I had to look it up but it looks like it is simply an arrangement of
coils used to generate a very uniform magnetic field in a volume -
probably for science experiments and possibly medical instrumentation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmholtz_Coils

Sean


On Wed, Aug 6, 2008 at 2:56 AM, Forrest W. Christian <forrestc@imach.com> w=
rote:
> Are you trying to build a time machine?
>
> Sorry, that was my first impression (meaning a "Helmholtz coil" sounds
> like the type of weird concoction which would be part of a time machine
> - you know right alongside the flux capacitor), and after looking at the
> pictures of the gear and reading the datasheet at
> http://www.meda.com/Data_Sheets/hcs01.pdf , I'm not 100% convinced that
> a Helmholtz coil isn't the key component in either a time machine or
> other similar devices.
>
> After all, anything which includes the following description:
> -----------
> "In the open loop system, fixed currents are passed through the coils to
> produce a coarse null in the control volume. The null is trimmed to its
> final value under computer control. Precision control currents are added
> to the fixed currents to generate accurate and stable uniform fields
> within the control volume"
> -----------
> *has* to be from some science-fiction story.  Especially when the
> features include "Three Square Concentric Orthogonal Helmholtz Coils"
> and "=B1200,000 nT Control Field Range."
>
> So on a more serious note, what exactly do you use a Helmholtz coil
> for?  In the real world, that is...all of the purposes I could come up
> with seem rather esoteric or more easily obtained in another way.
>
> -forrest
>
>
> Jonathan Hallameyer wrote:
>> Hello All,
>> I'm looking to buy a tri-axis helmholtz coil system and having a bit
>> of difficulty finding manufacturers of such systems with google, The
>> Ive found a couple, but the majority of the results are technical
>> papers and links to patent sites. Anyone know of any manufacuturers,
>> or a better search engine to use? Ive tried globalspec but that
>> returns nothing at all for "helmholtz"
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Jonathan Hallameyer
>>
>
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