Hi If you abandoned the non-elecronic side of the requirement, you could hit it with a pulsed LED and probably get phase data off of a couple of photo detectors.
Crazy stuff ... Bob On Jan 9, 2010, at 6:21 PM, J. Forster wrote: > Maybe you could "pump" the pendulum optically, using a beam of light, like > those glass bulb "radiometers" they sell that spin on a sunny window > ledge. > > -John > > ============= > > > >> Like a magnetically coupled escapement >> Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Bob Camp <[email protected]> >> Date: Sat, 9 Jan 2010 12:36:11 >> To: Discussion of precise time and frequency >> measurement<[email protected]> >> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Non electrical time-nuttery >> >> Hi >> >> How about a rotary pendulum on a quartz fiber spring with some kind of >> trick magnets to drive it / read it out? Put the pendulum and spring >> inside an evacuated glass envelope to get around the vacuum pump issue. >> The enclosure could be pretty small. >> >> Drive the magnets with a second external clock, and feedback compensate >> it. Let the external clock do all the readout via a very normal gear and >> pointers system. The trick would be getting the feedback loop to work >> purely mechanically with enough gain to "unload" the master pendulum. >> >> Bob >> >> >> On Jan 9, 2010, at 2:07 PM, Lux, Jim (337C) wrote: >> >>> OK.. So we're moving back in electrical technology.... >>> But what about mechanical? Could modern technology get a substantial >>> (>order of magnitude) improvement over 19th century chronometers (either >>> pendulum or balance wheel or whatever). I know there's some really good >>> quartz fiber torsional spring schemes, but I think they still need >>> electrical means to keep them moving and to read it out. >>> >>> So how good can one do with a mechanical, hydraulic, (or chemical, I >>> suppose) system? Let's assume it has to have a "direct" readout that is >>> human readable by a causal bystander. (this starts to sound like the >>> 10,000 year clock or whatever it is..) >>> _______________________________________________ >>> time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] >>> To unsubscribe, go to >>> https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts >>> and follow the instructions there. >>> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] >> To unsubscribe, go to >> https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts >> and follow the instructions there. >> >> _______________________________________________ >> time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] >> To unsubscribe, go to >> https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts >> and follow the instructions there. >> >> > > > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. > _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
