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Search company, investor... ... OnlySpace develops web3.0 games and offers a platform with a focus on play-to-earn projects where users can earn cryptocurrencies, as well as collect and sell NFT assets. The company is based in Russia.

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Company OnlySpace, History, 2022 Raising $225 million from the fund of Xsolla founder Alexander Agapitov, Notes

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The family office of Xsolla founder Alexander Agapitov, Hand of Midas, has invested $2.25 million in OnlySpace, a Russian game publishing company. The start-up focuses on launching web3 projects with play-to-earn mechanics, so that users can earn cryptocurrency, as well as collect and sell ...

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Robinhood has made waves in the casual investment community for being a commission-free, mobile-friendly app that’s made trading accessible to everyone — not just the wealthy or experienced traders. It’s only natural, then, that a similar solution be made available for would-be crypto investors — and it’s vital that this solution is made specifically for the casual investor. After all, even with more people trading in decentralized digital currencies than ever before, the majority of Americans still don’t have a strong grasp of crypto concepts. This can prevent new and inexperienced traders from integrating cryptocurrency into their everyday transactions and investments, and it risks concentrating knowledge and trading power in the hands of a few individuals or groups. And sure, there are solutions like Coinbase and Kraken available, but these platforms are still bogged down by unnecessary features and confusing terminologies. This is where Bolide comes in. This easy-to-use mobile trading app aims to simplify crypto investments (specifically memecoins) for everyone, even those without any prior crypto experience. Learn more about the common barriers of crypto investing, how Bolide is breaking these down, and how Bolide CEO Ox Bid is giving memecoins their Robinhood moment — pushing to make social, on-chain memecoin trading easy and fun for everyone. Memecoin Trading: Navigating the Wild West of Crypto Memecoin trading is the buying and selling of digital currencies that are often inspired by internet jokes or cultural memes. However, unlike more established cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum, memecoins are highly volatile and lack additional built-in uses, making them a risky investment. The value of memecoins typically stems from viral marketing campaigns, speculation, and hype. While this adds to the risky charm of memecoins, it also makes it challenging for newcomers to distinguish between legitimate investments and fleeting trends. Additionally, the market's lack of regulation makes it ripe for scams, where promoters might inflate a memecoin's value and sell off their holdings at a peak, leaving others with devalued assets. The cryptocurrency market itself is also volatile. For instance, during the crypto winter of 2022, the market saw a major downturn, resulting in a $2 trillion loss in market value and impacting many investors. Such slumps can be triggered by withdrawing from large investors, significant frauds or security breaches, or tighter government regulations. Finally, navigating crypto trading platforms also requires a high level of digital and financial literacy. In order to maintain their investment and stay safe, beginners need to invest time into learning which risks avoiding and deciphering which coins are worth investing in — all while managing complex trading interfaces. Due to these barriers, a lot of investors forgo crypto trading altogether. Bolide: Memecoin Trading for the Masses Bolide is a mobile app that makes it easy and affordable for beginners to start trading memecoins. It uses Pimlico’s Account Abstraction technology to allow gasless transactions and embedded wallets from Privy for social logins. In doing so, it gives users affordable transactions, secure account access, and lets them store their customer keys safely. This way, users can manage their investments with ease and confidence, knowing their data and digital assets are well-protected. And thanks to a simplistic user interface, users can navigate Bolide as easily as they would a standard bank account — even if they’ve never used the on-chain market before “As an early investor and trader in crypto,” says Ox Bid, CEO and co-founder of Bolide, “my dream has always been to provide access and teach people how to navigate this space. The crypto market is undoubtedly risky, but it can be less so if customers have access to straightforward tools, as complexity often leads to mistakes and barriers.” Bolide is now available on the App Store, and its initial traction is notable. “Though we've been on the market for only a few weeks,” Ox says, “our trading volume has nearly reached $157,000, with an average of 13 trades per user and an average trade value of $30.” Clearly, Ox’s strategy of appealing to a lay audience of retail investors is paying off. Bolide’s Social Finance Future According to Ox Bid, it's time for memecoins to have their Robinhood moment. To this end, she believes that the secret to making memecoin trading accessible to everyone is to take Robinhood's affordable, user-friendly approach, apply it to crypto, and add a social twist. She notes that modern consumers are deeply influenced by social media in everything they do, from choosing where to eat to deciding where to live — and she sees this trend as vital to the future of retail crypto trading. “People often make decisions based on recommendations from influencers or friends,” Ox explains. “My goal is to create a similar influence-driven recommendation system, where users can see which tokens to buy based on the on-chain actions of top influencers, friends, and traders.” In doing so, Ox hopes to return to what made memecoins great in the first place: fun and levity. “I aim to make the crypto market not only accessible to the masses but also exciting and social,” she says. Trade Memecoins with Confidence Using Bolide Newcomers should be able to confidently trade crypto without having to sift through pages of research. They should feel at ease knowing that their investments are protected and that they have access to the tools and support required to make informed decisions. This is where Bolide shines. By blending the user-friendliness of Robinhood and the engagement of popular social platforms, Bolide gives users the freedom to navigate crypto trading in a fun and informative way. To learn how Bolide is making the most out of its Robinhood moment, check out the app for yourself. You can also follow Ox Bid on her Farcaster at @oxb, and on X at @Oxxbid. Robinhood has made waves in the casual investment community for being a commission-free, mobile-friendly app that’s made trading accessible to everyone — not just the wealthy or experienced traders. It’s only natural, then, that a similar solution be made available for would-be crypto investors — and it’s vital that this solution is made specifically for the casual investor. After all, even with more people trading in decentralized digital currencies than ever before, the majority of Americans still don’t have a strong grasp of crypto concepts. This can prevent new and inexperienced traders from integrating cryptocurrency into their everyday transactions and investments, and it risks concentrating knowledge and trading power in the hands of a few individuals or groups. And sure, there are solutions like Coinbase and Kraken available, but these platforms are still bogged down by unnecessary features and confusing terminologies. majority of Americans majority of Americans This is where Bolide comes in. This easy-to-use mobile trading app aims to simplify crypto investments (specifically memecoins) for everyone, even those without any prior crypto experience. Learn more about the common barriers of crypto investing, how Bolide is breaking these down, and how Bolide CEO Ox Bid is giving memecoins their Robinhood moment — pushing to make social, on-chain memecoin trading easy and fun for everyone. Memecoin Trading: Navigating the Wild West of Crypto Memecoin trading is the buying and selling of digital currencies that are often inspired by internet jokes or cultural memes. However, unlike more established cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum, memecoins are highly volatile and lack additional built-in uses, making them a risky investment. The value of memecoins typically stems from viral marketing campaigns, speculation, and hype. While this adds to the risky charm of memecoins, it also makes it challenging for newcomers to distinguish between legitimate investments and fleeting trends. Additionally, the market's lack of regulation makes it ripe for scams, where promoters might inflate a memecoin's value and sell off their holdings at a peak, leaving others with devalued assets. The cryptocurrency market itself is also volatile. For instance, during the crypto winter of 2022 , the market saw a major downturn, resulting in a $2 trillion loss in market value and impacting many investors. Such slumps can be triggered by withdrawing from large investors, significant frauds or security breaches, or tighter government regulations. crypto winter of 2022 crypto winter of 2022 Finally, navigating crypto trading platforms also requires a high level of digital and financial literacy . In order to maintain their investment and stay safe, beginners need to invest time into learning which risks avoiding and deciphering which coins are worth investing in — all while managing complex trading interfaces. financial literacy financial literacy Due to these barriers, a lot of investors forgo crypto trading altogether. Bolide: Memecoin Trading for the Masses Bolide is a mobile app that makes it easy and affordable for beginners to start trading memecoins. It uses Pimlico ’s Account Abstraction technology to allow gasless transactions and embedded wallets from Privy for social logins. In doing so, it gives users affordable transactions, secure account access, and lets them store their customer keys safely. This way, users can manage their investments with ease and confidence, knowing their data and digital assets are well-protected. Pimlico Pimlico Privy Privy And thanks to a simplistic user interface, users can navigate Bolide as easily as they would a standard bank account — even if they’ve never used the on-chain market before “As an early investor and trader in crypto,” says Ox Bid, CEO and co-founder of Bolide, “my dream has always been to provide access and teach people how to navigate this space. The crypto market is undoubtedly risky, but it can be less so if customers have access to straightforward tools, as complexity often leads to mistakes and barriers.” Bolide is now available on the App Store, and its initial traction is notable. “Though we've been on the market for only a few weeks,” Ox says, “our trading volume has nearly reached $157,000, with an average of 13 trades per user and an average trade value of $30.” Clearly, Ox’s strategy of appealing to a lay audience of retail investors is paying off. Bolide’s Social Finance Future According to Ox Bid, it's time for memecoins to have their Robinhood moment. To this end, she believes that the secret to making memecoin trading accessible to everyone is to take Robinhood's affordable, user-friendly approach, apply it to crypto, and add a social twist. She notes that modern consumers are deeply influenced by social media in everything they do, from choosing where to eat to deciding where to live — and she sees this trend as vital to the future of retail crypto trading. “People often make decisions based on recommendations from influencers or friends,” Ox explains. “My goal is to create a similar influence-driven recommendation system, where users can see which tokens to buy based on the on-chain actions of top influencers, friends, and traders.” In doing so, Ox hopes to return to what made memecoins great in the first place: fun and levity. “I aim to make the crypto market not only accessible to the masses but also exciting and social,” she says. Trade Memecoins with Confidence Using Bolide Newcomers should be able to confidently trade crypto without having to sift through pages of research. They should feel at ease knowing that their investments are protected and that they have access to the tools and support required to make informed decisions. This is where Bolide shines. By blending the user-friendliness of Robinhood and the engagement of popular social platforms, Bolide gives users the freedom to navigate crypto trading in a fun and informative way. To learn how Bolide is making the most out of its Robinhood moment, check out the app for yourself. You can also follow Ox Bid on her Farcaster at @oxb , and on X at @Oxxbid. the app the app at @oxb @oxb @Oxxbid . @Oxxbid

