A A Mills
Biographic Data
| ID | 4115715 |
|---|---|
| NAME | A A Mills |
| GIVEN NAMES | A A |
| FAMILY NAME | Mills |
| SIGNATURE | MILLS A A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Leicester |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3056-7764 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 2 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1978 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
William Gilbert and ‘Magnetization by Percussion’
In his De Magnete William Gilbert claims that it is possible to make a magnet by hammering a red-hot bar of wrought iron arranged north–south on an anvil. This is contrary to modern ideas concerning the ‘Curie temperature’ (770°C for carbon steel), and to the recognized susceptibility of steel magnets to mechanical abuse. It has proved impossible to replicate Gilbert's technique experimentally. Only lengthy cold hammering of hardened carbon steel…
Kirlian Photography
Kirlian photography records the corona discharge that commonly surrounds any conductive object placed in a dielectric enclosure at atmospheric pressure within a high voltage/high frequency electric field. That generated by a Tesla coil is particularly effective. Kirlian photography was popular in the decade between 1970 and 1980, and leaves and the tips of fingers were common subjects. The discharge usually took the form of bluish spicules and gl…
Robert Hooke's ‘universal joint’ and its application to sundials and the sundial-clock
Robert Hooke is commonly thought of as the inventor of ‘Hooke's joint’ or the ‘universal joint’. However, it is shown that this flexible coupling (based on a four-armed cross pivoted between semicircular yokes attached to two shafts) was in fact known long before Hooke's time but was always assumed to give an output exactly matching that of the input shaft. Hooke carefully measured the relative displacements of the two axes, and found that if one…
Commentaries
April 01 1999 Commentaries Adelheid Mers, Adelheid Mers Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Simone Osthoff, Simone Osthoff Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Philip Steadman, Philip Steadman Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Allan A. Mills Allan A. Mills Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information A…
Vermeer and the Camera Obscura
The remarkable precision of linear perspective in Vermeer’s paintings has led to the claim that he used a “room-type” camera obscura. However, the most readily available convex lenses available in the seventeenth century were those used for spectacles; these lenses had diameters of about 4 cm. The author shows that the use of such lenses in a large-scale camera obscura results in images of interior scenes that are too dim for effective visual ins…
Image formation on the Shroud of Turin The reactive oxygen intermediates hypothesis
The 'Coiled-Tube' Pump
The 'Coiled-Tube' Pump
Newton's water clocks and the fluid mechanics of clepsydrae
Most biographies of Isaac Newton (1642-1727; F.R.S. 1672; P.R.S. 1703-1727) mention a water clock that he is reported to have constructed as a boy when living at Woolsthorpe Manor in Lincolnshire. The source of this and other anecdotes concerning Newton’s boyhood (1) is William Stukeley, who made it his business to collect such memories upon retiring to live in nearby Grantham. In a letter (2) dated 26 June 1727 (i.e. only some three months after…
Newton's prisms and his experiments on the spectrum
Sir, To perform my late promise to you, I shall without further ceremony acquaint you, that in the beginning of the Year 1666 (at which time I applyed my self to the grinding of Optick glasses of other figures than Spherical,) I procured me a Triangular glass-Prisme, to try therewith the celebrated Phaenomena of Colours . . . THUS did Isaac Newton (1642-1727, F.R.S. 1672, P.R.S. 1703-1727) introduce his celebrated letter to Oldenburg on the prism…
Newton's telescope, an examination of the reflecting telescope attributed to Sir Isaac Newton in the possession of the Royal Society
Isaac Newton (1642-1727, F.R.S. 1672, P.R.S. 1703-1727) is generally I credited with the invention of the reflecting telescope, having conceived the idea in 1666* (1, 2, 3). In fact Gregory (4) and others (5) had by that time already considered telescopes employing curved mirrors, but late in 1668 Newton was the first to construct a working model (1,6). This instrument was also the first to employ a small elliptical plane mirror, inclined at 450 …
Intensity-Modulated Illumination of Paintings and an Unexpected 3-Dimensional Effect
The whitest paints used by artists reflect about 90% of the light incident upon them, while black surfaces still reflect as much as 4 or 5%, so the maximum luminance scale that can normally be realised upon an opaque base is of the order of 20:1. Most older paintings would be expected to show a shorter range than this, due to such factors as sulphide darkening, fading of pigments and the yellowing of oily media and varnish. In a real 3-dimensiona…
A Sampling Stylus for Use With the Electron Probe
A simple device is described which enables inconspicuous samples of entire objects to be taken for electron microprobe analysis without introducing background contamination. Transport of artefacts and their exposure to vacuum are thereby obviated
Vermeer and the Camera Obscura
