[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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