LABORATORY OF THE MONTH Minneapolis-Honeywell's research center near Minneapolis provides new facilities to "seek out, improve, produce and sell devices or systems of any kind capable of detecting and measuring change and applying that change to some form of useful work"; in short—automatic controls
County Home Converted to Research Center
Molten silicon is " g r o w n " on seed crystals to form experimental, power-type transistors. Equipment includes an electric induction furnace and an automatic recorder
Lead and plastic shielding, remote handling tools, Geiger counter, and face mask filter are standard equipment in using radioactive materials in research to improve existing control equipment VOLUME
27, NO.
10, O C T O B E R
1955
A HOME for indigents may not sound like a choice for ' ^ a research center but Minneapolis-Honeywell has found it to be almost perfect. With transfer of its few residents to other locations, Hennepin County found itself with a surplus 58,000 square foot three-story, brick, fireproof building located at Hopkins, Minn., 12 miles from downtown Minneapolis. Honeywell, with its research activities bursting the seams of a 6000 square foot area in the main production plant in Minneapolis, was seeking a new site. After looking at the county home, located on a beautifully landscaped 10-acre tract, Honeywell's question of building a new research center or buying this one was quickly resolved in favor of the surplus home. Finn Larsen, director of reThe only remodeling search (standing), and Presnecessary was new ton McNall check data on wiring and plumbing the heat controls being f e d which was accominto an electronic computer plished in less than five m o n t h s . No major construction was required. The rooms, almost all 12 by 12 modules, are convertible to units of any length by removing nonload-bearing partitions. The site also included outbuildings suitable for solvent and material storage and combustion research. Total cost was less than $6.00 a square foot, one third to one fourth that for new facilities. The building is at present occupied by 130 people including approximately 60 scientists and engineers representing all fields and approximately 60 technicians. An additional 30 research personnel from the plastics group have yet to be transferred to the new building. The facilities can handle a total of 200 to 250 employees. Half of the 10-acre site is available for further expansion. Although public transportation is lacking, car pools are meeting the needs.
51 A
LABORATORY OF THE M O N T H
A particle size classifier separates fine particles used in ceramic products. Efforts are also directed toward metallurgy, heat transfer, plastics, vacuum tubes, magnetic materials, semiconductors, ultrasonics, and agriculture
A wave analyzer is essential in checking operation of a furnace which attains temperatures of 3 5 0 0 ° F. Furnaces are used to produce ceramic materials for ultrasonic equipment and electronic controls
Research leading to improved combustion controls and burner safety equipment is facilitated by studies on flame characteristics. The special high speed camera records at a rate of 7 0 0 0 frames per second
A two-sphere radiometer is part of Honeywell's equipment for studying such phases of heat transfer as radiant temperatures, air temperature, air velocity, and relative humidity
Electric kilns are used to bake nonmetallic mineral materials used in production of transducers, which in turn are vital in ultrasonic sound equipment 52 A
Virtually any weather condition can be created in the atmosphere chamber, which is used to test expérimentât humidity-detecting elements ANALYTICAL
CHEMISTRY