Is This the Robinhood Moment for Memecoins? Discovering the Bolide App

এটি কি মেমেকয়েনের জন্য রবিনহুড মুহূর্ত? বোলাইড অ্যাপ আবিষ্কার করা হচ্ছে

Ist dies der Robinhood-Moment für Memecoins? Entdeckung der Bolide-App

¿Es este el momento Robinhood para las Memecoins? Descubriendo la aplicación Bolide

Est-ce le moment Robinhood pour les Memecoins ? À la découverte de l'application Bolide

क्या यह मेमेकॉइन्स के लिए रॉबिनहुड मोमेंट है? बोलाइड ऐप की खोज

これはミームコインのロビンフッドの瞬間か？Bolideアプリを発見

지금이 Memecoin의 로빈후드 순간인가요? Bolide 앱 발견

Este é o momento Robinhood para Memecoins? Conhecendo o aplicativo Bolide

Это момент Робинхуда для мемкоинов? Знакомство с приложением Bolide

Bu Memecoin'ler için Robinhood Anı mı? Bolide Uygulamasını Keşfetmek

Đây có phải là khoảnh khắc Robinhood dành cho Memecoin? Khám phá ứng dụng Bolide

这是 Memecoins 的罗宾汉时刻吗？探索 Bolide 应用程序

A lone boy stood, staring at the star-speckled sky, his mind drawn to the girl just a few feet from where he lay. She was a beauty, that one. He couldn’t believe she was his. Every single thing she did screamed Art. The way she linked her fingers together, the way she smiled. The one girl who knew so much about him, yet… she didn’t shy away from his questionable past. As the emotions threatened to pull him under, he shook his head to clear his thoughts and face what was before him. “A shooting star!” She screamed in excitement as she pointed at that far-off speck in the sky, becoming larger and larger by the second. “That is no shooting star.” He managed to say, fear clogging his throat. He took in the lush grass swaying in the night wind, the beauty of the stars that more or less blotted out the sky. Then, he turned to look at the girl on the ground a few feet away. She was sitting up by then, fear morphing her once beautiful features into something unspeakable. “What is that?” Her voice quaked as she asked, and he closed his eyes momentarily to stop the bile from going up his throat. “Our death.” He said, not mincing words. His throat bobbed with unspoken words and something else underlying. “I’ve always loved you. I just- I just wanted you to know. This once.” He squeezed the words out of his mouth, wrangling them like one would do to a piece of wet cloth. “You? I’ve always seen you as just a friend.” She turned towards him then, his eyes red from tears. But he was grateful for that moment. He got her to look at him finally. And her eyes shone with regret. The screams came first as the she saw earlier was big enough to blot out the stars in the sky. And the heat. God, the heat. He felt as though he was being cooked from the inside out. shooting star The sky boiled like a cauldron; giant drops of fire rained down from the clouds, turning the lush green grass into something out of Hades’s fantasy. Blades of grass crumbled before his eyes. Withering without as much as a touch from him and fizzing out of existence, flames taking its place. The greenery is overtaken by the force that darkened the universe and turned rivers into lakes of fire. She screamed the most. He didn’t. He just watched the shooting star fall and gave a small smile. She was never his to own anyway. * Darren. That was his name. The man-boy with the power to manipulate space at his whims. He was a prodigy even among his peers in Earth 75. They had hoverboards to trapeze through space. That’s right, hoverboards. Fuelled with nothing more than gravel and sand. “Gloating again? That’s not very of you.” He rolled his eyes at the voice that came from just behind him. Glenna. His childhood friend. If you can count a hundred years as childhood. Before they settled—before the metamorphosis, they never grew older than the teenage age. But, after settling for five years and being a pain in the butt for half of those he called his cadre, he realized that he was ready for metamorphosis. But then, Glenna wasn’t. Hence, he had to stop halfway and wait for her to be. ladylike “I’m not a lady, for crying out loud. This is argument number what? Five thousand and seven?” He groaned, using flawless fingers to massage his forehead. Glenna just laughed as she walked towards him. Or, more like, she glided. She had more interest in the hoverboards than he did. The room was no larger than two children’s playroom, yet it had enough space due to his meticulousness. Not a strand of space is out of place, exactly how he wanted it to be. “Number five thousand and eight. You missed one.” She laughed, planting a wet kiss on his skin. He would have gone as red as beetroot if she didn’t deftly move the conversation elsewhere. “So, I need to weave a new dress. You’ve been called a genius for so long that it has become music to my ears. I need a strand of space to weave into a cloak I’m almost done making.” She tendered her request before him, and he took in her presence. She was young, after refusing the metamorphosis for the third time. Yet.. she had eyes of peace. The brown of her irises reminded him of worlds he hadn’t dared to touch for fear of breaking them apart. He’d seen them in his wakings. They were peaceful and oh, so beautiful. The serenity in them was what drew him to them at first. “Okay, I will. But why just a strand? Why not a whole chunk?” He asked as she raised her eyebrows at him, and he almost melted into the chair he sat on. If you can call it sitting. It was a haphazard view, an upturned table, yet he was upright. The world he’d come to know extended universes and eternities. It was a world of madness, but at least it was his. “One sec.” He said, raising his hand in mock surrender. Then, everything stopped. As his concentration cleared the level of the primordial beings, he tore a portal through the world. It was a red wiggly thing struggling to close, but he held it open with sheer willpower alone. When he found out that portals were alive, he decided to lord over them one way or another. They didn’t make it easy for him, though. While it wiggled, he stretched a hand into the portal and drew a strand out of that limitless vastness, loping it through his fingers like a struggling worm. It shimmered in and out of existence, blue like the untold skies, red as fiery dragons and demons of worlds he’d only read about. “Got you.” He smiled as he held a strand. Then, the world went to hell. Before he could remove his hand from the portal, it yawned like a gaping chasm and swallowed him whole. He was screaming, but Glenna was still in timeless mode. She wouldn’t know what happened. That is mercy. That has to be. Then, the world shut itself as the portal consumed the world he’d known all of his existence and winked out of reality. The screams didn’t come. Nothing did. * Carrion. That was his name. His name. His name. He tried to hold on to it, but it slipped out of his grasp like an eel, and he followed after it, crawling after his name with it on the tip of his tongue. What was his name again? Ca.. Ca