Hand-Held Instrument for Imaging Hydrogen Fires

A hand-held instrument that contains two silicon-based charge-coupled-device (CCD) video cameras (see figure) has been developed for imaging hydrogen fires. This or a similar instrument is needed because the visible light emitted by a hydrogen fire is so dim that the fire cannot be seen by the unaided human eye — at least, not in bright daylight. Like some other CCD-camera-based instruments developed previously for the same purpose, this instrument is designed to operate at infrared wavelengths where hydrogen fires appear bright, relative to solar background light. One CCD camera is called the "cloudy" camera, while the other is called the "sunny" camera, to indicate the different lighting conditions under which the cameras are designed to operate. In front of the "cloudy" camera is a long-wavelength-pass filter with a cutoff wavelength of 800 nm; during overcast, this filter blocks enough background light to make a hydrogen flame appear bright against the background. In front of the "sunny" camera there is a long-wavelength-pass filter with a cutoff wavelength of 1,100 nm; this filter blocks the solar background in the presence of full sunshine, such that a hydrogen flame is brighter than the solar background. The infrared images in the cameras are converted electronically and displayed to the instrument operator as visible images on miniature cathode-ray tubes in electronic viewfinders. A switch enables the operator to select the camera depending on the current light conditions. Optionally, both cameras and their viewfinders can be used simultaneously for binocular viewing.