My friend Marc has returned from the Caribbean and joined his family's business
"Wavelength References" down in Mulino, Oregon. Before he went on
his giant sailing adventure, he was a regular at our Thursday lunch. The gang was curious about just what this new business venture was all about, so last week we went to Marc's house for lunch and a tour of the business. Quit a bit of science and technology, not to mention a little voodoo, packed into a very small space. One of the most impressive pieces of equipment was a black box, about the size of shoe box, that is used to splice fiber optic strands togther. Fiber optic fibers are not very big. Not only that, but there are several outer layers protecting the inner optical glass fiber that actually carries the signal. This center fiber is only a few microns in diameter. It is covered by a glass sheath that brings the thickness up to a couple of thousandths of an inch. Then there is a plastic cover over that. The picture shows a unit similar to the one Marc uses. The little screens show a magnified image of the end of the fiber, before, during and after fusing the prepared ends of the glass fibers together.
On the way back Jack and I elected to take the
Canby Ferry. It had been 20 years since the last time Jack had ridden it, and I did not even know there was one, so it was a bit of an adventure. It is a small ferry. It can hold six cars. It takes no more than five minutes to cross the river, so a round trip probably takes it about 20 minutes. There is a a steel cable stretched across the river, below the surface of the water. The ferry has a couple of big guide pulleys that are attached to this cable, so the operator does not have to steer. All he has to do is run the motor and the ferry follows the cable to the other side. If you look over the side you can see one of the pulleys hanging off the upstream side of the boat. The cable is at least an inch thick, about like a ski lift cable. The cable is attached to the shore with some chain and a come-along. When we were getting on, the operator was busy cranking on the come-along, tightening up the cable. The river was flowing pretty good, so I imagine the cable was getting a little strain. While I was looking for pictures of the ferry today I found a notice that the ferry is closed due to high water.
The ferry uses electric motors for propulsion. There are wires strung across the river maybe 50 feet in the air. There is a little shuttle that slides along these wires and is connected to the ferry with a cable. The shuttle picks up the electric current and sends it to the ferry thru this cable. The cable also pulls the shuttle along the wires. The fee was $1.25.
Canby Ferry photo album. All pictures taken from the internet.
Update April 2015: Replaced pictures that Blogger lost.
Update February 2020 replaced link to Picasa slide show with link to Google Photos Album.
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