Thanks Horace. Draft # 3 is beginning to flesh out some physics.
Don't know why but every time I read your's and Jones post on the subject I keep thinking back some 50 years to when I observed a rather crude cone shaped ceramic air bearing model composed of a cone and a cup. WE would spin the cone by hand and it would turn for a week because of such low friction. Air was both the cushion and the " lubricant".
Since those past years I have used a variety of ceramic, carbon , silicon carbide, hastelloy, titanium, stainless steel,copper, etc. parts for bearing and mechanical seals. This picture I keep getting in my head looks like a series of super thin cones within cones, made of different composites and rotated at extremely high speeds. Obviously, the "gap" between the cones are little more than a few molecules. Ceramic and composite sciences including metals have come a long way since 1957.
I don't know what part of my brain this picture came from or if any part makes any sense to you or Jones.. but this picture keeps popping up FWIW. Maybe from looking in a pilsener glass at the Dime Box.
Richard
