Robert E. Finnigan
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Robert E. Finnigan
Robert Emmet Finnigan (May 27, 1927August 14, 2022) was an American pioneer in the development of gas chromatography–mass spectrometry equipment (GC/MS). Finnigan founded the Scientific Instruments Division of Electronic Associates, Electronic Associates, Inc., producing the first commercial quadrupole mass spectrometer in 1964. He then formed Finnigan Instruments Corporation to combine a computer system with a quadrupole mass spectrometer and gas chromatograph. Finnigan's GC/MS/computer systems are used to detect and identify trace organic compounds, making them important instruments for the monitoring and protection of the environment. They were adopted by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as a standard instrument for monitoring water quality and were fundamental to the work of the EPA. Early life and education Robert Finnigan was born on May 27, 1927, in Buffalo, New York, to Charles M. and Marie F. Finnigan. He was one of seven children, who were raised pr ...
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Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Southern Ontario. With a population of 278,349 according to the 2020 census, Buffalo is the 78th-largest city in the United States. The city and nearby Niagara Falls together make up the two-county Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which had an estimated population of 1.1 million in 2020, making it the 49th largest MSA in the United States. Buffalo is in Western New York, which is the largest population and economic center between Boston and Cleveland. Before the 17th century, the region was inhabited by nomadic Paleo-Indians who were succeeded by the Neutral, Erie, and Iroquois nations. In the early 17th century, the French began to explore the region. In the 18th century, Iroquois land surrounding Buffalo Creek ...
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Air Force Institute Of Technology
The Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) is a graduate school and provider of professional and continuing education for the United States Armed Forces and is part of the United States Air Force. It is in Ohio at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton. AFIT is a component of the Air University and Air Education and Training Command. Overview Founded in 1919 and degree-granting since 1956, the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) is the Air Force's graduate school of engineering and management as well as its institution for technical professional continuing education. AFIT is located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB), Dayton, Ohio. Dayton's heritage and industrial base in aeronautics and aviation, coupled with the close proximity to the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) provide a scientific and engineering research and educational experience focused on producing future leaders of the Air Force ...
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Kenneth R
Kenneth is an English given name and surname. The name is an Anglicised form of two entirely different Gaelic personal names: ''Cainnech'' and '' Cináed''. The modern Gaelic form of ''Cainnech'' is ''Coinneach''; the name was derived from a byname meaning "handsome", "comely". A short form of ''Kenneth'' is '' Ken''. Etymology The second part of the name ''Cinaed'' is derived either from the Celtic ''*aidhu'', meaning "fire", or else Brittonic ''jʉ:ð'' meaning "lord". People :''(see also Ken (name) and Kenny)'' Places In the United States: * Kenneth, Indiana * Kenneth, Minnesota * Kenneth City, Florida In Scotland: * Inch Kenneth, an island off the west coast of the Isle of Mull Other * "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?", a song by R.E.M. * Hurricane Kenneth * Cyclone Kenneth Intense Tropical Cyclone Kenneth was the strongest tropical cyclone to make landfall in Mozambique since modern records began. The cyclone also caused significant damage in the Comoro Islands and ...
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SRI International
SRI International (SRI) is an American nonprofit scientific research institute and organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California. The trustees of Stanford University established SRI in 1946 as a center of innovation to support economic development in the region. The organization was founded as the Stanford Research Institute. SRI formally separated from Stanford University in 1970 and became known as SRI International in 1977. SRI performs client-sponsored research and development for government agencies, commercial businesses, and private foundations. It also licenses its technologies, forms strategic partnerships, sells products, and creates spin-off companies. SRI's headquarters are located near the Stanford University campus. SRI's annual revenue in 2014 was approximately $540 million, which tripled from 1998 under the leadership of Curtis Carlson. In 1998, the organization was on the verge of bankruptcy when Carlson took over as CEO. Over the next sixteen years wit ...
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Nevada Test Site
The Nevada National Security Site (N2S2 or NNSS), known as the Nevada Test Site (NTS) until 2010, is a United States Department of Energy (DOE) reservation located in southeastern Nye County, Nevada, about 65 miles (105 km) northwest of the city of Las Vegas. Formerly known as the Nevada Proving Grounds, the site was established in 1951 for the testing of nuclear devices. It covers approximately 1,360 square miles (3,500 km2) of desert and mountainous terrain. Nuclear weapons testing at the site began with a 1-kiloton-of-TNT (4.2 TJ) bomb dropped on Frenchman Flat on January 27, 1951. Over the subsequent four decades, over 1,000 nuclear explosions were detonated at the site. Many of the iconic images of the nuclear era come from the site. During the 1950s, the mushroom clouds from the 100 atmospheric tests could be seen from almost away. The city of Las Vegas experienced noticeable seismic effects, and the mushroom clouds, which could be seen from the downtown ho ...
