Nuclear power for civilian ships
There has recently been a proliferation of reports concerning the development of nuclear-powered ships. Numerous companies in Britain have proposed such a vessel, including Cammell Laird and Babcock & Wilcox, who have spent more than a year on plans for a 65,000-ton tanker propelled by a Calder Hall-type reactor. And from abroad we hear that the United States is expecting to complete a nuclear-powered passenger and cargo vessel by 1960, while the Russian icebreaker Lenin may be launched by the end of this year.
There are three main objectives that nuclear ship designers have to consider. The first two are simple. The ship must work reliably and it must be safe. The third is, in some respects, the most important. The design must be economic to ensure the ships are commercially successful. While the Russians and Americans concern themselves with the first two objectives, it may be that the British are focused on the third. Nuclear power has much to offer us. Anybody who is capable of making it pay its way will be at the forefront of the technology.
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Telescope mirror test rig
A 100-foot tower is being built in Newcastle Upon Tyne so that the biggest mirrors 鈥� such as those used in telescopes 鈥� can be tested optically without having to stand them on their edges as in the past. Hitherto this has been done in a horizontal tunnel, but large mirrors can distort and should therefore be tested in the position in which they will be used.
The reflecting surface of such mirrors has to be accurate to about two millionths of an inch, and for these tests a stable environment is required. The tower stands on 230 tons of concrete and consists of a steel framework encased in more concrete, with the interior temperature-controlled. Better images are expected as a result.
From The New 杏吧原创, 8 August 1957