Abstract: The manufacturing of high temperature superconducting crystals and high quality crystals in general requires a furnace design with very precise process control to minimize the crystal defects. A furnace design of this type can be realized by growing crystals in the cavity of the evaporator section of a specially designed heat pipe, since the temperature of the working fluid in the heat pipe, and thus in the cavity and crystal, can be maintained very accurately by the control of the evaporating pressure of the heat pipe's working fluid. The crystals are grown from the melt from the bottom of a cooled and rotating crucible which is placed into the heat pipe evaporator cavity. The growth of high temperature superconducting crystals requires high furnace temperatures and an oxygen atmosphere. The high temperature furnace condition is achieved with sodium and potasium heat pipes.

Abstract: A very simple, safe, and robust device for extinguishing oil well fires consists of an inclined duct which is connected to a vertical duct placed over an oil well fire, and of suitably arranged baffles which are inserted into the inclined dust for redirecting or separating the oil and gas streams. The purpose of the inclined duct is to separate the oil and gas from the two-phase mixture which is produced by a burning well and consequently to decrease the oil evaporation area or volume of combustible gas and starve the fire when the air inflow from the bottom into the vertical duct is reduced or eliminated. The fire-extinguishing device contains only baffles as moving parts which can be operated remotely through pulleys. The separated oil stream can be discharged into the atmosphere or collected into a holding tank until the next phase of work associated with capping of the oil well is initiated, thus reducing the environmental pollution problems and creating a safe zone for personnel to work.

Abstract: A lithium-sulfur hexafluoride magnetohydrodynamic power system may be operated with different arrangements of the system components. The internal combustion process between lithium and sulfur-hexafluoride may be achieved in the MHD generator or externally, and the lithium transporting fluid may be a gas or a vaporizable liquid which vaporizes from the heat released in combustion. The lithium, sulfur-hexafluoride and transporting fluids may be mixed at the generator inlet where the heat released in combustion is used by the expanding gas in the generator to transport the lithium through the channel for the production of the electrical power. This system configuration produces the most compact and also the most complex design.