Abstract: A method for analyzing water or other liquid, in particular rain water, comprises the steps of providing a collector comprising at least first and second volumetric cells and a mechanism for causing water to flow selectively into the cells and for causing water to flow selectively from the cells. Water is caused to flow into a first one of the cells while it is prevented from flowing into the other one of the cells. The water collected in the first cell is caused to flow to a property determining cell when the first cell has been filled to a predetermined volume, and simultaneously water is prevented from flowing into the first cell while it is now permitted to flow into the second volumetric cell. The water collected in the second cell is then permitted to flow to a property determining cell when the second cell has been filled to a predetermined volume, and simultaneously the water is prevented from flowing to the second cell while it is now permitted to flow to the first cell.

Abstract: A crystalline bar is drawn by a zone-melting process or from a melt in a crucible utilizing a magnetic suspension housing, in addition to an axial stabilization magnet, a radial stabilizer surrounding the core and including sensors for the radial position of the core-operating controllers for electromagnets surrounding the core to restore the core to its setpoint position. The fully magnetic suspension of the core eliminates friction while allowing enclosure of the crystal growth compartment to improve the quality of the crystal growth process.

Abstract: A layer of titanium carbosilicide Ti.sub.3 SiC.sub.2 on a silicon carbide surface polished for making a joint makes it possible to join silicon carbide bodies together in a hot pressing procedure and obtaining a joint strength comparable to the strength of the silicon carbide material. Such a layer on silicon carbide also makes possible brazed juoints with steel alloy or nickel based alloy parts. The layer may be applied directly by a powder dispersion in a volatile but viscous glycol or by sputtering or else the layer can be made in place from a powder mixture of components, especially TiC.sub.0,8 and Tisi.sub.2 (5:1) or a titanium layer of a thickness in the range of 1 to 3 .mu.m that reacts with the silicon carbide surface. When silicon carbide parts are joined together, the heating up to make the joint also serves to convert a titanium layer into titanium carbosilicide.

Abstract: The process for making a structural element subjected to a high thermal stress and made of a material of high thermal conductivity such as molybdenum, tungsten, copper, aluminum or an alloy of these metals with a protective layer protecting the surface of the structural element comprises treating the surface of the structural element to remove surface impurities present and then coating the surface with an amorphous hydrogen containing carbon layer. For reduction, i.e. removal, of the surface impurities the structural element can advantageously be exposed to a hydrogen flow containing hydrogen atoms and/or ions at a temperature of from 100.degree. C. to 600.degree. C. at a pressure of from 10.sup.-2 to 10.sup.2 Pa. The hydrogen atoms and/or the hydrogen ions coming in contact with the surface of the structural element are formed by contact dissociation at at least one hot surface or by glow discharge or by electron cyclotron resonance and the volatile products are pumped away.

Abstract: A magnetic field sensor comprises a stack of ferromagnetic layers advantageously separated by an intermediate layer of proper material and so arranged that the ferromagnetic layers are with one component in an antiparallel magnetization direction. The sensor is provided with terminals for passing an electric current through the stack and for detecting a voltage drop across the stack. The magnetic resistance change with such a stack is substantially greater than in systems which do not provide an antiparallel magnetization or do not have the intermediate layer.

Abstract: A position-sensitive detector for electronically imaging objects emitting low-intensity light radiation, comprises a photocathode means for converting incident low-intensity light radiation into electrons; electron acceleration means disposed in series with the photocathode means for accelerating the electrons generated by the photocathode means; transducer means disposed in series with the acceleration means for converting the accelerated electrons into ultra-violet radiation; and a multi-wire chamber means disposed in series with the transducer means for providing readout of the position of the ultra-violet radiation.A detector having a solid scintillator for electronically imaging objects emitting low-intensity x-ray or gamma ray or the like is also disclosed.

Abstract: Samples of trace substances are cryogenically concentrated by passing a gas sample through a U-bend immersed in liquid nitrogen. The U-bend is surrounded by a chamber wall and the chamber is vented so that liquid nitrogen can rise into the chamber when the vent is open but is driven out when the vent is closed and the enrichment pipe is heated to desorb the accumulated trace substances from the adsorbent in the enrichment pipe.

Abstract: A detector for bremsstrahlung-isochromatic-spectroscopy (BIS) utilizing a gas-filled metal cylinder forming an outer electrode and a wire extending axially in the cylinder has an inner electrode. The window for the UV photons is constituted of MgF.sub.2 while the counting gas is a mixture of dimethylether and an inert gas and in which the pressure of the dimethylether is 0.2 to 0.5 mbar.

Abstract: A device for the reflection of low-energy ions defines an ion guide with an array of electrode elements elongated transversely to the direction of the ion beam and in closely spaced relationship with the alternating electrode elements having the same potential but opposite polarity.

Abstract: A method of and an apparatus for generating a control frequency in which two submultiples of a frequency standard are obtained which differ by unity in the respective frequency division and are mixed so that the contribution of a prior control frequency is reduced form period group to period group while the contribution of the new control frequency is increased from period group to period group. The system provides fine control of frequencies for, for example, driving synchronous motors without requiring excessively high frequency standard oscillators.

