Electrons photograph spark flashes going 5,000 miles an hour
- Book ID
- 103077697
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 1945
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 136 KB
- Volume
- 239
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0016-0032
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✦ Synopsis
Electrons Photograph Spark Flashes Going 5,000 Miles an Hour.--A
stream of electrons, driven in a pencil-thin beam, are photographing electrical sparks that flash in front of them at more than 5,ooo miles an hohr, it was reported recently.
Stopping the speeding spark flashes at one-tenth of a millionth of a second, the electronic beam is recording airplane engine ignition actions to help solve the problems encountered in producing faster and more powerful warplane motors, according to E. W. Beck, lightning arrester engineer for tile Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company.
The electronic device which guides the electrons in their new task is the streamlined Westinghouse cathode ray oscillograph--once exclusively a laboratory tool--but now built on an assembly line basis for use on the production lines of the nation's war plants. Among war plants now using it are the Scintilla Division of Bendix, and the Bosch Company.
The new electronic oscillograph is giving aircraft engine men more data about the ignition systems of high powered airplane engines than has ever existed before. The unit daily answers tough problems--solving them as would no other known device and with a rapidity and accuracy that has astounded veteran motor engineers. In fact, the electronic oscillograph has opened new fields in research.
,, Mr. Beck gave this description of its operation: Functionally, it takes pictures on the household variety of camera film and makes its impressions in much the same manner as an x-ray.
The beam of electrons is created by a high voltage rectifier. These electrons are guided into their narrow path by magnetic fields and by a series of plates which channel them downward. To prevent the beam from registering on the film before the ignition study is made, the device incorporates a beam trap that deflects the electrons out of the photographic channel.
The electrical impulses which are to be studied are shot across the path of the electronic beam just above the film rack. The impulses force the electronic beam 0ut of its straight path and cause it to "write" on the strip of photographic film a record of the voltage. Simultaneously, the electron pencil records the time involved to give engineers a graphic record of electrical events that occur in periods as short as one hundred-millionth of a second.
The fastest speeds, Mr. Beck explained, are photographed on a stationary film strip, but slower speeds of less than eight millionths of a second are recorded on a revolving drum that turns 7,000 times a minute.
"The rotating film drum is necessary' for certain uses," he added, "because fixed film will not register 'long' times like a fiftieth of a second. Recordings on the drum reveal the most minute electrical phenomena."
• He added : "Our research engineers collaborated with warplane engine manufacturers in testing ignition systems with the oscillograph and the results pointed the