Dave Moll wrote:The nearest my mind can get to this is to place the output of the light pipe at the focus of a parabolic mirror - with a similar setup within line-of-sight to receive it. I suspect that the losses therein would be too great to achieve any useful distance.
Great idea, Dave! Now we can expand the discussion to "beamed" non-electric television! I think that it could work with large parabolic reflectors. It might even work as well as transmitting optical signals over the same distance through optical fibre.
The only real issue that I see with beamed non-electric television is synchronisation, but that is a small point.
Dave Moll wrote:On the subject of synchronisation, would it be possible to drive both camera and receiver discs from the same compressed-air supply? The CCTV link would then consist of a light pipe and an air pipe.
Edit: A further thought - to avoid the use of electricity for creating the air supply, perhaps the air compressor could be operated by pedal power.
We have suggested driving the camera and display discs with pneumatic motors in series driven by the same compressed air supply to achieve synchronisation. That is, a compressed air supply would drive the camera disc motor, the discharge of the camera motor would feed the inlet of the display motor and the display motor would discharge to atmosphere.
The air pipe between them could also serve as the light pipe if it has good internal reflection qualities, similar to the light pipe arrangement shown in Mr. Wheeler's 1880 patent. In this case, each end of the air pipe/light pipe would terminate in a container that has an optical window on the end and an air fitting on the side. A lens would couple light between the scanning disc and the air pipe/light pipe through the optical window.
A steam engine or Stirling engine could run an air pump to supply compressed air, but a treadle-powered air pump would be an interesting choice as well.