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Cruise Missile
A cruise missile is a guided missile used against terrestrial or naval targets that remains in the atmosphere and flies the major portion of its flight path at approximately constant speed. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead over long distances with high precision. Modern cruise missiles are capable of travelling at high subsonic, supersonic, or hypersonic speeds, are self-navigating, and are able to fly on a non-ballistic, extremely low-altitude trajectory. History The idea of an "aerial torpedo" was shown in the British 1909 film ''The Airship Destroyer'' in which flying torpedoes controlled wirelessly are used to bring down airships bombing London. In 1916, the American aviator Lawrence Sperry built and patented an "aerial torpedo", the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane, a small biplane carrying a TNT charge, a Sperry autopilot and a barometric altitude control. Inspired by the experiments, the United States Army developed a similar flying bomb cal ...
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Supersonic Low Altitude Missile
The Supersonic Low Altitude Missile or SLAM was a U.S. Air Force nuclear weapons project conceived around 1955, and cancelled in 1964. SLAMs were conceived of as unmanned nuclear-powered ramjets capable of delivering thermonuclear warheads deep into enemy territory. The development of ICBMs in the 1950s rendered the concept of SLAMs obsolete. Advances in defensive ground radar also made the stratagem of low-altitude evasion ineffective. Although it never proceeded beyond the initial design and testing phase before being declared obsolete, the design contained several radical innovations as a nuclear delivery system. Conceived role The SLAM was designed to complement the doctrine of mutually assured destruction and as a possible replacement for, or augment to, the Strategic Air Command system. In the event of nuclear war it was intended to fly below the cover of enemy radar at supersonic speeds and deliver thermonuclear warheads to roughly 16 targets. Innovations The use of ...
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Ramjet
A ramjet, or athodyd (aero thermodynamic duct), is a form of airbreathing jet engine that uses the forward motion of the engine to produce thrust. Since it produces no thrust when stationary (no ram air) ramjet-powered vehicles require an assisted take-off like a rocket assist to accelerate it to a speed where it begins to produce thrust. Ramjets work most efficiently at supersonic speeds around and can operate up to speeds of . Ramjets can be particularly useful in applications requiring a small and simple mechanism for high-speed use, such as missiles. The US, Canada, and UK had widespread ramjet powered missile defenses during the 1960s onward, such as the CIM-10 Bomarc and Bloodhound. Weapon designers are looking to use ramjet technology in artillery shells to give added range; a 120 mm mortar shell, if assisted by a ramjet, is thought to be able to attain a range of . They have also been used successfully, though not efficiently, as tip jets on the ends of helicopt ...
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Nuclear-powered Aircraft
A nuclear-powered aircraft is a concept for an aircraft intended to be powered by nuclear energy. The intention was to produce a jet engine that would heat compressed air with heat from fission, instead of heat from burning fuel. During the Cold War, the United States and Soviet Union researched nuclear-powered bomber aircraft, the greater endurance of which could enhance nuclear deterrence, but neither country created any such operational aircraft. One inadequately solved design problem was the need for heavy shielding to protect the crew and those on the ground from radiation; other potential problems included dealing with crashes. Some missile designs included nuclear-powered hypersonic cruise missiles. However, the advent of ICBMs and nuclear submarines in the 1960s greatly diminished the strategic advantage of such aircraft, and respective projects were canceled. U.S. programs NEPA and ANP In May 1946, the United States Army Air Forces started the Nuclear Energy fo ...
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Project Pluto
Project Pluto was a United States government program to develop nuclear-powered ramjet engines for use in cruise missiles. Two experimental engines were tested at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) in 1961 and 1964 respectively. On 1 January 1957, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission selected the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory to study the feasibility of applying heat from a nuclear reactor to power a ramjet engine for a Supersonic Low Altitude Missile. This would have many advantages over other nuclear weapons delivery systems: operating at Mach number, Mach 3, or around , and flying as low as , it would be invulnerable to interception by contemporary air defenses and carry more and larger nuclear warheads (up to sixteen with nuclear weapon yields of up to ) and deliver them with greater accuracy than was possible with intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBMs) at the time and, unlike them, could be recalled. This research became known as Project Pluto, and was dir ...
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Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a federal research facility in Livermore, California, United States. The lab was originally established as the University of California Radiation Laboratory, Livermore Branch in 1952 in response to the detonation of the first atomic bomb by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It later became autonomous in 1971 and was designated a national laboratory in 1981. A federally funded research and development center, Lawrence Livermore Lab is primarily funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and it is managed privately and operated by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (a partnership of the University of California), Bechtel, BWX Technologies, AECOM, and Battelle Memorial Institute in affiliation with the Texas A&M University System. In 2012, the laboratory had the synthetic chemical element livermorium (element 116) named after it. Overview LLNL is self-described as a "premier research and development institution for sci ...
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Servomechanism
In control engineering a servomechanism, usually shortened to servo, is an automatic device that uses error-sensing negative feedback to correct the action of a mechanism. On displacement-controlled applications, it usually includes a built-in encoder or other position feedback mechanism to ensure the output is achieving the desired effect. The term correctly applies only to systems where the feedback or error-correction signals help control mechanical position, speed, attitude or any other measurable variables. For example, an automotive power window control is not a servomechanism, as there is no automatic feedback that controls position—the operator does this by observation. By contrast a car's cruise control uses closed-loop feedback, which classifies it as a servomechanism. Applications Position control A common type of servo provides ''position control''. Commonly, servos are electric, hydraulic, or pneumatic. They operate on the principle of negative feedback, wh ...
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