Abstract
IN connexion with recent development work, the Bell Laboratories have designed a centrifuge for the purpose of subjecting objects to high accelerations under conditions permitting the effects of the acceleration to be studied. The machine is described and illustrated by R. M. Pease in an article in the Bell Laboratories Record (22, No. 16; Dec. 1944). Machines of this general type have been built before; but there was none available that would develop high enough accelerations. For the required tests, an acceleration 1,000 times the earth's gravitational acceleration was needed. To secure this acceleration, two parallel steel rods are clamped at their midpoint and rotated by an adjustable speed D.C. motor. Fastened between the rods at their outer ends is a heavy steel plate to which is secured a mounting for the object under test. With the test object in place, the machine may be driven at the speed necessary to give the desired acceleration. After stopping the machine, the effect on the apparatus under test may be determined. Provisions are also made for observing the effect of the accelerations on the object as the speed of the machine is increased. A neon lamp is mounted to shine directly on the object when the arm is horizontal. At each rotation, this lamp lights for a few millionths of a second from an impulse generated in a winding on a permanent magnet when a small iron bar attached to the rotating arm passes the pole pieces. For the rest of the time, the arm is in comparative darkness. This stroboscopic arrangement makes the arm appear to stand still in the horizontal position and any distortion of the test object can be observed while the acceleration is being increased.
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A 1,000-g Centrifuge. Nature 155, 478 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/155478b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/155478b0