Description

Black and white photograph of John T. Burwell Jr., right, in the Sloan Automotive Laboratory with a student, teaching the basics of friction and lubrication using radioactive piston rings. Original caption: "A radioactive piston ring, so "hot" that it can be handled only with tongs, is removed after one hour of use in a one-cylinder test engine in the Sloan Automotive Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Traces of radioactive metal from the ring will be found on the walls of the cylinder in which it has been travelling. Dr. John T. Burwell, associate professor of mechanical engineering (right), supervises these experiments as part of basic studies in the fundamentals of friction and lubrication. For Release in PM Papers of March 21, 1950."