Re: Sallen and Key's classic 1955 paper

On Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:19:17 -0500, Michael Black <et472@xxxxxx>
wrote:

On Mon, 23 Nov 2009, Jon Kirwan wrote:

On Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:35:59 -0800 (PST), Wayne
<wayne.little@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I am looking for the seminal paper by Sallen and Key entitled, "A
Practical Method of Designing RC Active Filters." I am currently
compiling a list of resources for an application report I am writing
for filter topologies and many resources that I found (application
notes, journals, books) all reference this document as a source for
the Sallen-Key topology. The problem is I cannot find this paper
*anywhere*. I even looked thru the IEEE Xplore Digital Library.
Wouldn't you know it, volume 2 issue 1 from 1955 is not in the
database:

Sallen, R. P.; E. L. Key (1955-03). "A Practical Method of Designing
RC Active Filters". IRE Transactions on Circuit Theory 2 (1): 74?85.

This has gone beyond the need for my report as I can use other
sources, but this has turned into a quest to actually find the paper
for the sake of simply having a piece of history that apparently is
lost at the moment. I am a stickler for old (50+ years) engineering
books and articles.

Any greybeards out there that may have a dusty old cabinet in a dimly
lit room that has not been searched in a while?

It bothers me to find that paper cited often. If it is hard to find
(as in, 'not readily available'), then I suspect that many are citing
it without having actually read it. Almost dishonest.

Jon

Yes and no. Yes, because they are basing what they are writing on second
hand sources.

I'll make the accusation clearer. I suspect they aren't even reading
secondary interpretations by those who have actually read the original
paper. I think they simply have heard (or read) that it is a seminal
paper on the broader subject at hand and decide to simply include it,
without having any idea whatsoever if it applies to anything they
said, or not. Frankly, I consider that to be dishonest. If you don't
have specific knowledge that a paper is germane to the content of what
you are writing... and I mean __specific__ knowledge... then it
shouldn't be cited.

The biblio becomes "whimsical dumpware," otherwise.

But no, because too often the origins get lost, so nobody bothers to look
for them.

If I accepted your argument (and I'm not saying I think you believe
it, just that you are offering it as a possible explanation), then I
would have to accept a very bad behavior. Dumping references at the
end of a paper without having _any_ specific knowledge about them and
how they may apply to the topic at hand leaves the reader unsure if
any of it is worth a darn. It's the author who is claiming some
expertise and it is the author who should know better (or not) if some
paper applies to what they are writing about. If they can't even be
troubled to find out, themselves, my gosh....

Well, I don't accept the behavior or the argument.

One classic case is the superregenerative receiver. Patented in 1922, the
more it faded from view the less description it got, until there was a
schematic and very vague description, so most people would only treat it
like a mysterious black box. Then about a decade ago, Charles Kitchin
went back and looked at the patent and original articles, wrote about the
originals rather than the descendants far removed, and then with full
understanding did work to improve the concept.

You can't do that if there are no pointers to the original material.

I didn't say that authors shouldn't cite germane material, for gosh
sake! If it is appropriate material to cite, cite it. But the author
should at least know the difference.

I'm going to assume that the paper you are referring to was an
important one and was actually read, at the time. Others will,
knowing it's value and appropriateness, cite it in their work. Which
is as it _should be_. And if it is cited, there is a trail to follow.

If a paper isn't cited, perhaps it should disappear from view.

In any case, allowing authors to cite without a clue is like playing
the game of 'telephone' they used to do in grade school to show just
how different a message can get when it is passed in secret from
person to person around a classroom. The first person knows exactly
what the message is. But by the time the message gets to the other
end, listened to by ignorant people without a clue and interpreted as
best they can and then passed on, it has no similarity at all anymore
to the original.

The solution is obvious. Require those passing along the message to
do their own "self correction" by reading the paper, itself. Failing
that much, they should have specific knowledge of sections of it they
have picked up where the text is fully cited in part. Failing that
much, they should use only papers such as the one you point out from
Charles Kitchin where the context is part of the document's purpose
and its provenance is a matter of explicit record.

Anything less and the whole process devolves back into a child's game.

In the case of active filters, others have problem better synthesized the
material, yet it's still important to point back to that first source.

You made the case that it was important to actually go back and read
the material. Which is my point. Those who failed to do that, failed
their readers. The citations eventually become hubris piled upon
debris and the interlocking nature of science knowledge becomes a mere
sham.

As a reader of these materials, it is offensive to me that an author
would cite a paper without knowing whether or not anything contained
in it meaningfully applied to the topic at hand. It wastes my time
and that is an inexcusable mark of disrespect for readers.

Jon
.

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