Word: fluidly
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...most familiar techniques for teaching elementary electricity is to compare the flow of electrons through wires to the passage of fluids through pipes. The analogy is so valid that scientists are now changing it from a textbook explanation to practical application. They are building fluid circuits that supplement and even replace some electronic devices. By controlling and amplifying the flow of fluids (either gases or liquids), just as electron flow is controlled and amplified in electronic circuits, they have conjured up a variety of odd new fluidic devices that offer valuable improvements on their electronic counterparts...
Switches & Amplifiers. In place of the battery or generator that energizes an electronic circuit, fluidic devices use a continuous stream of fluid, usually air. The supply can come from a pump, from the hot gases of a jet engine, from air forced through nose vents in" missiles or airplanes, or even from a tank of compressed air. In a simple fluidic circuit, the power stream is fed into the base leg of a Ylike arrangement of tubes or channels. As the stream flows through the Y toward outlets at the end of two diverging arms, a fluid-flow phenomenon, called...
Toys & Toothbrushes. Though the first promising fluidic circuits were developed only seven years ago, at what is now the Army's Harry Diamond Laboratories in Washington, scientists are fast catching up with electronic technology. They have already produced fluidic oscillators, memory and logic circuits, and have devised fluid versions of resistors and capacitors. They have also learned to etch fluid channels into small blocks of metal and plastic, producing fluidic versions of electronic integrated circuits [TIME, Sept. 2]. Though they are still no match in size for the microscopically small electronic I.C.s, several compact fluidic circuits...
...work "that has already been done, many fluidics problems remain. Scientists still do not fully understand some fluid-flow phenomena; fluidic circuits are still relatively cumbersome and are generally more expensive than their electronic counterparts. In addition, the speed of fluidic devices is limited by the maximum velocity of a pressure wave through the fluid-which is the relatively slow speed of sound. This places them at a distinct disadvantage in competition with electronic computers, which are limited in speed only by their size and the velocity of an electrical impulse-the speed of light...
Aldrin's next assignment took him back to Gemini's adapter section, where NASA scientists had installed a small work panel used by astronauts to practice typical space repair jobs. Aldrin fastened and unfastened fluid connectors, tightened and loosened bolts, disconnected electrical wiring, and tested and discarded patches of Velcro. After moving forward again to work on a similar but smaller panel, he returned to Gemini's cabin, barely winded...