Technology till this point
Interview with Huub van der Ven
Huub van der Ven is retired a scientific researcher in the field of nuclear fusion.
For Huub technology was always central in his work. Huub and his son ,Ralf, talk about the impact technology made on Huub's life. Their conversation starts all the way back from 1928 and follows Huub's lifetime. From the start of radio and telephone to cars and computers. His work in Nucleair Fusionreserach all in the backdrop of where the F.O.M. used to be.
Interview with Huub van der Ven
The times of the beginning
Huub, at his age, has the advantage of experience, providing insights into what technology has changed during his lifetime. To begin; Huub was born in 1928 in a long tradition of family barbers. The first big change for Huub was that he would go to get an education after the war. This is a far out stretch of what technology enabled.
Beforehand it was always necessary to follow ones father in his footsteps as to keep the family business running with lower mobility career wise. Technology enabled families around this age to move around as investment systems were set up and automatization restructured work from manual labour to more research oriented.
Word War 2
A more direct change Huub noticed was the telephone. Since the War the telephone made his way into the living of the normal citizens. Before Huub remembers that al personal communication must be done by letter, taking up quite some time. Large scale communication was only possible by newspapers and radio. Because of this these media played an immense role in the people their life’s back then.
As example, during the world war it was illegal to listen to ‘Radio Orange’, the Dutch pirate radio network or the BBC. Private radios were taken by the Germans and only central radio listening to German, or taken over Dutch stations, was allowed. To still obtain the voices of the allied forces Huub risk a whole lot and build his own crystal radio.
Television
After the telephone, the TV slowly enrolled throughout the Netherlands. This was a great deal to everybody in that time; ordinary people were even willing to help in rolling out the network. As the scale of the operation , for that time, was massive, testing was expensive. The public was asked to help to cut cost. They were able to purchase a receiver. The network strength was then measured on this receiver and this would be mailed back to get an idea of the range. Huub, an enormous science enthusiast, bought this receiver, helped and still has his device!
Scientific Carreer
To elaborate on Huub his enthusiasm for science, Huub his whole professional career was in science. Starting after the important education at TNO. Here he found his place doing research in nuclear fusion, the nuclear reaction powering the sun. The problems that needed to be solved involved getting more energy out of the reaction, than was to put in. Huub build equipment measuring all sorts of radiation placed at the reactors and helping further research.
During his working years, the atomic bombs and other radiation were a hot topic. For this reason as well his former office, Rhijnhuizen, was used. Nuclear technology was perceived as dangerous. Castle Rhijnhuizen was out of site, and as the old saying goes: out of sight out of mind. Together with its think was a problem was averted.
Because of a steady paying job an ambition to be free, Huub bought a car at only 29 years old. Transportation and especially personal transportation was very expensive. With this car Huub was able to go and visit people and even other countries as not many were that time. [took his parents with him, they never expected that they would ever be able to go to a foreign countries]
His career continued and he was offered a position at MIT, USA. A very far away country at the time. To keep contact, one could of course call. This the technology still had a drawback: it was expensive. The international lines were even so expensive that one has to get creative. To still get the Huub’s and his family voices heard they would send cassette desk over Great Salt Lake.
Huub was a scientist his whole life. Scientist theorize and calculate. During his entire career Huub performed all the calculations he mad on a handheld calculator. The computer was only available to him as he retired at 61.
Future
Looking into the future, he foresees that the nuclear fusion will only take 50 years of development. The same duration which was set tom him when he started working. On the other new resource providing energy he is too uncertain about to do a prediction. A whole lot a promising and the paths the will take are too uncertain to him at this point.