Physics at Virginia
High Speed Rotors
Dr. Beams was best known for his work with high speed rotors. The speed constancy of a rotating object is limited by the friction of the bearing it rotates on. Beams helped develop a magnetic suspension device and was the first to use it with high speed rotors. By placing the rotors in vacuum, he eliminated almost all friction on them. The speeds attainable by his method are ulitimately limited only by the strength of the rotors.
A practical use of fast rotors can be found in centrifuging. Beams developed an "ultracentrifuge" which could develop forces equivalent to a billion times that of gravity. Centrifuges are useful in chemistry for separating solutions. Beams' new centrifuge found immediate use in medical research, and was instrumental in the isolation of the yellow fever virus. The ultracentrifuge can also be used to separate the isotopes of an element from each other. Beams was the first to use centrifugation to separate Uranium isotopes needed for nuclear power.
The equipment was built by
- Werner Frewer
- Fritz Linke, and
- Philipp Sommer.