Abstract: The application discloses an adjustable head stack comb having adjustable first and second comb plates. The adjustable comb plates include at least one tooth segment which cooperatively form a comb having at least one tooth. The first and second comb plates are adjusted to adjust dimensions of the at least one tooth cooperatively formed by the tooth segments of the first and second comb plates. In the embodiments disclosed, a relative position of the first and second comb plates is adjusted to adjust a thickness dimension of the at least one tooth formed by the at least one tooth segments of the first and second comb plates. Also in illustrated embodiments, the comb plates are cooperatively adjusted to adjust an elevation or z-height of the at least one tooth of the comb.

Abstract: An improved fiber optic tap monitor has characteristics that are flatter over the wavelength range of interest. The polarization dependence of the characteristics of the tap monitor is reduced, and the package for the tap monitor is smaller. The tap monitor reduces the amount of light reflected back to the source. The tap monitor is also assembled in a manner to improve temperature stability, so that its characteristics over a range of temperatures are more nearly constant.

Abstract: An improved fiber optic tap monitor has characteristics that are flatter over the wavelength range of interest. The tap monitor includes a filter that reflects a major fraction of the light from a first fiber to a second fiber. A photodetector located behind the filter detects the light transmitted by the filter. The reflectance spectrum of the filter is selected to compensate for nonuniformities in the detection response characteristic of the photodetector over the wavelength range of interest, so that the overall response of the tap monitor is relatively flat.

Abstract: An improved fiber optic tap monitor has characteristics that are flatter over the wavelength range of interest. The polarization dependence of the characteristics of the tap monitor is reduced, and the package for the tap monitor is smaller. The tap monitor reduces the amount of light reflected back to the source. The tap monitor is also assembled in a manner to improve temperature stability, so that its characteristics over a range of temperatures are more nearly constant.

Abstract: A modified mixing-type condensation nuclei counter for measuring the size and number of small particles is presented. A gas stream is saturated with respect to a working fluid. The saturated gas at a first temperature is mixed in a growth chamber with a sample gas at a second temperature that is lower than the first temperature. The mixture of the saturated gas and the sample gas at different temperatures results in supersaturation of the mixed gas with respect to the working fluid. Particles in the sample gas act as nucleation sites for condensation of the working fluid. The particles are thus grown to a larger size and therefore are more easily measured by known light-scattering particle detection methods. The efficiency of the supersaturation process is made even more efficient by cooling the growth chamber to a third temperature which is lower than the second temperature or by turbulently mixing the saturated gas and the sample gas.