what? What was his name? The man with scars lining his body like the universe's stars was lost. He tried to think. He tried to remember where he was. Yes. He was fighting Archanoid—the mother of spiders. One could even call her a deity. He dodged an incoming web made of madness and silk, woven with anger and hate. She was large, towering above him like he was a pesky fly. He hated that. He was the warrior who battled nightmares and abominations. He had to win. But then, what was his name? His name.. what was it again? He flew out of the way as an incubator shattered where he stood one second earlier. She wasn’t playing. “Foolish mortal. Do you think you can harm me? It doesn’t matter who you are, World Walker. You can’t escape from me.” She spoke, venom dripping out of those pincer-like things. They made a clanging sound as he swallowed, looking into those red eyes that had intelligence to them, something beyond the years. “One last chance. I will give it to you. Remember, pride and ego cannot win this war. Maybe you and the others can.” And then, before he could ask what she meant.. a scary sharp finger elongated from her finger, and she him out like a fly. flicked There was screaming. And then, there was nothing. * He woke up with a groan. There were several groans across him, and he was shocked to realize that he wasn’t dead. He wasn’t scorched. But he didn’t remember what his name was. He remembered her, recognized the girl who took him as a friend before the world became a sea of fire. Why, then, was he unhurt? The others stood on shaky feet, an otherworldly feel to them. There was something he just couldn’t place. They wore things he’d never heard of, or perhaps the dark skins rippling with fire and the darkness of the deep. Maybe it was the blades of darkness in the place where teeth were meant to be, but there was something.. out of place. One of them wore nightmares on his skin; he could see death. Death rippled with muscles and scars that seemed to blot out the skin. But strangely, he didn’t feel fear. “So, an explanation is in order?” He said to no one in particular. Even the being who looked as though he was 25 and 15 at the same time. As though the world couldn’t decide on his age and let him be both instead. He noticed that this being wasn’t standing on his two feet. He was.. hovering. “We’ll see soon enough.” A boy his age spoke, and he stared at him in wonderment, wondering how alike they were. The way the boy squinted made it glaring that he used glasses to see. Same with him. Even though he didn’t even know their names, they were about ten. Some had hands for feet, and others weren’t even walking on the bare ground. They just.. existed. There was no way to explain their existence, so he didn’t bother. “An explanation.. for this. All of this.” Another boy spoke, and he didn’t balk this time. He just waited. “Here it comes.” The boy who spoke was already running. “Here, what comes? What?” He asked, but everybody else had cleared out of that barren field. The world he was in was empty. There is no sign of green. No sign of brown either. It was as though the world was drained out of colour, and no matter where he looked, despair loomed. He felt them before he saw them. He knew who they were before they spoke. And even without an introduction, he knew everything about them. The Destroyers Of Worlds. They smiled; one hovered just like that man-boy. One had skin with uncountable scars. And then, he saw himself. That cruel smile, that deadly presence. He felt a chill that had nothing to do with the weather. Someone dragged him by the scruff of his hood, and he felt.. everything. There was no other way to describe what happened. Then, he turned to stare at the other him with a cruel smile as that being let out an inferno where he was standing a moment before. It was… hot. But strangely, he wasn’t burning. He wasn’t even singed. He was.. okay. The man-boy dropped him on the ground unceremoniously, and he muttered his thanks, but the others just raised their eyebrows, staring at the beings beyond them. Beings with their faces. Beings with enough power to destroy universes. It was them. Ageless. Timeless. With a snap of a finger, they were gone like they didn’t just lay waste to a large expanse of space. “I think I know what’s going on…” A tenacious finger went up, and the squinted boy was allowed to speak. “That is us. Timeless us. And.. we destroyed our universes. Now.. we have to fight against the us that are world destroyers.” “We don’t have a choice to decline?” The man-boy asked. “We have doomed worlds. This.. is penance.” The boy spoke again, his eyes filled with trepidation and resignation. “So, we were summoned here to kill our future selves? That’s a sick sense of humor.” “This world is sick, and when the Arachnoid told me, I didn’t believe it.” The man with the scars spoke, and his scars seemed alive, melding with his body. “Can you tell us what an Arachnoid is?” Another asked. So, he told them. Everything. “Pride and ego, huh?” A guy spoke, and they finally understood what they had to do. “This is depraved. All of this. Depraved. What the hell?” He spoke, shaking with anger. “Hell doesn’t exist, apparently. Future us made sure the world became it.” A brittle laughter from the man-boy. “This is it, then? We die in a land of no name? Our names were stolen from us. I can’t dredge up a single memory.” The scarred man said, eyes smouldering. I could tell he was pissed off. “This is our penance.” The squinting boy said again, and I was tempted to throw him out of the universe. Such a goody two shoes. “I don’t care. Whatever I have to do, I will do it. And it doesn’t matter who’s on the line. I have to go back home. Also, you can’t fight fire with water. Not in my world, anyway. It takes a monster to kill another. We will take the unorthodox approach. Did they want to seclude us and destroy us? World Walkers, indeed. Bastards more likely. I won’t take that. Neither should any of you. We have the power. Can’t you feel it? We can change things.” The man-boy spoke fervently, his eyes filled with loss, anger, and something else. “That’s right. We won’t let them decide for us. If we have to die, we might as well raise hell before we do. Now, we need a name.” The hooded boy spoke, and the others nodded in approval. “How does sound?” There were hoots of approval, some going as far as clapping. Then, they stared at the sky at once. Drained of colour. But then, the World between Worlds had always been a resting place for World Walkers. The Restorer of Worlds They had to fight. And this time, they had to fight themselves. Their memories returned, and they could see themselves in the past, present, and future—the Destroyer of Worlds. No more. They decided not to make the same mistakes. Not again. This time, they’d restore all they destroyed. As the squinty-eyed kid said, it was penance.

