[time-nuts] Non electrical time-nuttery

Bob Camp lists at cq.nu
Sun Jan 10 01:24:28 UTC 2010


Hi

All you would still need is a way to regulate the light intensity. 

Bob


On Jan 9, 2010, at 7:58 PM, J. Forster wrote:

> Consider this:
> 
> A torsion pendulum with blackened vanes on the perimeter suspended from a
> fiber. Part way up the fiber is an optical shutter and a small fixed
> magnet so the shutter is stable in two positions with some hysteresis. One
> position lets light fall on the vanes, one does not.
> 
> This would make an optically pumped pendulum w/ no electronics.
> 
> -John
> 
> ==============
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> Hi
>> 
>> If you abandoned the non-elecronic side of the requirement, you could hit
>> it with a pulsed LED and probably get phase data off of a couple of photo
>> detectors.
>> 
>> Crazy stuff ...
>> 
>> Bob
>> 
>> 
>> On Jan 9, 2010, at 6:21 PM, J. Forster wrote:
>> 
>>> Maybe you could "pump" the pendulum optically, using a beam of light,
>>> like
>>> those glass bulb "radiometers" they sell that spin on a sunny window
>>> ledge.
>>> 
>>> -John
>>> 
>>> =============
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> Like a magnetically coupled escapement
>>>> Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
>>>> 
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Bob Camp <lists at cq.nu>
>>>> Date: Sat, 9 Jan 2010 12:36:11
>>>> To: Discussion of precise time and frequency
>>>> measurement<time-nuts at febo.com>
>>>> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Non electrical time-nuttery
>>>> 
>>>> Hi
>>>> 
>>>> How about a rotary pendulum on a quartz fiber spring with some kind of
>>>> trick magnets to drive it  / read it out? Put the pendulum and spring
>>>> inside an evacuated glass envelope to get around the vacuum pump issue.
>>>> The enclosure could be pretty small.
>>>> 
>>>> Drive the magnets with a second external clock, and feedback compensate
>>>> it. Let the external clock do all the readout via a very normal gear
>>>> and
>>>> pointers system. The trick would be getting the feedback loop to work
>>>> purely mechanically with enough gain to "unload" the master pendulum.
>>>> 
>>>> Bob
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On Jan 9, 2010, at 2:07 PM, Lux, Jim (337C) wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> OK.. So we're moving back in electrical technology....
>>>>> But what about mechanical?  Could modern technology get a substantial
>>>>> (>order of magnitude) improvement over 19th century chronometers
>>>>> (either
>>>>> pendulum or balance wheel or whatever).  I know there's some really
>>>>> good
>>>>> quartz fiber torsional spring schemes, but I think they still need
>>>>> electrical means to keep them moving and to read it out.
>>>>> 
>>>>> So how good can one do with a mechanical, hydraulic, (or chemical, I
>>>>> suppose) system?  Let's assume it has to have a "direct" readout that
>>>>> is
>>>>> human readable by a causal bystander.  (this starts to sound like the
>>>>> 10,000 year clock or whatever it is..)
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>>>> 
>>>> 
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>>> 
>>> 
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> 
> 
> 
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