Abstract: A single stage methanization reactor and process are made to yield a product gas of high methane content as well as useful superheated steam without overheating the catalyst bed in which a synthesis gas containing, CO, CO.sub.2 and H.sub.2 is converted into product gas. A variety of dispositions of vaporizer and superheater portions of the cooling system in the catalyst bed, for which the temperature profiles of gas and coolant along the reactor length are shown and compared, illustrate the principles governing the cooling system for such a reactor. A small portion of the superheated steam is mixed with preheated synthesis gas for elimination of all or part of the carbon monoxide content before the synthesis gas is introduced into the methanization reactor.

Abstract: The invention provides a process and an apparatus for effecting that process in which waste water to be cleaned is finely divided into a current of entrainment gas and evaporated. The water vapor formed is superheated, so that the impurities occur as a solid residue and can be collected. The heat of the purified and compressed mixture of entrainment gas and water vapor is used to superheat the water vapor in the current of entrainment gas.An optimal separation between water and the substances contaminating it which cannot be evaporated is accomplished with a low expenditure of energy by introducing the water into a current of inert entrainment gas and by heating the mixture of entrainment gas and water vapor thereby formed, before the separation of the solid particles, in the heat exchange with the purified and compressed mixture of entrainment gas and water vapor by cooling it to below the saturation or dew point temperature.

Abstract: Silicon carbon molded parts, whether made of silicon carbide sintered together in the absence of pressure or hot pressed silicon carbide are bonded together at close fitting surfaces by applying a layer not thicker than 1 .mu.m on polished surfaces to be joined, containing at least one carbide and/or silicide forming element from the group Ag, Al, Au, B, Be, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Mo, Nb, Ni, Pd, Pt, Ta, Ti, V, W and Zr. The surfaces to be joined are than fitted together and heated in an inert or reducing atomosphere at a pressure between 10.sup.-1 and 10.sup.-5 Pa at temperatures in the range 800.degree. to 2200.degree. C. while under a pressure applied which is between 1 and 100 MPa. In particular, the heat treatment range from 1550.degree. C. to 1750.degree. C. under a pressure of 15 to 45 MPa applied pressure in argon at a pressure of from 10.sup.3 to 10.sup.5 Pa argon, for 30 to 60 minutes. Preferably a thin layer is vapor-deposited or sputtered.

Abstract: For safety in storage and transport of nuclear fuel elements outside a nuclear reactor core, they are provided with a coating of a neutron-absorbing substance from a liquid phase, e.g. by immersion, spraying or pouring, utilizing a melt, a solution or immersion so that the possibility of critical mass attainment is eliminated or minimized.

Abstract: For safety in storage and transport of nuclear fuel elements outside a nuclear reactor core, they are provided with a coating of a neutron-absorbing substance from a liquid phase, e.g. by immersion, spraying or pouring, utilizing a melt, a solution or immersion so that the possibility of critical mass attainment is eliminated or minimized.

Abstract: A quenching element of the size and shape of a graphite nuclear fuel ball is introduced to the stacked balls of a stacked ball nuclear reactor core to release a neutron absorbing substance upon being heated to a predetermined temperature, thereby controlling the reactivity of the reactor by causing this substance, which may be a gadolinium compound, to deposit upon the graphite surfaces of the fuel element balls.

Abstract: A method of making shaped bodies of silicon carbide, of graphite coated with silicon carbide or of a graphite-like material with a silicon carbide surface wherein a graphitic body is assembled from preformed parts in the desired shape and is immersed, under a chemically inert atmosphere, in a silicon melt and after penetration of the melt into gaps between abutting surfaces of the body and after reaction of the silicon with the graphite or the graphite-like material to form silicon carbide at the junctions, the body is removed from the melt and is cooled in a chemically inert atmosphere.

Abstract: Plant protoplasts are suspended in a solution of sodium alginate which is thereafter thickened by the addition of a soluble calcium or lanthanum salt to produce a matrix with large pores permeable to water and gas in which the protoplasts are held. The resulting material, in tape or spheroid form, when stored in a nutrient solution, will prolong the senescence of the protoplasts and increase their sensitivity to polluting materials. When such ribbons or particles are exposed to a polluting environment for a particular period of time, the effect of pollution can be detected by measuring the evolution of ethane or measuring the blocking of the enzyme ribulose-diphosphate-carboxylase, in the latter case using carbon dioxide marked with .sup.14 C. A control experiment in which an identical indicator treated in an equivalent environment without pollutants reveals, by comparison, the effect of the pollution.

Abstract: A process and apparatus for the remote pickup and reproduction of image of static or dynamic objects in which dark regions of a target provide outputs below a threshold value which are normalized or averaged through a divider during intervals of line scan interruption brought about by the detection of a below threshold level. The system, therefore, allows integration during the interval and by averaging and integrating values permits discernment of features which might otherwise be obscured by a leveling effect in dark regions.

Abstract: Nitroprusside single crystals having the formula M.sub.n [Fe(CN).sub.5 ]nH.sub.2 O, where M is a metal that forms a nitroprusside is found to have the property, when cooled to a temperature in the range between 160.degree. K. and 250.degree. K., of convertability into a long-duration metastable state by irradiation with coherent blue-green light and to return to the original state when irradiated with red light. Barium nitroprusside Ba[Fe(CN).sub.5 ]2H.sub.2 O can be switched rapidly from one state to the other without requiring cooling below about 200.degree. K. and lends itself particularly well to making single crystal memories for writing with a blue-green laser beam and reading with a red laser beam, with the readout being picked up by a photodetector diode array, on which the radiation from the nitroprusside crystal is focused. The incident laser beams are pulsed and the photodetector is turned off during pulsing.