The remarkable precision of linear perspective in Vermeer’s paintings has led to the claim that he used a “room-type” camera obscura. However, the most readily available convex lenses available in the seventeenth century were those used for spectacles; these lenses had diameters of about 4 cm. The author shows that the use of such lenses in a large-scale camera obscura results in images of interior scenes that are too dim for effective visual ins…
Image formation on the Shroud of Turin The reactive oxygen intermediates hypothesis
Intensity-Modulated Illumination of Paintings and an Unexpected 3-Dimensional Effect
The whitest paints used by artists reflect about 90% of the light incident upon them, while black surfaces still reflect as much as 4 or 5%, so the maximum luminance scale that can normally be realised upon an opaque base is of the order of 20:1. Most older paintings would be expected to show a shorter range than this, due to such factors as sulphide darkening, fading of pigments and the yellowing of oily media and varnish. In a real 3-dimensiona…
A Sampling Stylus for Use With the Electron Probe
A simple device is described which enables inconspicuous samples of entire objects to be taken for electron microprobe analysis without introducing background contamination. Transport of artefacts and their exposure to vacuum are thereby obviated
Newton's telescope, an examination of the reflecting telescope attributed to Sir Isaac Newton in the possession of the Royal Society
Isaac Newton (1642-1727, F.R.S. 1672, P.R.S. 1703-1727) is generally I credited with the invention of the reflecting telescope, having conceived the idea in 1666* (1, 2, 3). In fact Gregory (4) and others (5) had by that time already considered telescopes employing curved mirrors, but late in 1668 Newton was the first to construct a working model (1,6). This instrument was also the first to employ a small elliptical plane mirror, inclined at 450 …
Newton's prisms and his experiments on the spectrum
Sir, To perform my late promise to you, I shall without further ceremony acquaint you, that in the beginning of the Year 1666 (at which time I applyed my self to the grinding of Optick glasses of other figures than Spherical,) I procured me a Triangular glass-Prisme, to try therewith the celebrated Phaenomena of Colours . . . THUS did Isaac Newton (1642-1727, F.R.S. 1672, P.R.S. 1703-1727) introduce his celebrated letter to Oldenburg on the prism…
Newton's water clocks and the fluid mechanics of clepsydrae
Most biographies of Isaac Newton (1642-1727; F.R.S. 1672; P.R.S. 1703-1727) mention a water clock that he is reported to have constructed as a boy when living at Woolsthorpe Manor in Lincolnshire. The source of this and other anecdotes concerning Newton’s boyhood (1) is William Stukeley, who made it his business to collect such memories upon retiring to live in nearby Grantham. In a letter (2) dated 26 June 1727 (i.e. only some three months after…
The 'Coiled-Tube' Pump
The 'Coiled-Tube' Pump
Image formation on the Shroud of Turin The reactive oxygen intermediates hypothesis
Vermeer and the Camera Obscura
The remarkable precision of linear perspective in Vermeer’s paintings has led to the claim that he used a “room-type” camera obscura. However, the most readily available convex lenses available in the seventeenth century were those used for spectacles; these lenses had diameters of about 4 cm. The author shows that the use of such lenses in a large-scale camera obscura results in images of interior scenes that are too dim for effective visual ins…
Commentaries
April 01 1999 Commentaries Adelheid Mers, Adelheid Mers Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Simone Osthoff, Simone Osthoff Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Philip Steadman, Philip Steadman Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Allan A. Mills Allan A. Mills Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information A…
Robert Hooke's ‘universal joint’ and its application to sundials and the sundial-clock
Robert Hooke is commonly thought of as the inventor of ‘Hooke's joint’ or the ‘universal joint’. However, it is shown that this flexible coupling (based on a four-armed cross pivoted between semicircular yokes attached to two shafts) was in fact known long before Hooke's time but was always assumed to give an output exactly matching that of the input shaft. Hooke carefully measured the relative displacements of the two axes, and found that if one…
Kirlian Photography
Kirlian photography records the corona discharge that commonly surrounds any conductive object placed in a dielectric enclosure at atmospheric pressure within a high voltage/high frequency electric field. That generated by a Tesla coil is particularly effective. Kirlian photography was popular in the decade between 1970 and 1980, and leaves and the tips of fingers were common subjects. The discharge usually took the form of bluish spicules and gl…
William Gilbert and ‘Magnetization by Percussion’
In his De Magnete William Gilbert claims that it is possible to make a magnet by hammering a red-hot bar of wrought iron arranged north–south on an anvil. This is contrary to modern ideas concerning the ‘Curie temperature’ (770°C for carbon steel), and to the recognized susceptibility of steel magnets to mechanical abuse. It has proved impossible to replicate Gilbert's technique experimentally. Only lengthy cold hammering of hardened carbon steel…
Physics (8 works) · Art (7 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Art history (4 works) · Engineering (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Materials Science (4 works) · Mechanical Engineering (4 works) · Optics (4 works) · Political science (4 works)