CED Digest Vol. 8 No. 28

CED Digest Vol. 8 No. 28 • 7/12/2003
20 Years Ago In CED History:

July 13, 1983:
* Chrysler Corporation announces that it will repay the remaining $800 million
of its federally guaranteed loans by September, seven years before they are
due.
* The British House of Commons rejects a motion to restore the death penalty,
abolished in 1965. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and other prominent
Conservatives had urged its reinstatement for such crimes as acts of terrorism
and the murder of policemen and prison guards.

July 14, 1983:
* A Turkish diplomat is shot to death in Brussels, Belgium, and Armenian
terrorists claim responsibility.

July 15, 1983:
* Five persons are killed and more than 50 injured when a bomb, enclosed in a
suitcase, explodes at the Turkish Airlines counter at Orly Airport outside
Paris. The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia claims
responsibility.
* Representatives of Greece approve an agreement that will permit the United
States to retain its Greek military facilities for an additional five years.
* Future CED title in widespread theatrical release: Staying Alive.

July 16, 1983:
* A nine-nation committee of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) recommends
that all foreign nations cease their involvement in Chad so that its local
warring factions can resolve their conflicts through negotiations.

July 17, 1983:
* During a meeting in Cancun, Mexico, the presidents of Mexico, Venezuela,
Colombia, and Panama, the so-called Contadoro Group, call for a freeze on the
shipment of arms to Central America, the withdrawal of all foreign troops and
advisers, and the establishment of international border patrols.
* The Michigan Panthers defeat the Philadelphia Stars in the United States
Football League's first championship game.
* Tom Watson wins his fifth British Open golf championship.

July 18, 1983:
* President Reagan announces the formation of a 12-member, bipartisan
commission to make recommendations on a U.S. policy in Central America; the
body to be headed by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

July 19, 1983:
* Israeli Prime minister Menahem Begin postpones a visit to Washington
scheduled for the following week, citing "personal reasons."
* An extensive study on U.S. education, headed by John I. Goodlad, indicates
the need for far-reaching restructuring to address "deeply entrenched and
virtually chronic" problems.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: SonyFan13
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 09:12:19 EDT
Subject: Re: CED Digest Vol. 8 No. 27
To: tom@cedmagic.com

>From: "Melissa Nelson" <melissanelson558>
>To: digest@cedmagic.com
>Subject: It's Working, It's Working!
>Date: Tue, 01 Jul 2003 18:50:08 -0700

>And I just love the CED Magic Diffractor! Could they have made clear
>Videodiscs out of that stuff?

Probably not.  CED discs are fabricated of a combination of PVC and carbon.
There might be a way to make transparent PVC, but you can't do much about the
carbon.

Besides, why?  The actual disc itself was ultimately never intended to be taken
out and handled by people.  Originally it was in the prototype stages, but
there were too many problems with people not properly handling the discs, hence
the autoloading caddy solution. It would be pointless and possibly even
unnecessarily expensive to make specialty discs when most people wouldn't be
able to actually see why they are so special under normal use.  - Reinhart

------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Guy Krause" <krauseg>
Cc: <digest@cedmagic.com>
Subject: Re: It's Working, It's Working!
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 11:59:59 -0700

I'm stll using rubber bands in my CED player as "drive belts"! They
work fine for me, and the price is right (free).

Guy Krause
Scientific Monitoring, Inc.
8777 E. Via de Ventura, #120
Scottsdale, AZ 85258
(480) 752-7909 x109

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2003 19:46:12 -0800
To: digest@cedmagic.com
From: Tom Howe <tom@cedmagic.com>
Subject: Re: It's Working, It's Working!

>Could they have made clear Videodiscs out of that stuff?

RCA was making "clear" VideoDiscs from 1974 until 1978. In the early
days, from 1970 to 1973, the discs were made out of carbon-pigmented
PVC-acetate resin. This is the same material used to make audio LP's, but RCA
found it had increasingly poor molding characteristics as the CED groove
density increased. Beginning in 1974 the resin was changed to an unpigmented
PVC-propylene copolymer, which rendered the vinyl transparent. Now the discs
don't look transparent when illuminated by incident light, instead looking a
lot like copper, silver, or gold-colored LaserDiscs depending on the metallized
coating being used:

http://www.cedmagic.com/featured/lum-fong/sarnoff-coated-videodiscs.html

But because the metallized layer is so thin, the disc functions like a two-way
mirror and can plainly be seen through when held up to your face. When a light
bulb is looked at through the disc, radiating diffraction spectra, similar to
those produced by the grating embedded in the CED Magic business card, can be
seen. Since a number of the CED researchers were optical engineers who came to
the project after Holotape was canceled, they used the diffraction
characteristics of the disc and masters to develop non-contact, rapid testing
methods. This research considerably advanced scalar and vector diffraction
theory.

In 1978, the conductive, carbon-doped disc concept was proven superior to
metallization, and the disc material was once again opaque. Here are pages with
pictures of some of the clear metallized discs from late 1977, just before they
were abandoned:

http://www.cedmagic.com/featured/voyager/voyager-record.html

http://www.cedmagic.com/history/ced-1977-vs-1982.html

--Tom
Previous Digest | Next Digest | Volume 8 Index | CED Magic Home