A 1000-channel neutron-velocity spectrometer using ferrite data storage

The paper describes the electronic sorting and counting equipment for a spectrometer using `time of flight¿ techniques in the energy range 1¿1000eV, the neutron source being a nuclear reactor in conjunction with a mechanical shutter. This provides bursts of neutrons at about 0·25microsec duration and 1000pulses/sec repetition rate. After passing through the test specimen, the neutrons are sorted into 1000 energy channels and the number of neutrons counted in each channel during the experiment is scaled and recorded. Thus 1000 numbers must be stored. Each number store takes the form of ten 2mm ferrite toroidal cores, and the 1000 channel store is arranged as a matrix of 1000×10 cores, controlled from a common 10-stage transistor binary scaler. Selection of each channel requires the use of an address matrix of a thousand 8mm cores arranged in a 10×10×10 matrix. At the end of the experiment the contents of the store may be taken out on to a punched-tape machine.