Engineering
Making A Ruby Laser – Part Two
(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…]
rattuscatchus
Engineering
Making A Ruby Laser – Part One
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…]
Authoritarianism
How I learned to despise the left and fear the bomb
It was during an English lesson during the late 1970s – English lessons were never about spelling, grammar, creative writing, etymology, poetry or literature, always, always politics – when a short term supply teacher told [more…]
Christianity
Going to Church
As a nipper, I was brought up in what was a fairly typical, English family. Mum, Dad, siblings and normal sorts of stuff. We were what I call typical Church of England. We all went [more…]
Arts
Review – Dunkirk, by Rat Catcher
It was on Saturday that Mrs. Catcher and I took the train to the imax cinema to see Dunkirk. It is quite a journey so we made a night of it and came back the [more…]
Physics
An abridged history of the atomic model
Towards the end of the 19th century, scientists were considering the structure of the atom. The atom was deemed to be a tiny piece of matter which helped answer questions regarding spectroscopy. Spectroscopy being the [more…]
Engineering
Development of the Merlin Engine
The Rolls Royce Merlin was a V12, 27 litre engine and originally was a private venture so was financed entirely by Rolls Royce and its backers. Designated the PV12 it followed the Rolls Royce trend [more…]
Physics
The Sun – page 2 unfortunately….
Previously, we looked at our Sun and how it works however only a small part was covered. We saw that quantum tunneling allowed protons to fuse in conditions that classical physics – that relying only [more…]
Physics