The research of
Fr Wilfrid Sollom OSB

Under the direction of Fr Wilfrid Sollom, for many years Douai Abbey was an official meteorological station and monks took turns in recording the daily readings. In the 1970s, the Douai School radio society ran a project to track the American Weather Satellites and produce their own pictures from the radio signals. Two examples are reproduced above.

In the 1960s, Douai Abbey was an out-station of the Radio Research Station at Slough, and contributed statistical information about the effect of the weather on VHF radio propagation from Lichfield (140 km) and Lille (300 km). The results are recorded in PROC. IEE, Vol 112, No 2, February 1965.

Specific research also focused on the reflection of VHF radio signals by aircraft which caused a characteristic type of interference to reception. On one occasion an aircraft of the Meteorological Research Flight at Farnborough flew an ascending spiral course above Douai Abbey to check the theory that aircraft near the receiver or transmitter caused the greatest interference, but this disproved the theory!

With co-operation of Air Traffic Control at Heathrow, the complete picture of all air traffic over the home counties was examined for a trial half hour, and a complete explanation obtained for all the recorded radio interference. The aircraft responsible were about 40 km away. One was a VC10, whose reflections as shown by a model in a spotlight, were particularly strong. The story of this research is recorded in RADIO COMMUNICATION, the Journal of the Radio Society of Great Britain, Dec 1970 - Feb 1971.

Electrostatics is a branch of Physics that is very difficult to demonstrate to a large group of pupils. Using every-day materials like a "Coke" can as a Faraday 'Ice Pail', and a drinking straw as a pointer, a large demonstration electroscope was developed which was clearly visible from the back of the class. A drawing pin made an ideal 'proof plane'.

Sold as a kit to a number of schools, this and similar apparatus was demonstrated in lectures to the Thames Valley Physics Centre at Reading University, and to many local radio clubs in the 1980s and 1990s. Fitted with a 'counter electrode' (foil wrapped table-tennis ball) the instrument becomes a pulse-electroscope for showing extremely small currents.

Click for Complete Instructions for making and using the DIY Electroscope.