This site has nothing whatever to do with "Perpetual Motion" machines! You can read about them via my links page: click here for progress report on sonoluminescence experiment...

Sunday 2nd June 2002:

Friday 10th May 2002. Revelation! No feedback system is required for the initial tests! Last night I realised this and a major headache evaporated. After boiling (in the electric kettle) the frame with mounted string can merely be placed over a loudspeaker and bombarded with sinewave from my sequencer. The string can then be tuned to the frequency being pumped ~ ( and this, I would have to say, is a lot more practical than trying to tune a spherical flask of water!). The sinewave can be easily tweaked at source as can the string tension. This should be sraightforward. First test this weekend...

Saturday 11th May 2002. ~ a new frame has been built, together with new collets to stretch the new 24,00 fibre string (thinner and longer). Big Jim the sousaphone player (and engineer) is slowly coming to realise that the collet design in the specification is as efficient as it can be. He has scratched his head on this one. We have followed by cold logic every nook and cranny of the demands for what is required & surprise, surprise; there is no simpler design than the one I've worked on and with since 1983, myself having actually thought the thing through thoroughly.

What is required is for the string winding to be gripped over a length of between 6mm >10mm with progressive flaring. Nothing else can be designed that will do the job properly. This will mean some miniature sculpture with a needle file but that is what I spent 30 years doing for a living.

~ & briefly back to the tiles ~

the 2nd mould.

Sunday 12th May 2002; ~ a new master wax pattern is emerging from a swamp of rubber, tin-tacks and concrete. The second rubber impression (female) tile mould has rendered more than one set of eight tiles which are now laid out in a garden; the only way to see how it will actually look ~ and they looked a bit flat...

~ and there have been breakages, mistakes made, and a steep learning curve accepted as normal and to be expected. The rubber has progressively picked up clutter in its detailed folds and the 3d embossed pattern has become corrupt; no release agent was used. Utilising gravity, the second rubber female was filled with hot wax and allowed to sag by the weight of the molten wax. Laid out on a cushioning bed of sand, a new positive master was generated with a bond of hot tin-tacks (to key) followed by a pour of strong concrete:

This could be worth trying a second time. The intention was to attempt to increase the camber and that worked but it might be better to repeat this with a little more control in place ~we'll get there but in the meantime...

Wednesday 15th May 2002; ~ reproducing the above in the negative began in the new workshop yesterday.

	After some cleaning up, the second wax master will be used to generate plaster "caps" which may or may not be 'disposable'. By systemising the process right from the outset it is hoped to avoid mess and chaos(!)
	The new set are to be based on a square of 100mm instead of 8". These will be a more accurate set; things are more under control...
	Over the top of the wax goes the plaster and the excess is skimmed off with a straight edge. The resulting plaster "cap" is to be recarved in the female form in order to produce a more sophisticated flow in the design.

Saturday 18th May 2002; The newly carved plaster profile caps were coated in candle wax and blowlamped to soak in so that a male plaster version could be cast, hopefully not sticking to the female.

 

Sunday 19th May 2002; cute. huh? (only a fake but won't they look cool?) This set of molds destroyed by accident of ignorance (and a degree of alcohol)

Soooo.... back to the string: ~

Where have we been so far?:~

we are talking here about a special kind of music string which has a multifilament carbon fiber core with a wire winding; 20th April 2002: practical experiments began in an attempt to produce sonoluminescence within such a music string. Can't be done?

It was considered by the author that the ideal experimental environment for controlled feedback would be inside a music string.

There are problems associated with high frequency vibration and carbon fibers but the device described in these pages will run on low string tension and at a fundamental frequency well within the range of human hearing. All the multiple harmonic high-end stuff occurs within "water-strings" suspended inside the hard string, captured within internal capillaries when the string is immersed in boiling water and allowed to cool.

So to begin practical experimentation, a frame was needed to stretch the first sample of string. It had to be capable of surviving being boiled in water.

Thursday 30th May 2002. Revelation? No feedback required? Stuff and nonsense... Today's experiment will involve the equipment shown at left plus the addition of a video (webcam) mounted at the cut string end. The camera view will be blurred 'cos there's no focus control on the camera and the lens will be right up against the collets. It will appear thus:

30th May 2002 (continued): On the bench will be the arrangement shown at left. The string, stretched in its adjustable frame will be boiled in an electric kettle and then allowed to cool while immersed. If you've been following the plot you'll know that this should result in water being forced to occupy the capillaries between the fibres. Feedback has been already achieved in this system. If any SL activity occurs it will be captured on camera and might appear something like as shown below. Bold, huh? Daft? or not... (to be continued)

Sunday 2nd June 2002:

Clicking this icon was going to play a 1 second Windows Media Player Video clip. It was to be the world's first recorded sonoluminescence from within a music string. Experiment failed... progress continues here:

AND ~ Mother_Quantum.htm will probably annoy you no end...

it is not possible that chained sonoluminescence be generated within the above device but...

clicking here will take you to the real thing:

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