Photographs from the Instrument Laboratory, Division of Mechanical Engineering, National Research Council of Canada covering the following areas: aircraft studies (1944-70); hydraulic studies (1953-1971); instruments for the Ship Laboratory, NRC (1957-1962); Railway Studies (1959-1969); Biological Engineering projects (1962-1971); miscellaneous (1949-1970).
Studies include: aircraft de-icing projects; cloud droplet camera; flight recorders; exposure recording altigraphs; stall warning indicator; instrumentation for flight testing; continuous-trace recording system for flight testing an "Orenda" gas turbine; development tests on the R-Theta dead reckoning computer; position and homing indicator (Mark IIA). Instruments for hydraulic studies; NRC tide gauge recorder MK I, and MK V; pressure cell wave recorder; St. Lawrence River Model; apparatus used to investigate and record sea-waves in and around the new harbour at Port-Aux-Basques, Nfld.; capacitive wave profile recorder; instrumentation for wave measurements at Ripple Rock (B.C.) demolition; drift monitoring system and a rapid calibrating technique for the capacitive wave profile recorder; NRC submersible photographic water temperature recorder MK I; pressure-type tide recorder; electronic stroboscopic flash ancillary equipment for full-scale ship propeller photography; modification of Veeder-Root counter type 12874B for underwater use; tide generating control system for hydraulic models; instrumentation and waterproofing of dynamometer couplers. Instruments for ship laboratory, NRC; recording of ship model position; six-component ship model balance; study of control of underwater bodies. Railway studies; railway freight car tests; damage to newsprint rolls; railway laboratory facilities; evaluation of NRC impact recorder; photographic recording of rail car impacts -- a strip camera technique; special thermometer for measuring rail temperature. Biological engineering projects; vascular suturing instrument; an aid to orthopaedic surgery -- a force-measuring distractor tool; a mechanical aid to plastic surgery -- the intra-dermal injection of plastic. Instruments for various studies; early laboratory equipment; rate of fire recorder; waveform generator; r.p.m. indicator and overspeed trip; performance tests on Autonetics G5B gyroscopes; experiments in coating metal surfaces with a rubber film; the adaptation of a film processor camera for the permanent recording of bathythermograph records.
The introduction to the finding aid accompanying the collection gives a brief background to the Instrument Laboratory.
The photographs have been rearranged under various subject and study headings, and the original order has thus been destroyed. The original negative numbers are still used, however, so the original order could be recreated..
Linked lower-level items were generated in response to reproduction requests and represent but a small fraction of photographs in the collection.
