Friends, after investigating my local archives, I have found the following additional historical data on the recently-eminent Dr. Furst. As background information, this helps us to understand the methodology she applied to the development of the Universal Sundial recently described here.
From: French Academy of Sciences Dept. de Sous-Marine Marseille Pour tous le monde: Even though the Furst Sundial has been rightly credited as being Dr.Furst's most ambitious invention, there is not much known, outside of France, of her extraordinary work while at the Universite de Toulouse. As is well known, the French fleet had been scuttled during WWII and it has not been until some years after the close of the war that aqua-lung equipped (French Invention) divers began to descend into the seemingly endless depths of the Mediterranean to assess the ships' conditions for possible salvage. As is also well known, at great depths, divers suffer what is known as the "rapture of the deep" where they become disoriented and cannot tell whether they are ascending or descending. Everyone, including the great Capt. Cousteau, were at their wit's end in trying to find a remedy. Dr.Furst was called in as a consultant. Assessing the problem in terms of the basic physical conditions surrounding the diver, and taking into account the aqueous environment, as well as the laws of gravitational forces, Dr.Furst did an in-depth theoretical study and performed many experiments to verify her analytical results. At last, she was ready to reveal her solution to the waiting world, and set a new standard of clear thinking in applied physics. She unveiled her automatic sub-aqueous direction finder and demonstrated its unerring accuracy and utter reliability. What was amazing, and very ingenious, is the fact that there are only two moving parts and the device does not require a power supply of any sort! Even withouy any calibration, the device achieves 100% of theoretical accuracy. It was indeed a rare achievment, which won her the Legion of Honor and a weekend on the Cote d'Azur. Dr.Furst's Sub-Aqueous Direction Finder, Mark I: A small metallic mass is connected to the diver by a very compliant organic member of extremely high length-to-width ratio, appropriately called the "sensor element". The metallic mass, by design, has a specific gravity considerably greater than unity, and is thus non-buoyant, and is simultaneously attracted to the Earth's center of mass according to the laws of gravitation. This being the case, the tethering sensor element is put under tension and the force, and its direction (this is very important), is immediately perceived by the diver who has been trained that the water's surface is precisely in the opposite direction to that of the perceived pull of the sensor element. Thus, the trained diver propels himself unerringly toward the surface, and cheats the 'rapture of the deep'. Many apprentice divers, unfortunately, have been confused by the instructions pertaining to the use of this device and, instead of swimming in a direction opposite to that of the aforementioned pull of the sensor element, swim in the opposite direction. To them, it was a double-negative, so to speak. For these less endowed aquanauts, it then became necessary to drastically alter the basic design of the device. Dr.Furst met this challenge, after an incontradictable and faultless analysis, by finding a suitable material for the mass with a density of considerably less than unity. The new device became the famous Mark II sub-aquious direction finder. Extensive tests were now designed and conducted to determine the relative effectiveness of the Mark I and the Mark II versions. After each of 100 divers was equipped with both the Mark I and the Mark II models, trial dives at depth were conducted. These revealed that precisely 50% of the divers were able to surface with no difficulty. The Board thus concluded that both versions of the direction finder were equally effective and that both should be distributed widely to the sub-aqueous arm of the French Navy. It was only after this recognition by a grateful nation that Dr. Furst directed her attentions to the Universal Sundial problem. With all respect, Dr. Gregarious Vittkovsky, Visiting Professor. Above archive was located with the assistance of my insightful and honorable good friend, George Vitt, Jr. -- Best wishes, Larry McDavid W6FUB Anaheim, CA (20 miles southeast of Los Angeles, near Disneyland)
