Abstract: An improved bearing arrangement for a high-speed, preferably vertical, shaft having a bearing body which takes up both the axial and the radial bearing forces. The bearing body is clamped or mounted in a fixed support solely by means of at least one elastic membrane-type element, e.g. a disc-shaped membrane, which extends in the radial direction so as to provide for the elastic return of the bearing body and the shaft to an initial reference position in both radial and axial directions.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for separating a gas mixture which is at least partially ionized into a lighter and a heavier fraction by rapid rotation about an axis of a separating chamber by means of magnetic and electrical fields. The ionized gas mixture is enclosed in a closed static magnetic field configuration which is rotationally symmetrical about the axis of the separating chamber and the thus enclosed gas mixture is penetrated with an externally applied electric field whose field lines lie in planes containing the axis of the separating chamber and contain components which are perpendicular to the magnetic field.