PENANCE 

Off on a Comet! a Journey through Planetary Space by Jules Verne, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . A SEARCH FOR ALGERIA here CHAPTER X. A SEARCH FOR ALGERIA The , a strong craft of 200 tons burden, had been built in the famous shipbuilding yards in the Isle of Wight. Her sea going qualities were excellent, and would have amply sufficed for a circumnavigation of the globe. Count Timascheff was himself no sailor, but had the greatest confidence in leaving the command of his yacht in the hands of Lieutenant Procope, a man of about thirty years of age, and an excellent seaman. Born on the count’s estates, the son of a serf who had been emancipated long before the famous edict of the Emperor Alexander, Procope was sincerely attached, by a tie of gratitude as well as of duty and affection, to his patron’s service. After an apprenticeship on a merchant ship he had entered the imperial navy, and had already reached the rank of lieutenant when the count appointed him to the charge of his own private yacht, in which he was accustomed to spend by far the greater part of his time, throughout the winter generally cruising in the Mediterranean, whilst in the summer he visited more northern waters. Dobryna The ship could not have been in better hands. The lieutenant was well informed in many matters outside the pale of his profession, and his attainments were alike creditable to himself and to the liberal friend who had given him his education. He had an excellent crew, consisting of Tiglew the engineer, four sailors named Niegoch, Tolstoy, Etkef, and Panofka, and Mochel the cook. These men, without exception, were all sons of the count’s tenants, and so tenaciously, even out at sea, did they cling to their old traditions, that it mattered little to them what physical disorganization ensued, so long as they felt they were sharing the experiences of their lord and master. The late astounding events, however, had rendered Procope manifestly uneasy, and not the less so from his consciousness that the count secretly partook of his own anxiety. Steam up and canvas spread, the schooner started eastwards. With a favorable wind she would certainly have made eleven knots an hour had not the high waves somewhat impeded her progress. Although only a moderate breeze was blowing, the sea was rough, a circumstance to be accounted for only by the diminution in the force of the earth’s attraction rendering the liquid particles so buoyant, that by the mere effect of oscillation they were carried to a height that was quite unprecedented. M. Arago has fixed twenty-five or twenty-six feet as the maximum elevation ever attained by the highest waves, and his astonishment would have been very great to see them rising fifty or even sixty feet. Nor did these waves in the usual way partially unfurl themselves and rebound against the sides of the vessel; they might rather be described as long undulations carrying the schooner (its weight diminished from the same cause as that of the water) alternately to such heights and depths, that if Captain Servadac had been subject to seasickness he must have found himself in sorry plight. As the pitching, however, was the result of a long uniform swell, the yacht did not labor much harder than she would against the ordinary short strong waves of the Mediterranean; the main inconvenience that was experienced was the diminution in her proper rate of speed. For a few miles she followed the line hitherto presumably occupied by the coast of Algeria; but no land appeared to the south. The changed positions of the planets rendered them of no avail for purposes of nautical observation, nor could Lieutenant Procope calculate his latitude and longitude by the altitude of the sun, as his reckonings would be useless when applied to charts that had been constructed for the old order of things; but nevertheless, by means of the log, which gave him the rate of progress, and by the compass which indicated the direction in which they were sailing, he was able to form an estimate of his position that was sufficiently free from error for his immediate need. Happily the recent phenomena had no effect upon the compass; the magnetic needle, which in these regions had pointed about 22 degrees from the north pole, had never deviated in the least—a proof that, although east and west had apparently changed places, north and south continued to retain their normal position as cardinal points. The log and the compass, therefore, were able to be called upon to do the work of the sextant, which had become utterly useless. On the first morning of the cruise Lieutenant Procope, who, like most Russians, spoke French fluently, was explaining these peculiarities to Captain Servadac; the count was present, and the conversation perpetually recurred, as naturally it would, to the phenomena which remained so inexplicable to them all. “It is very evident,” said the lieutenant, “that ever since the 1st of January the earth has been moving in a new orbit, and from some unknown cause has drawn nearer to the sun.” “No doubt about that,” said Servadac; “and I suppose that, having crossed the orbit of Venus, we have a good chance of running into the orbit of Mercury.” “And finish up by a collision with the sun!” added the count. “There is no fear of that, sir. The earth has undoubtedly entered upon a new orbit, but she is not incurring any probable risk of being precipitated onto the sun.” “Can you satisfy us of that?” asked the count. “I can, sir. I can give you a proof which I think you will own is conclusive. If, as you suppose, the earth is being drawn on so as to be precipitated against the sun, the great center of attraction of our system, it could only be because the centrifugal and centripetal forces that cause the planets to rotate in their several orbits had been entirely suspended: in that case, indeed, the earth would rush onwards towards the sun, and in sixty-four days and a half the catastrophe you dread would inevitably happen.” “And what demonstration do you offer,” asked Servadac eagerly, “that it will not happen?” “Simply this, captain: that since the earth entered her new orbit half the sixty-four days has already elapsed, and yet it is only just recently that she has crossed the orbit of Venus, hardly one-third of the distance to be traversed to reach the sun.” The lieutenant paused to allow time for reflection, and added: “Moreover, I have every reason to believe that we are not so near the sun as we have been. The temperature has been gradually diminishing; the heat upon Gourbi Island is not greater now than we might ordinarily expect to find in Algeria. At the same time, we have the problem still unsolved that the Mediterranean has evidently been transported to the equatorial zone.” Both the count and the captain expressed themselves reassured by his representations, and observed that they must now do all in their power to discover what had become of the vast continent of Africa, of which, they were hitherto failing so completely to find a vestige. Twenty-four hours after leaving the island, the had passed over the sites where Tenes, Cherchil, Koleah, and Sidi-Feruch once had been, but of these towns not one appeared within range of the telescope. Ocean reigned supreme. Lieutenant Procope was absolutely certain that he had not mistaken his direction; the compass showed that the wind had never shifted from the west, and this, with the rate of speed as estimated by the log, combined to assure him that at this date, the 2d of February, the schooner was in lat. 36 degrees 49 min N. and long. 3 degrees 25 min E., the very spot which ought to have been occupied by the Algerian capital. But Algiers, like all the other coast-towns, had apparently been absorbed into the bowels of the earth. Dobryna Captain Servadac, with clenched teeth and knitted brow, stood sternly, almost fiercely, regarding the boundless waste of water. His pulse beat fast as he recalled the friends and comrades with whom he had spent the last few years in that vanished city. All the images of his past life floated upon his memory; his thoughts sped away to his native France, only to return again to wonder whether the depths of ocean would reveal any traces of the Algerian metropolis. “Is it not impossible,” he murmured aloud, “that any city should disappear so completely? Would not the loftiest eminences of the city at least be visible? Surely some portion of the Casbah must still rise above the waves? The imperial fort, too, was built upon an elevation of 750 feet; it is incredible that it should be so totally submerged. Unless some vestiges of these are found, I shall begin to suspect that the whole of Africa has been swallowed in some vast abyss.” Another circumstance was most remarkable. Not a material object of any kind was to be noticed floating on the surface of the water; not one branch of a tree had been seen drifting by, nor one spar belonging to one of the numerous vessels that a month previously had been moored in the magnificent bay which stretched twelve miles across from Cape Matafuz to Point Pexade. Perhaps the depths might disclose what the surface failed to reveal, and Count Timascheff, anxious that Servadac should have every facility afforded him for solving his doubts, called for the sounding-line. Forthwith, the lead was greased and lowered. To the surprise of all, and especially of Lieutenant Procope, the line indicated a bottom at a nearly uniform depth of from four to five fathoms; and although the sounding was persevered with continuously for more than two hours over a considerable area, the differences of level were insignificant, not corresponding in any degree to what would be expected over the site of a city that had been terraced like the seats of an amphitheater. Astounding as it seemed, what alternative was left but to suppose that the Algerian capital had been completely leveled by the flood? The sea-bottom was composed of neither rock, mud, sand, nor shells; the sounding-lead brought up nothing but a kind of metallic dust, which glittered with a strange iridescence, and the nature of which it was impossible to determine, as it was totally unlike what had ever been known to be raised from the bed of the Mediterranean. “You must see, lieutenant, I should think, that we are not so near the coast of Algeria as you imagined.” The lieutenant shook his head. After pondering awhile, he said: “If we were farther away I should expect to find a depth of two or three hundred fathoms instead of five fathoms. Five fathoms! I confess I am puzzled.” For the next thirty-six hours, until the 4th of February, the sea was examined and explored with the most unflagging perseverance. Its depth remained invariable, still four, or at most five, fathoms; and although its bottom was assiduously dredged, it was only to prove it barren of marine production of any type. The yacht made its way to lat. 36 degrees, and by reference to the charts it was tolerably certain that she was cruising over the site of the Sahel, the ridge that had separated the rich plain of the Mitidja from the sea, and of which the highest peak, Mount Boujereah, had reached an altitude of 1,200 feet; but even this peak, which might have been expected to emerge like an islet above the surface of the sea, was nowhere to be traced. Nothing was to be done but to put about, and return in disappointment towards the north. Thus the regained the waters of the Mediterranean without discovering a trace of the missing province of Algeria. Dobryna About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Jules Verne (1998). Off on a Comet! a Journey through Planetary Space. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1353/pg1353-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

