Page 76 - A Life - my Live - my path

My career - the IRE

stronger the air movement, the more electrons it carried
away, which reduced the value of 'x', and therefore the
electric current. The difficulty lay in the fact that the
variations in current were not linear with the wind speed we
wanted to measure. After calibration, the measured current
was equivalent to the wind speed. This device was much
more sensitive than other existing devices, all of which were
based on a mechanical principle (rotating propeller).
After 6 weeks' work, around 15 November 1975, the IRE
sent me for 10 days to the Salon des Inventions in Geneva,
where we won a prize. The device was noticed by a German
company . specialising in anemometers. Collaboration
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projects were launched. As a technician, I travelled several
times to the Munich region to develop a semi-industrial

model with the company's technical teams. The
performance was good, the mechanical characteristics were
excellent and the compartment that was to contain the thin
lamella of Americium-241 was easily accessible and very
well protected. Unfortunately, after several months of
negotiations, the commercial agreements could not be
concluded.

Anecdote: young engineer
As a young engineer, I had my own office and, opposite,
my own laboratory.
One day I came home from work and my mother looked at
me with shining eyes and said: "This morning I phoned

67 ROTAMETRE in Munich.
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