Lecture 2 - Home safe home
Ever since man began building in stone, mud, wood, ice or brick, walls have had: to be strong and thick enough to take the weight of floors and a roof. Houses have also had to be capable of withstanding natural forces due to winds, storms and earth-tremors. Architects and civil engineers now have codes of practice to cover foundations, materials and factors such as weight distribution which account for the natural resonance of a structure.
The development of the float glass production system a quarter of a century ago made available large-area, high-quality, strengthened glass at very competitive costs compared with other materials. Structures that are as much window as wall are now commonplace. In such buildings it is important that the windows provide a comfortable environment for the occupiers. Surface coatings and sealed double-glazing units are now available which help regulate the influx of visible and thermal radiation. Active, 'smart', windows are being researched the transparency of which is controlled by small electronic pulses applied to electrochromic coatings on the glass. Other special types of glazing are effective in providing shielding against electronic eavesdropping. Glass is used in many other ways in the home; in cooking utensils, lighting systems, television screens:and for decorative purposes, to name but a few. Faraday had an interest in the subject and during the period 1825-30 made many different types of glass at the Royal Institution.
Access to buildings continues to be dominated by locks and keys. The popular Yale key invented in 1850 was the first to be mass-produced and machine-made but is based on a principle first used in ancient Egyptian locks. More sophisticated physical access control methods are now being demanded. Some rely on token-based systems involving magnetic-strip technology similar to that used in credit cards. Others use biometric identification principles such as fingerprint or voice recognition. The increased requirement for effective security systems has also stimulated interesting advances in fire and article protection and intruder detection research.
About the 1988 CHRISTMAS LECTURES
Professor Gareth Roberts (1940-2007), then of Thorn EMI plc and the University of Oxford, and later Sir Gareth, presents the 1988 CHRISTMAS LECTURES titled 'The Home of the Future'. The impact of modern developments in electronics, materials and communications technology is becoming increasingly apparent in the home. There are numerous examples of innovative products that have arisen due to a combination of scientific progress and market demands. Many other exciting ideas are now emerging from industrial and academic laboratories and will play a significant role in homes during the next decade. These will be discussed in this series of lectures together with classic discoveries and inventions in related areas.