Hello, my name is not Ringwood - and i am not a doctor
**
however, everything else in these webpages is
true (i believe!)
i was inspired, after reading some papers by a
gentleman named H. Aspden, to carry out some experiments which might show if it
is possible to extract energy from the vacuum medium (or, as it was called at
its last known address: 'The
Aether')
one of my experiments was prompted by Mr
Aspden inviting the reader to consider the possibility that, under certain
conditions, a capacitor might be able to discharge more energy than was used to charge it
(...i hope you're not putting any money on this!)
so i designed a simple circuit to repetitively
charge a capacitor from a voltage source and discharge it into an output
load (which could also be another capacitor)

basic
circuit arrangement for switched capacitor experiments
my first tests were just to discharge one
capacitor stack into other, initially fully-discharged, capacitors
subsequent experiments used developments of the circuit to investigate energy
implications arising from the results i found
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** and now, the
Doc Ringwood thing:
in a move that wouldn't seem out of place in the pages of
one of Douglas Adams' 4-book trilogies, i was once named as referee for a
heavy-duty Science Grant application by someone who, although co-incidentally
NOT being named Ringwood either, WAS however a doctor (PhD)
unfortunately, he submitted his application to the distinguished panel of
scientists for consideration BEFORE checking that my name was Ringwood or that i
did indeed have a PhD myself (not when i last looked!)
this left me with something of a dilemma:
- should i point out to him that neither of the only two things he had
stated about me on his grant application were true - in which case he would have
then to re-approach the award panel & either explain his mistake ("but
you can still entrust me with all this money & expect me to get my facts
straight in my reports") or say that Doctor Ringwood declined to act as
Referee for him any more - also certain to throw the grant his way!
- or, should i (forgive me for even thinking of this possibility...) go
ahead & write him a reference, as if from Doctor Ringwood, on his suitability
for receiving such a prestigious research grant
it's funny how time compresses when there's a major b***s up on the
event-horizon, because before the ink had dried on his email explaining that he
hoped it was ok to have given my name as a referee, a huge envelope arrived from
the grant panel, addressed to a Doctor Ringwood, asking me to provide a reference
so i ...
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...am going to leave it as an exercise in human psychology for you to
decide what
i did next
i seem to remember i kept the envelope addressed to Dr Ringwood, to show to any future
grandchildren of mine when they don't believe that this story is completely true