Word: kantrowitz
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...possibility of generating useful amounts of electricity by blowing hot gas between the poles of a magnet has long intrigued adventurous physicists. Many have tried to turn the trick, but until Dr. Arthur Kantrowitz, chief of Avco Corp.'s Everett, Mass.. laboratory, reported impressive progress last week, large-scale magnetohydrodynamic power seemed as improbable as its nonstop name...
Nothing Simpler. Avco's Mark II generator has no moving parts; yet it generates 1,350 kilowatts of electric power. Dr. Kantrowitz likes to say that his creation is just like an ordinary rotary generator, but simpler. In one sense he is correct: a conventional generator has electrical conductors (copper wires) that are spun in a magnetic field by a steam turbine. Their motion causes a current to flow through them. In an MHD generator the conductor is a hot gas (plasma) that has been ionized by having electrons knocked off some of its atoms. When the plasma squirts...
...quickly destroys almost anything it comes in contact with, but Avco claims to have licked this problem by building the wall of its MHD generator out of water-cooled metal pegs separated by heat-resistant ceramic. This material has already lasted through six days of steady use. Dr. Kantrowitz feels sure that in a full-scale plant it will last long enough to make replacement a minor expense. Nor is he worried about the current that is consumed by resistance in the coils of the generator's magnet-a problem that has plagued experimenters in the past. Avco scientists...
...certain what the aerospace-men will bring back from the moon and the planets. Perhaps only rocks, perhaps exotic new minerals. But history's lesson is that explorers seldom find the expected. An eloquent case for aerospace is made by top Avco Corp. Researcher Dr. Arthur Kantrowitz: "To characterize aerospace as a growth industry is to take a narrow view. It is more like the discovery of America-a new opportunity for mankind. I keep telling my children that I wouldn't be surprised if their children lived in some brave new world in space, just...
...helicopters, height-finding radar, missile re-entry systems. Avco currently wrings 65% of its sales out of products that came off its own drawing boards in the past decade, and it is the prime contractor on 90% of its defense work. Says its top research man, Dr. Arthur Kantrowitz: "We bid only on contracts in which we have a solid ad vantage over the competition...