Keywords: RabinowJacob 005.jpg The important elements of this system are the clutches housed in the twin steel cylinders on the chassis of the model the control box at the top right and the pivitol connector between the control box and the motor and clutches of the model top center The motor shaft on the model drives a friction disc connected to a small magnetic fluid cltch geared to the rear wheels One end of the second clutch housed in the cylinder nearest the rear right wheel is locked to the frame so that it can be used as a brake Jacob Rabinow invented the Magnetic Particle Clutch in 1947 during his work on ordnance at the National Bureau of Standards The particle clutch used a mixture of light lubricating oil and powdered carbonyl iron inside a chamber connecting two free spinning plates When an electromagnet attached to the chamber was energized the iron particles would magnetize and attract each other producing an almost solid mass which locked the plates together Controlling the magnetic flux would control the amount of torque between the plates Because Rabinow invented the Magnetic Particle Clutch as part of his work at the National Bureau of Standards the United States Government owned the U S patent However in partnership with his brother Joseph Rabinow did file for patents in 22 foreign countries Due of the simple design precise torque control smooth operation and long life the device found wide application It was used in Renault and Subaru automobiles in Europe and Japan in airplane controls and in the disc file of the IBM RAMAC computer Reference Inventing for Fun and Profit Jacob Rabinow San Francisco Press San Francisco CA 1990 pp 49-55 National Institute of Standards and Technology National Institute of Standards and Technology PD-USGov-NIST PD-USGov Magnetic_particle_clutches |