The Marconi Company Limited

Occidental Refineries Ltd.

Dennis William Byatt

Harold Thomas Brown

John W Walker

Apparatus for measuring and indicating the settlement of the floor of a large liquid containing vessel such as an oil storage tank. The apparatus comprises sonic echo sounding means positioned at or movable between each of a multiplicity of spaced points disposed within the vessel and above its floor in known relationship one with another, and ranging means for furnishing for each point, and upon the basis of the echo sounding means output, a measure of the distance from the point to the vessel floor and an indicator (preferably visual) for indicating from the ranging results the settlement of the floor below those points. In preferred embodiments, the surface of the liquid within the vessel is utilized as a datum and the arrangement may be adapted to provide an indication of the volume of liquid within the vessel.

Distance measuring

A stereoscopic television system uses a switchable optical polarizer to alternately form images corresponding to the left and right eyes on a television camera tube. A corresponding switchable polarizer is used in combination with a television monitor to produce alternately images which are vertically or horizontally polarized. The switchable polarizer is a liquid crystal cell containing a thin layer of twisted nematic liquid crystal material.

Stereoscopic television system

An imaging device which responds to incident thermal or acoustic signals, consists of a layer of electrically poled plastics material, such as polyvinyladene fluoride, on a semiconductor substrate. The plastics material enables an electric charge to be generated within the semiconductor, and the device is read by transferring the charges in `packets` to an output point.

Imaging device

A thermoplastic film is used to record data in the form of variations in molecular orientation of the polar molecules. The film is softened by heating and the data recorded, after which the film is cooled to retain the recorded molecular orientation.

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Chelmsford, United Kingdom

Dennis William Byatt