[757labs] Degaussing Coil

[Harold Scadden]

In case you were wondering what they use the coils for ... well ...

The use the coils to remove any magnetic field that has built up on the hull of a ship and more
importantly a submarine.  When a metal object cuts the flux lines of a magnet ... it can start to
become magnitized itself.  The flux lines in this case are the flux lines of the Earth itself.  On
something like an Aircraft Carrier, they have the coils built into the ship ... but something like
a sub has to be degaussed every now and then to remove the magnetic signature.

If you have ever seen pictures with the propeller driven submarine search planes with the big boom
sticking out the rear .. well that is MAD ( Magnetic Anomoly Detection) gear.  It will sense a
magnitized object under the water.  One of the things we would do on the subs if a aircraft with
MAD was around ... would be run North / South along the flux lines so we could hide ourselves.  If
you crossed the flux lines with a East / West course you could stick out like a sore thumb.

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Wish I could be at the ROV meeting; however, my non-spousal boss (girlfriend) has other ideas :(
Oh well!

Can we start a mailing list like the InSpace list for the ROV thing?