Readers may recall that Forrest M. Mims III, despite his gifts in electronics and citizen science, was denied a column in Scientific American because he was not a Darwinist or a supporter of live baby dismemberment.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Bartlett’s dedication reflects Mims’ immense influence on electronics enthusiasts—including himself, as a boy:
Mims’ most prominent claim to fame was his series of Engineer’s Mini-Notebooks, small volumes that diagrammed circuits and their components and designs. Most hobbyists had a large collection of these notebooks and eventually they were collected into the book Getting Started in Electronics.
Mims has also been one of the most prominent “citizen scientists.” A citizen scientist engages in science without the backing of a degree or institution, for the love of discovery. Mims is famous for putting together ingenious measurement instruments to record data on scientific questions of interest. He is best known for his atmospheric measurement tools, including the Total Ozone Portable Spectrometer, to enable better gathering of atmospheric ozone data. His whole family has gotten in on the adventure, too, with his daughter Sarah devising a kite-based apparatus to measure the distribution of fungal spores from biomass fires.
Jonathan Bartlett, “New electronics book honors citizen scientist Forrest Mims III” at Mind Matters News
Bartlett’s Electronics for Beginners: A Practical Introduction to Schematics, Circuits, and Microcontrollers, follows in Mims’ footsteps as it shows the budding electronics enthusiast the many new components now available and how to use them.
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