In my introductory article we saw that by the beginning of the 19th century the flintlock was firmly established as the state-of-the-art means of ignition in military and sporting firearms. In this article, we will [more…]
Some weeks ago, and quite by chance, a friend offered to sell me a rare mid-19th century rifle, the design of which I had long found to be of interest. Although I was not at [more…]
Melting a hole through steel: The above image needs a little explanation! The Doc messed up his camera settings and under exposed the image. So I loaded it into Gimp and played with the curves [more…]
The Doc’s ruby laser focused onto a lighter flint. The flint has been glued to the end of a match stick. The ‘explosion’ measures approximately 4 inches diameter. Interesting things to note are the ‘candy [more…]
More information on laser speckle can be found here: Speckle pattern A Mirror Alignment Tool The most important part of constructing a ruby laser (or any laser with external mirrors) are getting the mirrors alligned [more…]
(a ruby rod lit by two bright blue LEDs. Due to the IR filter in my camera the pink colour is actually red. What you are seeing is the absorption of the blue light and the [more…]
Introduction For many years the Doc has had the desire to attempt the construction of a ruby laser. After six months of hard work, disappointment, late nights, lots of booze and a drained bank account [more…]
Some of you who have stumbled upon this wonderful site in recent weeks and months may be wondering what various references to shunting and occasional photos of a railway scene are all about. You may [more…]
Ask anyone from the general public to name a great aeroplane or a great British fighter of WWII, and chances are they will say, without hesitation, “The Spitfire of course.” If you ask why you [more…]
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