A SEARCH FOR ALGERIA

A Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . THE WHISPERING GALLERY here CHAPTER XXV - THE WHISPERING GALLERY When at last I came back to a sense of life and being, my face was wet, but wet, as I soon knew, with tears. How long this state of insensibility lasted, it is quite impossible for me now to say. I had no means left to me of taking any account of time. Never since the creation of the world had such a solitude as mine existed. I was completely abandoned. After my fall I lost much blood. I felt myself flooded with the life-giving liquid. My first sensation was perhaps a natural one. Why was I not dead? Because I was alive, there was something left to do. I tried to make up my mind to think no longer. As far as I was able, I drove away all ideas, and utterly overcome by pain and grief, I crouched against the granite wall. I just commenced to feel the fainting coming on again, and the sensation that this was the last struggle before complete annihilation—when, on a sudden, a violent uproar reached my ears. It had some resemblance to the prolonged rumbling voice of thunder, and I clearly distinguished sonorous voices, lost one after the other, in the distant depths of the gulf. Whence came this noise? Naturally, it was to be supposed from new phenomena which were taking place in the bosom of the solid mass of Mother Earth! The explosion of some gaseous vapors, or the fall of some solid, of the granitic or other rock. Again I listened with deep attention. I was extremely anxious to hear if this strange and inexplicable sound was likely to be renewed! A whole quarter of an hour elapsed in painful expectation. Deep and solemn silence reigned in the tunnel. So still that I could hear the beatings of my own heart! I waited, waited with a strange kind of hopefulness. Suddenly my ear, which leaned accidentally against the wall, appeared to catch, as it were, the faintest echo of a sound. I thought that I heard vague, incoherent and distant voices. I quivered all over with excitement and hope! "It must be hallucination," I cried. "It cannot be! it is not true!" But no! By listening more attentively, I really did convince myself that what I heard was truly the sound of human voices. To make any meaning out of the sound, however, was beyond my power. I was too weak even to hear distinctly. Still it was a positive fact that someone was speaking. Of that I was quite certain. There was a moment of fear. A dread fell upon my soul that it might be my own words brought back to me by a distant echo. Perhaps without knowing it, I might have been crying aloud. I resolutely closed my lips, and once more placed my ear to the huge granite wall. Yes, for certain. It was in truth the sound of human voices. I now by the exercise of great determination dragged myself along the sides of the cavern, until I reached a point where I could hear more distinctly. But though I could detect the sound, I could only make out uncertain, strange, and incomprehensible words. They reached my ear as if they had been spoken in a low tone—murmured, as it were, afar off. At last, I made out the word forlorad repeated several times in a tone betokening great mental anguish and sorrow. What could this word mean, and who was speaking it? It must be either my uncle or the guide Hans! If, therefore, I could hear them, they must surely be able to hear me. "Help," I cried at the top of my voice; "help, I am dying!" I then listened with scarcely a breath; I panted for the slightest sound in the darkness—a cry, a sigh, a question! But silence reigned supreme. No answer came! In this way some minutes passed. A whole flood of ideas flashed through my mind. I began to fear that my voice, weakened by sickness and suffering, could not reach my companions who were in search of me. "It must be they," I cried; "who else could by any possibility be buried a hundred miles below the level of the earth?" The mere supposition was preposterous. I began, therefore, to listen again with the most breathless attention. As I moved my ears along the side of the place I was in, I found a mathematical point as it were, where the voices appeared to attain their maximum of intensity. The word forlorad again distinctly reached my ear. Then came again that rolling noise like thunder which had awakened me out of torpor. "I begin to understand," I said to myself after some little time devoted to reflection; "it is not through the solid mass that the sound reaches my ears. The walls of my cavernous retreat are of solid granite, and the most fearful explosion would not make uproar enough to penetrate them. The sound must come along the gallery itself. The place I was in must possess some peculiar acoustic properties of its own." Again I listened; and this time—yes, this time—I heard my name distinctly pronounced: cast as it were into space. It was my uncle, the Professor, who was speaking. He was in conversation with the guide, and the word which had so often reached my ears, forlorad, was a Danish expression. Then I understood it all. In order to make myself heard, I too must speak as it were along the side of the gallery, which would carry the sound of my voice just as the wire carries the electric fluid from point to point. But there was no time to lose. If my companions were only to remove a few feet from where they stood, the acoustic effect would be over, my Whispering Gallery would be destroyed. I again therefore crawled towards the wall, and said as clearly and distinctly as I could: "Uncle Hardwigg." I then awaited a reply. Sound does not possess the property of traveling with such extreme rapidity. Besides the density of the air at that depth from light and motion was very far from adding to the rapidity of circulation. Several seconds elapsed, which to my excited imagination, appeared ages; and these words reached my eager ears, and moved my wildly beating heart: "Harry, my boy, is that you?" A short delay between question and answer. "Yes—yes." .......... "Where are you?" .......... "Lost!" .......... "And your lamp?" .......... "Out." .......... "But the guiding stream?" .......... "Is lost!" .......... "Keep your courage, Harry. We will do our best." .......... "One moment, my uncle," I cried; "I have no longer strength to answer your questions. But—for heaven's sake—do you—continue—to speak—to me!" Absolute silence, I felt, would be annihilation. "Keep up your courage," said my uncle. "As you are so weak, do not speak. We have been searching for you in all directions, both by going upwards and downwards in the gallery. My dear boy, I had begun to give over all hope—and you can never know what bitter tears of sorrow and regret I have shed. At last, supposing you to be still on the road beside the Hansbach, we again descended, firing off guns as signals. Now, however, that we have found you, and that our voices reach each other, it may be a long time before we actually meet. We are conversing by means of some extraordinary acoustic arrangement of the labyrinth. But do not despair, my dear boy. It is something gained even to hear each other." While he was speaking, my brain was at work reflecting. A certain undefined hope, vague and shapeless as yet, made my heart beat wildly. In the first place, it was absolutely necessary for me to know one thing. I once more, therefore, leaned my head against the wall, which I almost touched with my lips, and again spoke. "Uncle." .......... "My boy?" was his answer after a few moments. .......... "It is of the utmost consequence that we should know how far we are asunder." .......... "That is not difficult." .......... "You have your chronometer at hand?" I asked. .......... "Certainly." .......... "Well, take it into your hand. Pronounce my name, noting exactly the second at which you speak. I will reply as soon as I hear your words—and you will then note exactly the moment at which my reply reaches you." .......... "Very good; and the mean time between my question and your answer will be the time occupied by my voice in reaching you." .......... "That is exactly what I mean, Uncle," was my eager reply. .......... "Are you ready?" .......... "Yes." .......... "Well, make ready, I am about to pronounce your name," said the Professor. I applied my ear close to the sides of the cavernous gallery, and as soon as the word "Harry" reached my ear, I turned round and, placing my lips to the wall, repeated the sound. .......... "Forty seconds," said my uncle. "There has elapsed forty seconds between the two words. The sound, therefore, takes twenty seconds to ascend. Now, allowing a thousand and twenty feet for every second—we have twenty thousand four hundred feet—a league and a half and one-eighth." These words fell on my soul like a kind of death knell. "A league and a half," I muttered in a low and despairing voice. .......... "It shall be got over, my boy," cried my uncle in a cheery tone; "depend on us." .......... "But do you know whether to ascend or descend?" I asked faintly enough. .......... "We have to descend, and I will tell you why. You have reached a vast open space, a kind of bare crossroad, from which galleries diverge in every direction. That in which you are now lying must necessarily bring you to this point, for it appears that all these mighty fissures, these fractures of the globe's interior, radiate from the vast cavern which we at this moment occupy. Rouse yourself, then, have courage and continue your route. Walk if you can, if not drag yourself along—slide, if nothing else is possible. The slope must be rather rapid—and you will find strong arms to receive you at the end of your journey. Make a start, like a good fellow." These words served to rouse some kind of courage in my sinking frame. "Farewell for the present, good uncle, I am about to take my departure. As soon as I start, our voices will cease to commingle. Farewell, then, until we meet again." .......... "Adieu, Harry—until we say Welcome." Such were the last words which reached my anxious ears before I commenced my weary and almost hopeless journey. This wonderful and surprising conversation which took place through the vast mass of the earth's labyrinth, these words exchanged, the speakers being about five miles apart—ended with hopeful and pleasant expressions. I breathed one more prayer to Heaven, I sent up words of thanksgiving—believing in my inmost heart that He had led me to the only place where the voices of my friends could reach my ears. This apparently astounding acoustic mystery is easily explainable by simple natural laws; it arose from the conductibility of the rock. There are many instances of this singular propagation of sound which are not perceptible in its less mediate positions. In the interior gallery of St. Paul's, and amid the curious caverns in Sicily, these phenomena are observable. The most marvelous of them all is known as the Ear of Dionysius. These memories of the past, of my early reading and studies, came fresh to my thoughts. Moreover, I began to reason that if my uncle and I could communicate at so great a distance, no serious obstacle could exist between us. All I had to do was to follow the direction whence the sound had reached me; and logically putting it, I must reach him if my strength did not fail. I accordingly rose to my feet. I soon found, however, that I could not walk; that I must drag myself along. The slope as I expected was very rapid; but I allowed myself to slip down. Soon the rapidity of the descent began to assume frightful proportions; and menaced a fearful fall. I clutched at the sides; I grasped at projections of rocks; I threw myself backwards. All in vain. My weakness was so great I could do nothing to save myself. Suddenly earth failed me. I was first launched into a dark and gloomy void. I then struck against the projecting asperities of a vertical gallery, a perfect well. My head bounded against a pointed rock, and I lost all knowledge of existence. As far as I was concerned, death had claimed me for his own. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Jules Verne (2006). A Journey to the Center of the Earth. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18857/18857-h/18857-h.htm This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

