifties. At some point Bernie began to make a living off this own patents. He considered himself an engineer and inventor.
+Feldman subsequently developed glass refrigeration display technology for an employer and, beginning in his fifties, increasingly earned his living from his own inventions, describing himself as an engineer and inventor. His later patents, assigned to his Feldman Technology Corporation, covered methods for etching metal-oxide films—including tin-oxide films—used in the manufacture of liquid-crystal displays, as well as a method and system for compensating for the response characteristics of a display using field-sequential addressing and pre-processing. He also held a provisional patent for a congestion-pricing scheme intended to charge road-use fees based on factors such as time of day without requiring special equipment aboard vehicles.
-Perhaps Bernie's most promising inventions are in the field of LCD displays. One patent is for a method and system for compensating for the response characteristics of a display using field sequential addressing and pre-processing. Another is a method for etching metal oxide films. I have memories of Bernie etching in his office, the garage, and in the kitchen, much to the chagrin of my mother who endured holes burned in cloth napkins, her favorite aprons, and Bernie's own clothing.
+==Scientific contributions==
-Bernie also holds a provisional patent on an innovative congestion pricing structure that charges a road use fee based on time of day, etc., without special equipment on the vehicle.
+Although not trained as a physicist or astronomer, Feldman became interested in cosmology in his later years and sought to refute the mainstream theory of black holes. He also proposed a discontinuous model of the aether and wrote on the philosophy of science. His ideas fell outside mainstream physics; he presented his papers through the [[Natural Philosophy Alliance]], including at the organization's 2009 conference held in Storrs, Connecticut.
-Although Bernie is neither a physicist nor an astronomer, he become interested in refuting the theory of Black Holes. He himself felt unable to understand the intricacies of the theories held by other scientists with the same interest. But this became somewhat of a passion. He was very excited to present his paper at Storr's this spring.
 ==Abstracts==
@@ Line 40: / Line 38: @@
 * 2002 - "[[The Doctrine of Original Spin]]" ([http://www.journaloftheoretics.com/Links/Papers/BF1.pdf Read in full])
 * 2000 - "[[Discontinuous Ether Model]]" ([http://www.naturalphilosophy.org/pdf/abstracts/abstracts_810.pdf Read in full])
+==External links==
+* [https://patents.google.com/?inventor=Bernard+L.+Feldman Patents by Bernard L. Feldman] (Google Patents)
 [[Category:Scientist|Feldman Bernard]]