Ceramic Sandwich

Using new techniques and novel materials, scientists have learned to construct permanent magnets of astonishing power. Into a small hunk of fancy alloy, or a little bit of fragile ceramic, they have built all the pulling power of a hefty electromagnet without its awkward current-carrying coils. But in spite of their handiness. the new magnets have a built-in flaw: their pull is permanent. They lack practical versatility because their fierce attraction for iron-bearing metal cannot be turned off at will, unlike the clumsiest electromagnet, which can be controlled by the flick of a switch.

Permanent magnets seemed permanently limited until Westinghouse Engineer Ray Radus taught them a new trick. Radus began by building an unusually strong magnet, a slice of ceramic material sandwiched between flat plates of soft steel. With the steel focusing its lines of magnetic force in much the same manner that a small lens strengthens a spotlight beam, one of Radus' ceramic sandwiches only an inch square can exert a pull of some 30 lbs. The problem--to make it let go. If a few turns of wire are wrapped around the sandwich, and a small current is sent through the coil for a fraction of a second, most of the pulling power switches in an instant from one end of the magnet to the other. A few flashlight batteries can supply enough juice--not nearly so much as would be needed by an equivalent electromagnet.

Possible applications of the ceramic sandwich seem practically endless. Westinghouse is already planning to build them into remotely controlled locks for car trunks or motor hoods. They show promise of great value as relays for operating switches at a distance. And in the not too remote future they may help an orbiting astronaut make his way around his zero-gravity spaceship. Weightless, the space traveler would float aimlessly. With ceramic sandwiches in the soles' of his shoes and small batteries in his pocket, he could walk up metal walls or cross a ceiling using only a pair of pushbuttons to control his magnetic footing.

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