THE WHISPERING GALLERY

Why do we use alternating current (AC) power? Why don’t power companies just distribute direct current (DC) power, since the first thing we normally do with modern appliances is convert the AC to DC? The answer to those questions dates to ’s efforts to Thomas Edison promote his incandescent lamp and electrify New York. Edison’s generators produced DC power, which worked fine for local distribution, but required either very large cables to supply loads more than a few blocks away, or a power station every few blocks. This is because, at voltages practical for end use, large currents were required to electrify more than just a small area. Enter Nikola Tesla, backed by George Westinghouse, who promoted high-voltage AC transmission lines with a low voltage substation every few blocks for local distribution. The important difference was the substation only required a transformer, while the DC solution required a complete steam-powered power plant. Ultimately, Westinghouse settled the war that ensued when he built a hydroelectric plant at Niagra Falls that was able to supply loads hundreds of miles away. However, in the few extremely long, point-to-point transmission lines, the balance tips back toward very high voltage DC transmission lines (e.g., the power line from Grand Coulee Dam in Washington State to Los Angeles). AC power enabled many other inventions key to industrialization, from the induction motor and gas discharge lamp ballasts to light dimmers and electric shavers. But part of the dark side of AC power is this notion of power factor. The voltage for DC power is constant, so there is no phase associated with it; AC power is (ideally) sinusoidal, with the voltage and current crossing 0 V at 120 times a second (twice per 60 Hz cycle). If the load (or even the power line) is slightly inductive or capacitive, the current will either lag or lead the voltage. Figure 1 shows an LTspice model of a 120 VAC, 60 Hz, AC voltage source driving an inductor, a resistor, and a capacitor in parallel. Figure 2 shows the output of this simulation with the voltage of the source V(n001), the inductor current I(L1), the resistor current I(R1), and the capacitor current I(C1). Notice that only the resistor current is in phase with the voltage, the inductor current “lags” behind the voltage by 90 degrees, while the capacitor current “leads” the voltage by 90 degrees. How (And Why) To Determine Power Factor Power factor is classically defined as the cosine of the angle between the root mean square (RMS) AC voltage — defined as the amount of AC power that produces the same heating effect as DC power — and the RMS AC current. To calculate the power consumed by a DC load, simply multiply the voltage at the load by the current through it. , To calculate the power consumed by an AC load the product of RMS voltage and current must be multiplied by the power factor. If voltage and current are in phase (0 degrees phase error), the cosine of 0 is 1, and therefore the same calculation as DC. This occurs when the load is made to look resistive. If the phase error is 60 degrees, the cosine of 60 is 0.5; only half of the product of voltage and current is delivered to the load. So where does the other half go? That current still circulates through the power lines; it just doesn’t deliver useful power to the load. When breaking down the “apparent power” waveform (called volt-amperes, or VA) into its inphase and out-of-phase parts — sometimes referred to as “real” and “imaginary” parts, respectively —the in-phase part (the cosine coefficient) is called power (measured in watts), while the out-of-phase part (the sine coefficient) is called reactive power (measured volt-ampsreactive, or VAR). So, power factor can also be defined as the real power divided by VA (PF = W/VA). The watt meter on your power panel only measures real power, so customers are only billed for real power, but the utility still has to size its equipment to handle the total current flowing, so it strives to make all current “billable” current. How this Applies to Medical Devices But why does any of this matter, particularly if you are not billed for it? First, the utility ultimately bills its customers for all expenses, so the cost of correcting power factor is passed on to consumers. Second, more and more agency specifications — such as EN60601, EN61000, and IEC555 — require power factor correction for medical devices (sometimes referred to as powerline harmonic control). Manufacturers of medical devices are required to provide varying degrees of power factor correction in their products, depending on power output and application. If you are thinking, “My product does not contain any large loads, much less inductive or capacitive types,” there is a subtlety that rears its ugly head: That little switching power supply you put into your product to meet the efficiency/wide input/size/weight/packaging requirements introduces its own peculiar variant of power factor corruption. Remember, a power factor of one occurs when the load appears resistive. A switch mode power supply (SMPS) typically rectifies the power line, and then charges a large capacitor to store energy during the time the voltage sine wave drops to 0V, until it recovers. If this capacitor is large enough, it will store enough energy that the power line can drop out or “brown out” for several cycles, such as occurs when a large load is connected to the line (e.g., air conditioning compressors starting or laser printer heaters cycling). From a power supply designer’s point of view, the bigger that input capacitor, the better. If the capacitor is big enough, it discharges very little during a cycle of the power line, and during steady state, the power line voltage is only greater than the capacitor voltage at the positive and negative peak of the waveform. Therefore, current only flows during the peaks of the power line voltage waveform. It is perfectly in phase, so the power factor should be 1, right? Well, remember that the load should appear resistive. Figure 3 Figure 4 shows the AC current waveform of a resistive load and that of a switching power supply at equivalent power levels. Notice that the resistor produces the expected in-phase sinusoidal waveform, while the switcher front end produces an impulse of current twice per cycle. A pulse is the superposition of multiple sine waves, since this pulse occurs at regular intervals, the sine waves that make up the pulse must all be harmonically related. In this case, 60Hz is the fundamental and the other sine waves are harmonics of 60Hz. The topology of the front end of a simple, offline, switching power supply is illustrated on the right side of Figure 3. The AC voltage source (Vswitcher) is rectified by the four diodes and charges a capacitor (C1). Normally, the switching power supply would operate from the energy stored on the capacitor (the power dissipated by R1 simulates a load on the supply). For comparison, the left half of Figure 3 shows the waveform with just a resistive load (R2). Figure 4 illustrates the waveforms of these circuits. As expected, the voltage and current are in-phase for the resistive load shown in the top pane. There will be a small discontinuity close to the zero crossing due to the diode forward voltage, but that is not visible here because of the scale. The applied voltage is the same for the switcher front end, but the resultant current is shown in the middle pane. Notice the scale of the current (shown on the right side of the top pane) is about 20 times greater in the middle pane (800 mA peak vs 40 mA peak). The bottom pane shows that both circuits consume the same power, measured by the voltage across the resistor multiplied by the current through it. R1 is larger than R2 because R1 is operating at approximately 169 VAC, while R2 is operating at 120 V RMS, but the power dissipated in each is the same. This illustration is something of a worst case, but it shows how much higher peak currents can be for a switched mode input than a resistive load operating at the same power level. Harmonic Generation and Three-Phase Power Generation Two consequences result from the switcher input current waveform in power lines where a large number of switching supplies are installed. First, because a large pulse of current is required at the peak of the line, instead of spreading this over the whole cycle, the voltage sags due to resistive drop in conductors and saturation in transformers or uninterruptable power supplies. This distorts the voltage waveform and generates further powerline harmonics. Even though the current pulse is timed with the peak of the voltage waveform, only the fundamental frequency is truly in phase with the voltage; the harmonic currents flow in and out of the capacitor while the diode is “on,” but do not store significant charge in it. The