Laser method for finding axis of rotation

Illumination of rotating surface with laser beam and examination of interference patterns resulting from diffused reflections determines position of axis and direction of motion. Interference patterns are viewed through a lens or recorded on film as circular streaking patterns

Measurement of temperature and density fluctuations in turbulence using an ultraviolet laser

Noninvasive measurement of density and temperature fluctuations in turbulent air flow was examined. The approach used fluorescence of oxygen molecules which are selectively excited by a tunable vacuum ultraviolet laser beam. The strength of the fluorescence signal and its dependence on laser wavelength vary with the density and temperature of the air in the laser beam. Because fluorescence can be detected at 90 degrees from the beam propagation direction, spatial resolution in three dimensions, rather than path-integrated measurements can be achieved. With spatial resolutions of the order of a millimeter and at supersonic air velocities it is necessary to perform each measurement in a time of the order of a microsecond; this is possible by by using laser pulses of ten nanosecond duration. In this method atmospheric O2 is excited by the emission of a tunable ArF excimer laser, and the fluorescence, which spans the 210 to 420 range, is detected by an ultraviolet phototube

Study of vibration measurement by laser methods

Laser techniques for detecting and measuring vibrations of spacecraft model on shake tabl

'A feminine touch’: gender, design and the ocean liner

This article offers an interdisciplinary account of gender in relation to ocean liner interior design. It outlines a case study of what the discipline of design history can bring to gender and maritime history. A historiography of the subject is followed by an analysis of the ways in which the spaces on board British ocean liners were conceived of, designed and used in terms of gender. Some spaces on board were designated as female only and other spaces understood to be male only – particularly the smoking room. The concluding part of the article considers the role of women designers within the patriarchal world of ship design and construction, by investigating the contributions of Elsie Mackay at P & O and the Zinkeisen sisters on the Queen Mary. Using primary sources, including visual evidence, the article considers a range of liners, from the Hindostan (1842) through to the Orontes (1929; refitted 1948). This bridges the gap between design history, gender and maritime history and adds to debates around gender and maritime history with a consideration of the overlooked area of design and its histories

ICA exhibitions 1948-1961: from a Picasso picture to a headscarf: paintings into textiles

In my paper I would like to explore some key exhibitions, a fuller account of these 100 shows is included in my recent book ICA 1946 to 1968, published by the ICA with generous support from the book Paul Mellon Centre. My work is always underpinned by Reyner Banham’s maxim it’s not either/or but both/and, that is I use an all embracing approach to subject matter which includes not only fine art, but also design and popular culture. The two themes which I have drawn out to explore with you are the temporal turn and vibrant matter. Thinking of the work of Christine Ross in the past is the present: it’s the future to: the temporal turn in contemporary art, (Bloomsbury 2012). Art is no longer representative of the endless moment, it now deals with different experiences of time-entropy, ephemerality, repetition, real time, randomness the time of the other and women’s time. And the postwar period has become bracketed with the contemporary, many books on contemporary art history begin with the independent group and the ICA

Love triangles: the hidden mechanisms of the independent group

It has been widely acknowledged that this inclusive, anti-hierarchical methodology sprang from the Independent Group’s shared enthusiasm for American popular culture, European modernism and thirst for success. What has received less attention to date, are the complex network of relationships which lay behind the Independent Group’s modus operandus. Conventionally monogamous relationships were certainly important to the group and the functioning of its social networks, but the approach of both/and rather than either/or also applied to some of their most important relationships. A prime example is that of the Hungarian painter, Magda Cordell, her musical producer husband, Frank Cordell and pop theorist and artist, John McHale. They lived harmoniously together in Cleveland Square, each with their own studio, coming together for meals and throwing memorable parties. This menage a trois endured throughout the 1950s, and only came to an amicable end when Magda and John left to work with Buckminster Fuller in America

Cataloguing the ICA’s history: an ephemeral past

This paper argues for the importance of the exhibition catalogue in the history of art, and for institutional histories in particular. The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) has been overlooked in the history of modern art, with the exception of the Independent Group, which is usually slotted into the neat trajectory of the patrilineage of Pop Art. Zooming out from the Independent Group, this paper offers a reading of the catalogues produced by the ICA from 1948-68 as experimental objects in their own right. Often classified as ‘Ephemera’, the content of these rare publications reveal the subtle changes in the avant garde, and suggests that the institution can be categorised as author. Taking key examples, starting with 40 Years of Modern Art and including Richard Hamilton’s design for the 1950, James Joyce: His Life and Work exhibition, plus the highly innovative, fold out catalogue for an exhibit of 1957, the paper will offer a reading of the history of the ICA through its catalogues. Mounting 12 exhibitions per year from 1948-1968, this is rich source material, and often the only remaining trace of an ICA exhibition in the archive. The paper concludes with the typographic adventure of the Between Poetry and Painting (1965) exhibition catalogue, and the highly innovative, Cybernetic Serendipity (1968). These catalogues capture the ICA’s changing sense of itself, and of avant garde practice

The Physical Properties of the Red Supergiant WOH G64: The Largest Star Known?

WOH G64 is an unusual red supergiant (RSG) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), with a number of properties that set it apart from the rest of the LMC RSG population, including a thick circumstellar dust torus, an unusually late spectral type, maser activity, and nebular emission lines. Its reported physical properties are also extreme, including the largest radius for any star known and an effective temperature that is much cooler than other RSGs in the LMC, both of which are at variance with stellar evolutionary theory. We fit moderate-resolution optical spectrophotometry of WOH G64 with the MARCS stellar atmosphere models, determining an effective temperature of 3400 +/- 25 K. We obtain a similar result from the star's broadband V - K colors. With this effective temperature, and taking into account the flux contribution from the aysmmetric circumstellar dust envelope, we calculate log(L/L_sun) = 5.45 +/- 0.05 for WOH G64, quite similar to the luminosity reported by Ohnaka and collaborators based on their radiative transfer modeling of the star's dust torus. We determine a radius of R/R_sun = 1540, bringing the size of WOH G64 and its position on the H-R diagram into agreement with the largest known Galactic RSGs, although it is still extreme for the LMC. In addition, we use the Ca II triplet absorption feature to determine a radial velocity of 294 +/- 2 km/s for the star; this is the same radial velocity as the rotating gas in the LMC's disk, which confirms its membership in the LMC and precludes it from being an unusual Galactic halo giant. Finally, we describe the star's unusual nebula emission spectrum; the gas is nitrogen-rich and shock-heated, and displays a radial velocity that is significantly more positive than the star itself by 50 km/s.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures; accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journa