Rapatronic High Speed Shutter

[fgentges at mindspring.com]

Mike and all tacoistas,

It is an interesting evolution of high speed photography that occurred 
during WW2 during and after the Manhattan project.

A specialized group was formed during the project to specialize in 
instrumentation needed for the project.  I think the group became known 
as Sandia and was involved in developing  photographic diagnostics 
along with many other instruments.  Dr. Edgerton, MIT was key to this 
and came up with all sorts of nifty devices.

After the war he developed a very high speed shutter based on the kerr 
cell that could be opened for only a very few microseconds.  The kerr 
cell looked like a capacitor and needed a high speed high voltage pulse 
to open and close it.  The camera/shutter was called rapatronic.  You 
can see some really short pictures of a nuclear weapon in the early 
phases of the explosion.  A good web page is at

http://simplethinking.com/home/rapatronic_photographs.htm

Navy used similar shutters in conjunction with short pulse lasers to see 
through murky water.  By opening the shutter just as the light from an 
object of interest rejects all the light from the water's murkiness.

Those books you mention are very interesting and well worth checking 
out.  Some of the best pictures used are on the web.  A nice bunch of 
surfing when there is too much snow to go outside.


Frank K0BRA


On 1/21/2011 8:11 AM, Mike O'Dell wrote:
> there are two wonderful books which contains previously unclassified
> pictures and a comprehensive discussion of the techniques used
> to capture them. the titles are:
>
> "How to Photograph an Atomic Bomb"
> and
> "100 Suns"
>
> i highly recommend them for those interested in
> *ultra*high-speed photography and the force that drove development
>
>
> -mo
>
>
> On 1/21/11 11:03 AM, fgentges at mindspring.com wrote:
>> This is a great view of lightning sending out probes in the area and
>> then it finds the best path and then *boom* the main stroke.
>>
>> Often, antennas are struck by the probes and not the main stroke but it
>> can damage receivers etc.
>>
>> I do not see high speed cameras like this on eBay for $200 from Hong
>> Kong.
>>
>> Frank
>>
>>
>> On 1/20/2011 8:38 PM, Richard Barth wrote:
>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bvmEYxEYiA
>>>
>>> Richard Barth *** W3HWN(at)ARRL.NET *** Silver Spring, MD
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Tacos mailing list
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>>> https://rf.org/mailman/listinfo/tacos
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
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