RMS ammeter measures all of the harmonic current, but the real power is just the energy stored in capacitor each cycle. Therefore, the product of the RMS current and voltage will show an indicated apparent power greater than the real power. Distributed throughout IEC 60601 are paragraphs reclassifying medical devices that would otherwise pass International Special Committee on Radio Interference (CISPR) requirements, except for their distortion of the third harmonic of the powerline. This applies particularly to devices with loads greater than 75 W and less than 16 A per phase. Third harmonic distortion can be generated by any non-linearities in the load, but most commonly derive from switched mode power supply (SMPS) front ends. Figure 5 is a spectral analysis (performed by FFT) of the current in the middle pane of Figure 4 (the simulated input current to a SMPS). Amplitude is shown on the y axis and frequency is shown on the x axis (both axes are plotted on a logarithmic scale). A purely sinusoidal input current would have a single peak at 60 Hz, but the distorted waveform of Figure 4 shows the fundamental at 60 Hz, plus an almost equally large spike at 180 Hz (third harmonic of 60), accompanied by a plethora of higher harmonics. To see the effect of just the third harmonic targeted by 60601, Figure 6 shows the superposition of a 60 Hz current [green trace labeled I(60Hz) with its third harmonic I(180Hz]. The resultant waveform I(load) shows what looks similar to the input current of a SMPS. Notice that the current is disproportionately low on either side of the zero crossing and then peaks with the voltage. The characteristic waveform of the SMPS input current is specifically addressed by 60601. Beyond this harmonic generation, a second consequence (of switcher input current waveform in power lines where a large number of switching supplies are installed) is the phenomenon of three-phase power generation. This is easiest to understand in “WYE” (Y) configuration where three phases, 120 degrees apart, all share a common neutral, as shown in Figure 7. Imagine a resistive load connected from each phase: A, B, and C, to the neutral wire. Without descending into the math, imagine phase A is at the peak of its positive excursion, phase B will be delayed 120 degrees, and phase C will be delayed 240 degrees (which is the same as leading phase A by 120 degrees). The current flowing into resistor R1 is exactly equal to the sum of the current flowing out of R2 and R3. The bottom pane of Figure 7 shows the three currents flowing in each of the three phase resistors. The current in that neutral wire is zero as long as the load is perfectly balanced. The neutral current, I(Neutral) is shown at approximately 0 in the second pane from the bottom. The current in all three phases will balance. This is true for any chosen phase angle: In fact, the neutral wire is only there to deal with minor imbalances between the phases, and it typically is the same gauge wire as each phase wire. Now, replace sinusoidal drive in the three phases with a triangular pulse, similar to the switching power supply examined above. The overlay of the three triangular phase waveforms is shown in the second pane from the top of Figure 8. Now, when phase A is at the peak of its positive excursion and it generates that big current spike, the other two phases are not carrying any current, and the neutral must carry all of the return current. Since the neutral is the same size as the phase wire, what’s the problem? Well, rotate the phase 120 degrees and phase B will hit its peak and supply the same current which the neutral will need to carry, then rotate the phase until phase C hits its peak. In one cycle of the power line, the neutral had to carry three times the current of each of the phase wires. This is the current shown as I(Neutrl) in the top pane. Even in the best outcome scenario, the neutral wire gets very hot and the voltage sags considerably more than expected. Controlling Power Factor In Your Device OK, so controlling power factor may be something to be concerned about; what can be done to fix it? The good news is that semiconductor companies are working hard to sell you a solution. If your design is close to meeting your requirements without power factor correction, revisit that design and look at the input voltage range your switching IC will operate down to (or choose a new one) with lower input limit. Reduce the size of that input capacitor to increase the input conduction angle and spread that current spike over time (more like a resistor). Of course, doing this will make your supply more susceptible to drop out and brown out. Increasing the size of the output capacitors will help some, but this starts to take up quite a bit of space and can introduce other problems. Passive 60 Hz bandpass filters for the power line also are available, but they tend to require considerable space, as well. Alternatively, you can add a power factor corrector (PFC) to your design. Some switching controllers incorporate power factor correction, but independent front ends are most common. The simplest independent front end to understand is a “constant on-time” (COT) boost converter. It is inserted between the power line and that input capacitor, which caused all the problems above. This PFC has practically no input capacitance (other than the X and Y capacitors in the filter) and, as the name implies, it uses a constant on-time boost topology to charge that input energy storage capacitor to a voltage greater than the highest peak of the power line the device is designed to see. For example, if the high line was 120 VAC + 10 percent (120 X √2 X 1.10 = 187 V), 200 V may be chosen as the boost voltage. The boost controller would turn on the boost inductor for a period of time brief enough to prevent it from saturating at the peak of the line. A “fast” control loop drives the inductor switching, so that each switch cycle is “on” for the same period. Since the inductor current equals LVt (L = inductance, V = voltage, and t = time) — with L and t held fixed — inductor (I) current and therefore power line current are proportional to V. Since I is proportional to V, the input looks resistive. This might work acceptably for a fixed power level, but if the load fluctuates, the output voltage will vary wildly. To solve this, the boost controller actually has two loops: The fast loop described above, and the slow loop, which adjusts the “on” time to control the capacitor voltage, but does so slowly, over several power line cycles, to keep that resistive appearance. The capacitor voltage is only loosely regulated, which means that the capacitor has to be sized and rated to accommodate the variation. But, because the boost circuit makes the input to the capacitor appear resistive, the capacitor can now be relatively large. Because this topology is a boost converter, if the output (energy storage capacitor) voltage is ever less that the input voltage, current will flow from input to output to charge the capacitor. In this case, the power supply would continue to operate just fine, but the power factor correction would be defeated. An exaggerated current waveform for a constant on-time boost converter is shown in Figure 9. The AC supply voltage is shown as V(vac), the unfiltered supply current is shown as I(Ac), and the voltage on the output capacitor is shown as Vout. Notice that the average of the current waveform into the boost converter approximates sinusoidal and is in phase with the voltage. The switching speed shown here is very slow to make the individual pulses more visible. Speeding up the switching would make filtering the switch noise simpler, and operating in continuous conduction mode would further reduce the amplitude of the individual switch cycles. Another advantage to the boost topology is that the actual switching supply — behind the power factor correcting front end — now operates from a relatively fixed voltage. If the boost stage can accommodate a wide input range, the requirement for the rest of the supply to meet this input is mitigated. Other topologies exist, each with their own sets of advantages and disadvantages. Some power supply modules are available now with the power factor correction built in; they just require an input capacitor, a boost capacitor, and an output capacitor. Whatever solution is chosen, simulating the design is highly recommended, because it will provide greater insight into how the circuit responds to the corner cases. TI’s Tina, Intersil’s online simulator, and Linear Technologies’ LTspice are among the choices available for simulation. With many solutions available, power factor correction is not as daunting a task as it once was. The lead image for this article was generated by HackerNoon's via the prompt "thomas edison looking at the lightbulb" AI Image Generator

