From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
The applications of Neon lamps for observing high-speed machinery and the recovery of Neon gas.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 79\1\ scan0263 | |
| Date | 19th February 1920 | |
| - 7 - of the total duration of the flash. In neither case was the fuzziness of the image of a measurable order. After careful observation under good conditions the conclusion of three observers was, that it was probably less than one-tenth of a division and certainly less than one-fifth. This gives the maximum duration of the working flash as perfectly instantaneous for the purpose employed. OTHER TECHNICAL APPLICATIONS. Of the many uses besides measuring velocity of rotation to which Neon lamps may be put with advantage in engineering and other problems it is sufficient to mention two in which they have been very successful. Any rapidly rotating mechanism such as an airscrew, if illuminated by a lamp the break of which is operated mechanically at each revolution, will appear AT REST, flicker being small at speeds well over 1000 r.p.m., so that strains or movement of parts can be examined with great accuracy under actual working conditions. A still more striking effect can be obtained by illuminating a high speed internal combustion engine by a lamp whose break is operated mechanically at e.g. 99 breaks per 100 revolutions of the engine shaft by the use of a creeping gear. The engine then appears to be rotating quite smoothly at one-hundredth its normal speed so that such instructive details as the movements of the valves and springs, the bouncing of the former on their seats, etc., can be studied with ease. It is of course necessary for the speed of rotation to be fairly rapid to give appearance of continuity to the eye and in consequence one cannot apply this method to the analysis of such a thing as the movement of a chronometer escapement. As the technical importance of Neon lamps is rapidly on the increase it is very desirable that liquid air engineers in this country should consider the erection of a fractionating plant for recovering the gas from the air (which contains .00123 per cent by volume ) such as has been used with such success by Mons. Georges Claude of Paris, to whom the author is indebted for the Neon with which these experiments were performed. | ||