There ’s a truly monstrous tv camera at the “ Churchill ’s Scientists”exhibitionat London ’s Science Museum right now . The C4 circumvolve Mirror High Speed Camera was develop at the remainder of World War II to canvas explosive reaction .
Later , in the 50s , the camera was upgraded the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment ( AWRE ) to study the British nuclear dud burst .
To avoid trembling – and thus shaky images – the C4 AWRE camera is bolt to massive rectangular steel frame . The camera uses a mirror go around at a very high and constant velocity driven by a small helium turbine , or an galvanizing motor . The objective lens mold an image if the object is on the face of the mirror . As the mirror rotates , it reverberate successive images of the physical object through a couple of secondary lenses around the edge of the mirror onto a retentive photographic film landing strip bind to the inner bulwark of a cylindric metallic element drum :
prototype source : Dynamic Behavior of Materials by Marc A. Meyers . John Wiley & Sons , Inc. , 1994 .
Thanks to this method , set up speeds of 200,000 human body / sec up to 10 million frame / sec can be obtained , although only for a very short period of clock time – less than a millisecond . At these high frame rates the recorded consequence must be illuminated by an intense source of light , or must be extremely aglow itself . Just like an atomic flash during the first millisecond of a nuclear dud test :
Hurricane , the first British nuclear test , a 25 kilotons twist explode in a lagoon on Trimouille Island on Oct 3 , 1952 . Image source : Sonicbomb
United Kingdom ’s Buffalo series trial No.3 . “ Kite ” , a 3 kiloton airdrop atomic bomb , at the Maralinga site in South Australia , Oct 11 , 1956 . Image source : Sonicbomb
The Atomic Weapons Research Establishment was useable until 1972 . Its primary task was to simulate the condition of examination and using nuclear weapon system of the United Kingdom . However the science behind the C4 high focal ratio television camera survive on after the end of Cold War , the gimmick was used in several scientific discipline task where gamy speed photography were required to break down analyze phenomena happening at fractions of second .
Photo : Science Museum
recruit ad inNew Scientist , 26 Apr 1962
Top slam : Eleanor Blanchette , Communications Assistant , photograph with a C4 Rotating Mirror High Speed Camera at the press preview of “ Churchill ’s Scientists ” the UK ’s first expo on Churchill and science to mark 50th anniversary of his death ( Science Museum )
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