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The Joint Council Initiative in the UK was set up to encourage interdisciplinary research between cognitive science and human computer interaction. This evaluates the Initiative and the success of the collaboration across disciplines. A lack of clarity of objectives and definitions in programme design is a severe restriction on the ability to evaluate achievement. The solution in this case was threefold: to develop a personal perspective on interdisciplinarity; to examine the internal consistency of the definitions used; and to collect empirical information on a broad range of indicators, supplemented by case studies. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

One of the main issues contributing to the US-instigated hiatus in negotiations on the Draft Convention for the Law of the Sea has been the question of production controls for manganese nodule mining. As the text stands, production controls cover both the total amount of metals produced from nodules in any year and also the maximum quantity which any single operator will be licensed to produce annually. Both types of control use the nickel content of nodules mined as the specified limit. The overall controls relate production to projected growth in world nickel consumption. In this note, some of the implications of the methods used to calculate production ceilings are explored. The likely success of the regulations in achieving their stated objectives can then be discussed.

This paper outlines the structure of the institutions involved in scientific and technological development in France. It points to new trends in French marine policy, and gives details of the country's offshore petroleum technology and nodule mining.

The use of helical rotors offers considerable advantages over reciprocating systems for the compression of air and gases. The first patent on these had been taken out in 1946 by a Swedish firm known as Svenska Rotor Maskiner AB (SRM). High-precision requirements for the manufacture of rotors, which had to rotate in intersecting pairs, meant that up to 200 hours of hand-finishing work was necessary, making helical rotor compressors very expensive. Following an approach to John Holroyd & Co. of Rochdale, a firm experienced in the manufacture of worm gears, a milling process based on that used for gears was developed. In the version current at the time of the Queen’s Awards blanks were held in position while three stages of machining were applied. Initially, the grooves or lobes (for female and male rotors respectively) were rough-machined into the required spiral configuration. For the next stage similar cutters were used but with a specially shaped blade. In the finishing stage an original approach was adopted. Holroyd had realised that with a large multibladed milling cutter, minute differences would exist in the heights of blades.

During the early development of semiconductor electronic components individual products had their own particular function, which in each case was roughly analogous to the function performed by a given type of thermionic valve. While the use of semiconductor components provided significant advantages over valves (in particular smaller physical size, lower power consumption and, once the devices had become established commercial products, lower unit-costs) these components, like valves, were manufactured as individual items and then wired together to make a circuit. However, by the early 1960s leading semiconductor manufacturers in America (notably Fairchild and Texas Instruments) had developed commercial processes that were capable of forming interconnected arrangements of components on a single chip of semiconductor material. These chips, or integrated circuits, enabled the functions of a number of electronic components to be performed by a single device.

BICC’s development of a process for producing continually transposed cable (CTC) for sale to customers in the transformer manufacturing industry, represented one of two innovations which enabled the company to gain the Queen’s Award in 1966. CTC was first developed in America by General Electric, during the 1940s, as a means of improving the performance of large-capacity transformers used in electricity supply networks. Although the British Thompson Houston (BTH) Co. was quick to license the American transposing equipment, it only produced CTC for internal use in the production of some of its high-performance transformers.

The Seacat missile was designed to defend surface ships against air attack. Developed in response to a Royal Navy requirement to replace the 40mm gun, the missile had its first sea-trials in 1960. Since that time it has seen widespread service in seventeen of the world’s navies and many variants have been developed. In the original version the target was first detected by the ship’s radar. Its co-ordinates were passed to a control officer who indicated to another operator — the aimer — the direction of attack. The aimer picked up the target in a pair of mounted binoculars and the missile was fired. Following the missle visually, the aimer used a thumb-operated joystick to guide missiles by radio signals. Changes in direction were effected by an electro-hydraulic servo mechanism. Collectively, these elements are known as an engagement or fire-control system.

The two separate firms gaining the Queen’s Award in 1967 for the Stereoscan electron microscope and the image-analysing computer were Cambridge Scientific Instruments and Metals Research respectively. In 1975 the two firms responsible for these instruments were merged to form the Cambridge Instrument Co. Ltd and therefore the developments of both innovations are considered in this one case-study.

The introduction of an automatic gearbox as an optional extra for the British Motor Corporation’s (BMC) (from 1968 the British Leyland Motor Corporation’s (BLMC)) 850cc Mini enabled Automotive Products (AP) to gain the Queen’s Award in 1966. AP produced the gearbox after a joint development programme with the BLMC, and the close supplier-customer relationship which emerged has been a strong element in shaping the path of post-innovation developments. Minor modifications to the gearbox enabled BLMC to offer automatic versions of their 1100 and 1300 ranges, which like the Mini used the company’s A-series engines. Moreover, a direct descendant of the original award-winning gearbox is still produced for the Mini Metro. In 1972 a further strand of post-innovation development was established with the launch of a new design of the original gearbox, which was suitable for larger capacity engines of between 1300 and 2500cc. In addition to applications in BLMC cars, AP have also supplied this uprated gearbox for use in Lancia’s Beta, Gamma and Delta models.

An ideal inertial navigation system should present an accurate indication of the position and the velocity of a vehicle at every point on its journey. For civil aviation, maritime and land uses this provides a task of enormous technological complexity, but it is in military aircraft and aerospace applications that the demands made on a system reach their peak. Great accuracy, light weight, fast response and the ability to cope with extreme operating conditions (including aircraft manoeuvres) all contribute to this. Two types of components, the accelerometers and the gyroscopes, provide the sensors by which motion is detected. The principle behind their operation is that matter resists changes in its motion — that it has inertia. In its simplest aspect, the accelerometer measures vehicle acceleration, integrating once to give a measure of velocity and twice to give a measure of distance travelled. The direction along which the accelerometer measures must be kept fixed in space or else allowance must be continuously made for its changing direction. This is achieved by the gyroscopes which provide a stable attitude-reference.

Joseph Lucas (Electrical) Ltd won the Queen’s Award for Technological Achievement in 1967 in recognition of pioneer development work on high-voltage transistors for use in petrol-engine ignition systems. Ths use of semiconductor technology, in the form of high-voltage transistors, provided an electronic switch which was capable of performing the function previously achieved using mechanically operated contact-breaker points. This electronic switch enabled the company to upgrade the performance of an established product through the use of a new component.

Kelvin Hughes: Radar Navigation Aid - Lambeg Industrial Research Association and McCleery and L'Amie: The ATOZ Process - Lucas Aerospace: Brushless Generators for Aircraft - The Introduction of Semiconductor Technology at Joseph Lucas (Electrical) - Lytag: Lightweight Aggregate from Pulverised Fuel Ash - The Marconi Company: The Mark VII Television Camera - The Martin Baker Aircraft Company: Aircraft Ejection Seats - Mirlees Blackstone: Large Diesel Engines of Medium Speed - Oxford Instruments: High Magnetic Fields and Low Temperatures - Plasticisers: Synthetic Material for Cordage - Renold Power Transmission (Holroyd Machine Tools and Rotors): Rotor Milling Machines - Shorts: Seacat Guided Weapon System - The 600: New Methods of Lathe Manufacturing - Smiths Industries: Aircraft Automatic Landing Equipment - Vosper Thornycroft (UK) Limited: Gas-Turbine Powered Fast Patrol Boats - Beecham Group: New Antibiotics - Bonas Machine Company: Shuttleless Looms - Sanders and Forster: Structural Steelwork - Thorium: Rare Earth Separation - References - Index