Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2013/12/12

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Subject: [Leica] IMG: From Long Ago
From: jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj)
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2013 09:22:02 +0530
References: <14950582.1386889602288.JavaMail.root@elwamui-polski.atl.sa.earthlink.net>

It sure does!
Cheers
Jayanand

On Fri, Dec 13, 2013 at 4:36 AM, al crouch <al.crouch at earthlink.net> 
wrote:
> Looks like the world's largest music box drum.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>>From: Jim Nichols <jhnichols at lighttube.net>
>>Sent: Dec 12, 2013 4:19 PM
>>To: "LUG at Leica-Users.org" <lug at leica-users.org>
>>Cc: Olympus Camera Discussion <olympus at thomasclausen.net>
>>Subject: [Leica] IMG:  From Long Ago
>>
>>As a young engineer, my first assignment was to calculate the nozzle
>>plate shapes for a flexible plate nozzle for the AEDC 16-Ft Transonic
>>Wind Tunnel, then under construction.  The shapes had to vary from a
>>simple contraction to a Mach 1.6 contour, and the process had to be done
>>by 16 pairs of jacks, without over stressing the steel plates.  And,
>>other than the basic supersonic shapes calculated by folks at Cal-Tech,
>>it was all done on Friden and Marchant desk calculators.
>>
>>To move the jacks from contour to contour, a series of steps were chosen
>>that stayed within stress limits, as determined from curvature
>>calculations. These steps were then stored in L-shaped pegs on a
>>mechanical memory drum, with the shapes transferred to cam-driven
>>readers and fed to vacuum-tube amplifiers which supplied the driving
>>signals to the ball-bearing screw jacks.
>>
>>Bear in mind that this was all done in the early 1950s.
>>
>>This photo, taken from my technical report, shows the mechanical memory
>>drum and the console which contained the drum drive system, the transfer
>>plate, and the individual jack amplifiers.  The console and system were
>>designed to our specs and provided by an engineering company whose name
>>does not come to mind after 60 years.
>>
>>http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/Mechanical+Memory+Drum.jpg.html
>>
>>Memory has come a long way since then. :-)
>>
>>--
>>Jim Nichols
>>Tullahoma, TN USA
>>
>>
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Leica Users Group.
>>See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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Replies: Reply from jhnichols at lighttube.net (Jim Nichols) ([Leica] IMG: From Long Ago)
In reply to: Message from al.crouch at earthlink.net (al crouch) ([Leica] IMG: From Long Ago)