How (And Why) to Determine Power Factor for Medical Devices

কিভাবে (এবং কেন) মেডিকেল ডিভাইসের জন্য পাওয়ার ফ্যাক্টর নির্ধারণ করা যায়

Wie (und warum) der Leistungsfaktor für medizinische Geräte bestimmt wird

Cómo (y por qué) determinar el factor de potencia para dispositivos médicos

Comment (et pourquoi) déterminer le facteur de puissance des dispositifs médicaux

चिकित्सा उपकरणों के लिए पावर फैक्टर का निर्धारण कैसे (और क्यों) करें

医療機器の力率を決定する方法とその理由

의료 기기의 역률을 결정하는 방법(및 이유)

Como (e por que) determinar o fator de potência para dispositivos médicos

Tıbbi Cihazlar için Güç Faktörü Nasıl (Ve Neden) Belirlenir?

Làm thế nào (và tại sao) để xác định hệ số công suất cho các thiết bị y tế

如何（以及为什么）确定医疗设备的功率因数

While a questionable play on words might have temporarily licked the wounds of crypto Twitter last year, its time in the spotlight is over. The phrase that made the rounds following the FTX fallout seemed to ease some pain among traumatized crypto investors. But, while those who were well-receiving of the headline enjoyed the opportunity to refocus their gloom, the industry's cry for a "new year new me" means its explicit attention has to end. The problem with “safe CEX” picking up traction lies not just in the thought of trying to explain the concept to crypto-confused relatives. What was more concerning was the ‘safe haven’ stamp the entire idea seemed to slap onto centralized finance. Following a number of -based discussions by industry leaders, the term began trending among the crypto community towards the close of last November. The energy across the space felt different from the weeks before it, with an oozing sense of optimism for the future vision of crypto… only, one that would exist in the hands of centralized entities. Twitter After 14 impressive years of tirelessly resisting the endless restraints thrown against building a truly decentralized financial market, how have we ended up here? How are critical flaws tied to CeFi leading us to talk about how we can keep scaling… CeFi ?!? Safe CEX Might Offer a Solution For Now, But Then What? Safe CEX was derived from a place of good intention. By theorizing what ‘safe CEX’ might look like, those championing the term ( , Balaji) have managed to establish measures to calm the hysteria and provide comfort for the millions of CeFi users in dire need of a guiding force. Equally, the concept in itself sets a fair precedent. By encouraging demand for more transparency from CeFi networks and implementing additional measures –  like ‘proof of reserves’ – on centralized products, a reformation of CeFi is a rational and essential next step that absolutely deserves a place for discussion. Vitalik Rational, essential, sure. But crypto wasn’t born to improve centralized finance – it was born to demolish it. 2022 was an exhausting year for the financial sector. Global economies have seen record rates of inflation and disproportionate financial strains impacting millions of people’s livelihoods. Crypto projects like Terra Luna shook the entire crypto industry, further proving the need for trustless and secure DeFi. Most recently, the mass implosion of CeFi projects like FTX once again set industry growth back a notch and offered a stark reminder that removing central authority from finance is literally why crypto exists. So why in the world is our next step from here to put a hard focus on innovating CeFi? Commodity-backed and fiat currencies have had centuries to evolve (and they’re certainly far from perfect), so to expect a full shift from CeFi to DeFi overnight off the back of a couple of TradFi-esque scandals would be absurd. Even more absurd, would be the expectation of an entirely new financial ecosystem to be polished and ready to support a shift from centuries-old systems in 14 short years. Yet, in either case – that doesn’t mean the shift isn’t needed. If we’re ever to have a fair financial infrastructure, we need to migrate to DeFi – but DeFi today isn’t ready for us. DeFi is stiff, ugly, and flawed. What’s currently out there needs a hell of a lot of work before we can start sharing our favorite dApps at the dinner table and splitting the bill in two taps, so, looking towards improvements that can be made across the CeFi landscape is somewhat fair – for now. The seemingly linear focus applied to improving CEXs, though, is where the problem’s at. Current market sentiment for the most part makes it seem as though we’ve reached our limits with DeFi - like we bit off more than we could chew trying to build a world too far out of reach. But, DeFi is why we’re here. CeFi is little more than its problematic sibling that inherited the family’s bad genes. It’s easy to get caught up in FUD and seek refuge in the devil we know, but zooming out and remembering just exactly why we are here almost feels like being woken up from a chaotic coma. It’s meditative. The CeFi echo chambers following the FTX fallout are deflating. Yes, we need to improve CeFi. Do we need to make improving CeFi the industry-wide roadmap, kicking the DeFi can around to infinity? Absolutely not. Proof of Reserves Won’t Work Proof of reserves will bide well in theory. In practice, implementing the concept industry-wide should hold exchanges accountable for showing they have the funds to pay back users en masse, should the need ever arise. While this paints a pretty picture, the fall from grace is this: they’re still centralized. Piling up the pitchforks to demand more transparency isn’t a bad idea, but, this offers little when it comes to what centralized platforms do with those funds. The need to remove central authority in finance is not about liquidity, but rather, general ownership and management of an individual’s assets. Following the FTX fallout, “next-gen” UK bank Starling announced they would block customer transactions to crypto-related applications, once again raising ethical questions around financial authority in the traditional world. It wasn't long ago that protestors in Canada had their crypto wallets sanctioned. How would proof of reserves prevent misuse of centralized power in such circumstances? Spoiler Alert: it wouldn’t. So, onto the next solution – and many have been explored. How do we make CEXs non-custodial? Can we shift towards hybrid centralization? While these explorations make sense amidst the current chaos, they also beg the question: where are we going with this? It seems in hybrid ideations bouncing between CeFi and DeFi, each possesses a common denominator. More CeFi = more centralization, and more of today's DeFi = less usability & more room for user error. So surely, when zooming out a little and looking at the bigger picture, there’s only one true solution, right? While we can pace in circles until the end of time discussing how to improve centralized finance, a faster horse won’t win this race. A better approach might be focusing efforts on the end goal that has remained just about the only constant in the 14 years of crypto’s development: better decentralization. The Answer Isn’t Safer CeFi – it’s Better DeFi Linus Pauling once wrote, “The way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas and throw the bad ones away.” We’ve gone above and beyond to deliver on that first step for crypto, but it’s time to start realizing the second. While there are many incredible developments and advancements in the DeFi space, they’re still blocked by the same foundational flaws that are restricting them from achieving what’s really needed for global adoption – like poor usability, security, scalability, and developer experience. For DeFi to win, we need to take it back to the start If the financial landscape is ever to become truly decentralized, we must build an ecosystem that can support it and an infrastructure purpose-built for it, not cobbled together or accidentally emerging. Groundbreaking innovation doesn’t come from tweaking what’s broken – it comes from radically changing it. We’ve spent far too long taking what we’ve got and sticking a band-aid over the bruised parts, but that’s never going to work in the long run. Redrafting CeFi might help for now, but we need a profoundly different approach to building if we plan to sustain a $400T financial migration. It may feel like a lost cause at times, but DeFi will prevail because those that know what really needs to be done will make it happen. To truly build the future of finance we need, we must stop looking for answers in CeFi and now place our efforts on making DeFi win. For DeFi to win, it needs to work for everyone. “Safe CEX” isn’t what we need, DeFi is.

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