Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Otto Julius Zobel/archive2


 * The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by SandyGeorgia 23:54, 3 October 2009.

Otto Julius Zobel

 * Nominator(s):  Sp in ni ng  Spark  15:35, 13 September 2009 (UTC)

I am nominating this for featured article because comments from this article's first FAC have all been substantially addressed. The previous FAC seemed to suffer from a lack of editors interested in the subject willing to carry out reviews. Statement the purpose of transparency: I am intending to notify a number of editors I know to be interested in this area of electronics of the existence of this FAC.  Sp in ni ng  Spark  15:35, 13 September 2009 (UTC)

Support. Comments: The above comments are from User:Materialscientist who seems to have accidently deleted his name in a subsequent edit. Yes. thanks. Materialscientist (talk) 09:39, 24 September 2009 (UTC)
 * There is a strange pattern in Zobel' references - as if he stopped publishing between ca 1931 and 1950 (much longer than the WWII). Any clue? Is it only because of a limited selection in this article?
 * Zobel apparently was a Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient at Ripon. Given the meager personal info, I would add this to the article, briefly explaining what that meant (e.g. it seems there were only few recipients each year).
 * Suggest wikilinking: "conventional LC technology", "k-type" and "constant k" (both, as not everybody would know they are same).
 * "and good stop-band rejection of the constant k." is missing a noun.
 * The image "A harmonic analyser" is somewhat disconnected from the text and the term "harmonic analyser" is not clarified.
 * Stopped publishing 1931-1950. The best of Zobel's work is undoubtedly 1920s and early 30s.  I believe that he really did publish very little from this point onwards (as opposed to we just have not unearthed it), and what there is is rather trivial compared with his earlier ground-breaking work.  I also have information that he married one Irene Staab Zobel (possibly this Irene S Zobel late in life, the couple having waited so long so that Irene was able to pursue her career without any stigma.  It may well be at the point Irene ended her career, Otto suddenly found he had other interests.  No reliable sources for any of this at the moment, so it can't go in the article.
 * Alumni Award. done
 * Wikilinking. done
 * Missing noun. I don't really agree that anything needs to be added.  Giving a fuller quote, "Zobel overcame this problem by designing hybrid filters using a mixture of constant k and m-type sections. This gave Zobel the advantages of both: the fast transition of the m-type and good stop-band rejection of the constant k." shows that the context is set by the first sentence so there can be no possible ambiguity of the implied noun in the second.  I tried various constructions to address the comment but they all seemed quite awckward to me.  No objections, though, if someone else thinks they can improve the sentence.
 * Harmonic analyser. Done.
 *  Sp in ni ng  Spark  22:40, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

Support - with comments.
 * I can't believe this didn't garner comments, he used to live near me! ;)
 * He first studied at Ripon College, where he received his BA in 1909. He then went to the University of Wisconsin and graduated with an MA in physics in 1910.  - could we cite both sentences with one cite after the 1910, please?
 * In 1926, compelled by his work for AT&T, he moved to New York. - AT&T is used one sentence before, could this be replaced with the company or... the organization?
 * In 1934, he began working with Bell Telephone Laboratories (Bell Labs).[10] - this isn't a very well-structured sentence, reading the ones before it. How about He switched (think of a better verb, I'm not creative atm) to ... in 1934?
 * I think since this is an American article, the prose might be better off with american english. This is an arbitrary comment, it won't have any effect on the FAC.
 * Around 1923, Zobel's filter designs were reaching the peak of their complexity. He now had a filter section to which he had doubly applied the m-derivation process resulting in filter sections which he called the mm'-type. This had all the advantages of the previous m-type, but more so. An even faster transition into the stop-band and an even more constant characteristic impedance in the pass-band. At the same time one side would match into the old m-type, just as the m-type could match in to the k-type. Because there were now two arbitrary parameters (m and m') that the filter designer could adjust, much better end matching half-sections could be designed. A composite filter using these sections would have been the very best that could have been achieved at that time. However, the mm'-type sections never became as widespread and well known as the m-type sections, possibly because their greater complexity has deterred designers. They would have been inconvenient to implement with microwave technology and the increased count of components, especially wound components, made them more expensive to implement with conventional LC technology. Certainly, it is hard to find a textbook from any period which covers their design.[34] - Could the references be better distributed throughout this paragraph?  ceran  thor 23:07, 14 September 2009 (UTC)
 * American English. I agree this article should be in American English but have not done it myself because I would probably get it wrong.  Are you willing to do this task?  If not, I can try and find another editor.  I will deal with the rest of your comments later in the week, no more time right now.   Sp in ni  ng  Spark  22:47, 16 September 2009 (UTC)
 * He first studied at Ripon College.... Not sure what the issue is here, that whole block of text was put in with this edit and all appears to be referenced to ref 7.  Are you suggesting that ref 7 should be in the same paragraph twice, or that ref 7 may not cover all the claimed facts? (I am not able to read it online).  Sp in ni  ng  Spark  19:26, 17 September 2009 (UTC)
 * In 1926, compelled by his work for AT&T... and In 1934, he began working with Bell Telephone... both done.
 * Could the references be better distributed throughout this paragraph? I don't understand this request.  The paragraph referred to has only one reference.  Sp in ni  ng  Spark  19:53, 17 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Nevermind. Good luck with this article.  ceran  thor 21:19, 18 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Image check: Both images seem fine. Stifle (talk) 15:08, 17 September 2009 (UTC)

Comment: Pursuant to a request from Spark, I've gone through a modified the article to American English. Truth be told, I didn't find large numbers of things needed correction — mostly an occasional "analyse" that became "analyze". I feel that that prose could use some more work in places, but I don't have time just now to do a more thorough review, or offer in-depth copyediting services. Kudos on the comprehensive research! Scartol •  Tok  14:53, 22 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Support The article appears to meet all the FA criteria, though I couldn't say whether or not it is comprehensive (criterion 1b). I very much enjoyed reading it. --catslash (talk) 22:30, 22 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Support no glaring concerns on a single read through  Jimfbleak -  talk to me?  15:43, 1 October 2009 (UTC)

Sources checked at the first FAC. Dabomb87 (talk) 17:51, 3 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.