Overall views of the two Sarawak Paraconical Pendulums
This shows the first pendulum. It uses a proper Olenici-style lenticular brass bob - actually, our prototype bob. I believe that it is fair to say that this is the most sensitive physical pendulum in the world at the present time - but I am willing to be corrected. I do not say "the most accurate"; it depends upon what exactly you mean by accuracy - accurate in what way? but nobody else is using ultra-precision balls and flats for a paraconical pendulum, and I think we have got most of the obvious bugs out of the structure and the operational protocols. The glaring deficiency is of course in the insufficiently rigid support - this pendulum is well enough made to deserve a purpose-built mounting structure, built from many tons of concrete. Then - for the first time ever in the history of the subject - we will have a chance of genuinely realizing a perfectly isotropic support. And this is the second pendulum. Apart from its bob, it was substantially structurally identical to the first pendulum, and it was mounted to swing in the same NW-SE azimuth. However, its bob was not lenticular, but rather plate-shaped with a tapered edge. Moreover, this bob was made from mild steel which is magnetic (although it was not magnetized to any substantial extent). We are aware that both of these features were sub-optimal, but it was a question of getting something working under time pressure. Anyway, that's what we used. As described later, these two pendulums did not behave in the same manner, and perhaps this plate-shaped steel bob was to blame; the jury is still out. Back to the description of operating the English paraconical pendulums in Sarawak. Back to the website main page.
