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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Review posted by science writer David Bradley at SciScoop, a science news forum, May 25, 2006
ANCIENT ELECTRICIANS
By pharos, Section Reviews, Posted on Sun May 21, 2006 at 11:24:58 PM PST
SYNOPSIS of The Electric Mirror on the Pharos Lighthouse and Other Ancient Lighting. This book aims to prove that the ancients used electricity to light up their temples, tombs, lighthouses, fortresses, palaces, cities and other edifices and critical areas.
This book aims to prove, through a comprehensive layout of ancient coins, artifacts, monuments, and literature, that the ancients used electricity to light up their temples, tombs, lighthouses, fortresses, palaces, cities and other edifices and critical areas.
No other work on the subject documents as much ancient Egyptian, Sumerian, Babylonian, Hebrew, Assyrian, Indian, Greek, Roman, Parthian, Persian, and Sassanian as well as medieval evidence of this fact. Furthermore, the work recalls interesting details and descriptions (some of which have never before been translated into English) of the ancient Alexandrian Pharos Lighthouse and its reflective telescope and electric beacon.
The book presents easily readable explanation of carbon arc lights and a history of their use in nineteenth and twentieth-century searchlights (electric mirrors) and lighthouses. Its numerous illustrations, explanations, and historical testimony (from the horses' mouths) set a firm foundation for the reader to better understand the ancient advancements in electricity.
The editor (Larry Radka) has carefully laid out the ancient and modern illustrations (often in a comparative manner) on the appropriate pages that match up well with the text. Although this was time-consuming it means readers are not distracted by having to leap back and forth between the text and a bunch of pictures stuck in various parts of the book.
The ancient electric cells (batteries) found in Iraq in the 1930s and the evidence of ancient electroplating serve as a basis for the added proofs of the use of ancient electricity. From there, Radka presents illustrations of numerous artifacts and monuments that clearly demonstrate the use of ancient electric mirrors or searchlights. He also presents, what he describes as, strong evidence from cuneiform tablets and other sources that the ancients had all the materials (like copper, lead, iron, zinc, glass, sal ammoniac, sulfuric acid, etc.) at hand to make powerful primary and secondary electric cells. When we couple this to other ancient testimony of the use of extremely bright lights illuminating large areas, the only conclusion we can come to is that they had to have been powered by electricity.
The great Egyptologist John Gardner Wilkinson pointed out that the ancient Egyptian "paintings offer few representations of lamps, torches, or any other kind of light." Why--when they illustrate almost every other ancient Egyptian article? It is because people are not looking for ancient electric lights so they simply do not recognize them!
The Electric Mirror is published by Einhorn Press, 1314 Oak Street, Parkersburg, WV 26101, Telephone: (304) 485 3402. You can contact Radka at LarryBrianRadka--AT---hotmail.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE EDITOR'S COMMENTS, May 22, 2006
In an editorial titled "A Shocking Discovery" in the prestigious Journal of the Electrochemical Society, an electrical engineer for General Electric, Willard F. M. Gray, declared: "Electric batteries, 2000 years ago!!! Surprised? No need to be, really."
However, this is only part of the story! Larry, a retired Broadcast engineer, brings us the rest in his latest work, which also covers electric lighting in antiquity. His book, with several maps, over 200 high quality illustrations of ancient coins, bas-reliefs, and other hard evidence, along with the testimony of a multitude of ancient and modern authorities, presents a comprehensive history of the subject never before accomplished. His numerous footnotes, a dozen pages of endnotes, an extensive bibliography, photo appendix, and two indexes point to enough evidence to persuade even the most orthodox skeptic that the ancients possessed a vast amount of electrical technology.
"Whenever, in the pride of some new discovery, we throw a look into the past, we find, to our dismay, certain vestiges which indicate the possibility, if not the certainty, that the alleged discovery was not totally unknown to the ancients," wrote Madame H. P. Blavatsky, in Isis Unveiled, well over a hundred years ago. "It is generally asserted that neither the early inhabitants of the Mosaic times, nor even the more civilized nations of the Ptolemaic period were acquainted with electricity. If we remain undisturbed in this opinion, it is not for the lack of proofs to the contrary."
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Mysteries Magazine review, October 28, 2007
With his heavily illustrated book that explores the possibility that ancient civilizations had harnessed the power of electricity, author Larry Radka may just change your mind. With a library of more than 5,000 books at his disposal, his research displays a multitude of examples where the ancients used batteries, telescopes, mirror weapons, as well as carbon arc lighting. He also presents evidence that several ancient structures, such as the Pharos Lighthouse of Alexandria, was powered by carbon arc lights and battery jars. In addition, Radka, a retired broadcast engineer, also suggests that ancient India, the Babylonians, Sumerians, Greeks, Parthians, Romans, Persians, Sassanians, and Assyrians used electricity to illuminate their temples, tombs, fortresses, and palaces.
??Radka also provides strong evidence derived from cuneiform and hieroglyphic tablets that seemingly proves that the ancients had the materials necessary (such as copper, lead, iron, zinc, glass, sal ammoniac, and sulfuric acid) to create primary and secondary electric cells.
??Anyone with even a passing interest in ancient technology, electricity, or electrical engineering should purchase a copy of this fascinating book. Illustrations and historical testimony are numerous and the erudite level of research in this fascinating tome establishes a foundation of acumen rarely achieved by previous scholars.
--www.mysteriesmagazine.com
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