Is Air Logic a Lost Art?

You can't lose something that was never found, at least in my opinion Air Logic never was a viable Control System to 99% of the industrial world.

Then the PLC came along just as Crouzet, ARO and Telemechanique finally came up with some miniature components that did'nt take a small buikding ti house them and the rest is history.

A very workable system that had only a few promoting it and hardly anyone that saw the potential, so it floundered like many other "Came to Late" big ideas.

For anyone interested in Air Logic Control equipment and how it is applied you can see a chapter from my Fluid Power Basics training book I use to teach classes here.

http://www.hydraulicspneumatics.com/200/eBooks/Article/True/70259/

The Logic elements are described and application examples are shown as well as some basic circuits. I also have the chapter in a Power Point presentation with the elements and circuits animated if anyone is interested.

Unfortuanately, I have yet t use this chapter in a class since no one has ever heard of Air Logic and only a few are even interested in pursuing the system.

In 1959, I recall the Hagan Boiler Level Control system, an air relay logic facility that had been installed in the A1W (aircraft carrier #1, by Westinghouse) Nuclear Power Plant.

It sat idle while we used a magnetic amplifier-based system for the feed and level control functions for four steam generators. No one said as much, but the air relay system was probably "backup" in case the newer technology didn't work as promised. During the 2 1/2 years I spent in that plant as trainee and then instructor-operator, the Hagan system was never used.