re Sferics and Tachtsachen

[Doug Millison]

This has probably been discussed on the P-list before, but I was interested
to see a connection to aeronautical research in England for Wittgenstein
when I was looking through the Encyclopædia Britannica Online:

"Educated at home until the age of 14, Wittgenstein then studied for three
years in an Austrian school, where the emphasis was on mathematical and
natural sciences, after
which he studied mechanical engineering for two years in Berlin. In 1908 he
engaged in aeronautical research in England, experimenting with kites at an
upper atmosphere station. His interest soon turned toward developing an
engine that would propel an airplane. Working in an engineering laboratory
of the University of Manchester, where he was registered as a research
student, he conceived the idea of placing a
reaction jet at the tip of each blade of a propeller. He designed an
experimental engine, supervised its construction, and tested it
successfully. Problems relating to the design of a propeller aroused his
interest in mathematics, and this soon produced a desire to understand the
foundations of mathematics."

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