Talk:Wallace L. Minto

Latest comment: 4 years ago by NealeFamily in topic doubts

doubts

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I doubt the veracity of this entry. There was a person named Wallace Minto, who did apply for a patent.

However:

  1. There is only one original source for this material, a regional Florida newspaper;
  2. This entry almost quotes it verbatim;
  3. It is highly unlikely anyone had 50 tons of uranium ore at home, either before or after 1940;
  4. The source article does not mention 50, but 75 tons of ore, describing it as "almost the entire US supply at the time";
  5. It is highly unlikely he would have "split the atom" as a teenager in the 1930s;
  6. It is undocumented that the Manhattan Project had a "Special Projects Division" reporting directly to Groves;
  7. The invention of the Organic Rankine Cycle engine is not elsewhere attributed to Minto;
  8. The decisions and events leading to the Einstein-Szilard letter is documented elsewhere and makes no mention of Minto;

For at least these reasons, I suggest this article and its sources are largely fanciful, and should either be deleted, or very severely redacted. Denis (talk) 14:38, 17 March 2020 (UTC)Reply

The newspaper article was part of evidence to a Senate Committee in 1968. I agree more research needs to be done on Minto and the article is rather sub-standard. A quick look at the internet indicates a number of sources for information about Minto that could be useful NealeFamily (talk) 00:57, 18 March 2020 (UTC)Reply

"invented the minto wheel"

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I think the sentence should be rephrased. A similar design was patented 1881: https://www.google.com/patents/US243909 and an other engine operating on the same principal the same year: https://www.google.com/patents/US250821

-- MichaelFrey (talk) 08:17, 14 October 2016 (UTC)Reply