This inter-disciplinary examination assesses the European ceramics in the collections of the Dukes of Hamilton over a number of generations. The study is based principally on the evidence found in the Hamilton and other archives, comprising both textual and visual sources. The second element that forms the foundation for the research is the connoisseurship of ceramics, both extant and those known only through documents. Evidence has revealed that the Duchesses of Hamilton play a major role in this work. A significant number of Hamilton ceramics have been newly identified and located, while their attribution, acquisition and history within the collections have been assessed and clarified.

In the twentieth century, collecting became a core activity of local authority art galleries and museums in Britain. A key feature of these art collections was the representation of Twentieth Century British Art. The aim of this study is to examine, for the first time, this development as abroad cultural phenomenon, through the distinctive roles played by central government-funded, and independent national and provincial art collection schemes. The central government-funded art collection schemes are the V. & A Purchase Grant Fund, War Artists' Advisory Committee and the National Heritage Memorial Fund; and the national loan and exhibition schemes offered by the Tate Gallery and the Arts Council. Independent schemes are more numerous and varied. These were administered by the National Art Collections Fund (now the Art Fund), Contemporary Art Society, Scottish Modem Arts Association, Contemporary Art Society for Wales, Henry Moore Foundation and Gulbenkian Foundation. In addition, there were the independent national loan and exhibition schemes offered by the Museums Association, Peter Stuyvesant Foundation and Alistair McAlpine and provincial schemes based in Manchester (Charles Rutherston Loan Scheme), Cardiff (National Museum of Wales Loan Scheme), Liverpool ('John Moores' competition-exhibitions) and Bradford ('International Print Biennale' competition-exhibitions). Given the geographical coverage, historical scope and focus of this study, a substantial body of published and unpublished literature was consulted. The wide-range of sources examined included institutional histories, biographies and studies of Twentieth-Century British Art; permanent collection and exhibition catalogues; newspaper, journal and magazine articles, curatorial records and correspondence; institutional records and correspondence; archival material and reports; and . correspondence and interviews. This entailed the discovery of much new material and the collation of substantial random data held by the Contemporary Art Society and the Gulbenkian Foundation This research seeks to show that local authority collecting of Twentieth-Century British Art was part of a nation-wide cultural pattern determined by certain ideas, theories and policies. Within this context, Section 1 identifies and discusses the nature and purpose of public art galleries, muscums and their art collections from 1845-1945. This momentous period in the museum movement in Britain, it is argued, sustained and generated ideas, theories and policies which encompassed national institutional hierarchies and their models of collecting, high art aesthetic standards and scholarship linked connoisseurship; the organic structure of museums; and multifaceted education. It concludes that during this formative period, an enduring cultural framework was established, from which emerged key collecting impetuses which are art history, patronage and heritage. Sections 2 and 3 examine the roles played by central government-funded and independent schemes, as a response to these issues, which also engendered and reinforced the collecting of specific types of Twentieth Century British Art. Section'4 surveys the local authority collections, which participated in the schemes, and concludes that 1957-79 was a crucial period in post-war collecting, which was both facilitated by the emergence of a considerable and dynamic network of commercial art galleries, and enhanced by national and provincial measures to decentralize the arts. A principal conclusion is that the future of modem (twentieth-century) and contemporary (twenty-first- century) British art collecting, by local authority art galleries and museums, lies in its perception as part of a collective cultural enterprise, in which the intervention of collection schemes will, as in the past, play a fundamental role. Finally, there is also a strong argument for provincial institutions to feed into a national debate as to what is selected to represent both modem and contemporary British art practice in public collections in general.

The shared language, attitudes, practices and patterns of those who participate in “collecting" in the lower mainland area of British Columbia are described. Recurring themes and patterns emerge in the analysis of data obtained through interviews with thirty collector-informants. The generalizability of collecting as a phenomenon which exists outside of what is being collected is established. Collectors' roles as curators and the serious and consuming aspects of collecting, including the cycles of collecting, affection and sentiment held toward collected objects, and the strategies and approaches to the process of collecting are discussed. Propositions set out by previous researchers Belk, Danet and Katriel are examined in light of the data. Implications for museum studies and museum education specifically, are considered. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

The concept of a cavity absorber for use with a focusing parabolic trough is developed in this paper. A mathematical model is formulated and used to compare different absorber geometries. Limitations of the model are discussed and within the range of materials and fabrication methods available, the choice of a cylindrical cavity is substantiated. Relative sizes of the gap and cylinder are chosen for a given mirror arc length, focal length, and alignment error. The model is used to optimize these parameters and predict absorber and collector efficiency. The processes of building and testing the absorber are detailed, and test results are reported. Observed performance is significantly below that predicted. Mirror alignment errors are considered the most likely reason for the discrepancy. Other possible improvements to the experiment are suggested.

Two types of solar collecting systems are frequently employed--flat plate collectors with spectrally selective windows which trap sunlight with the "greenhouse effect" and focusing systems with curved mirrors which concentrate the sun's rays on an absorbing surface. The flat plate collector is the simpler of the two designs, but cannot readily provide temperatures as high as the focusing collector. Both of the collectors are candidates for absorption cycle solar air conditioning systems. This role dictates higher temperature than are normally required of solar collectors, particularly the flat plate design. Focusing systems of interest here are those which are fixed in orientation and require no elaborate solar tracking mount. Such collectors might be economically competitive with flat plate configurations if the higher energy "quality" or delivery temperature they can provide permitted a smaller installation than would be possible with a flat plate collector. An analysis of the two collector candidates is undertaken here to assess the merits of a fixed orientation focusing collector and a more traditional flat plate system. This analysis indicates that the focusing design is superior to the flat plate for solar air conditioning. The study of the two designs includes selection of system configurations and the development of their mathematical descriptions. The analytical approach was to incorporate mathematical models of the collectors into a computer program which predicts the performance of both the flat plate and focusing systems. The program has been designed to permit convenient variation of important parameters so that their effect on collector performance may be determined. The results of the collector analysis and the computer program are presented with sufficient information to permit the reader to use the program for his own analyses.

Presently, there exist significant discrepancies between experimental and theoretical predictions of flat-plate solar collector performance. There is a need to identify both those areas of analysis which need improvement as well as those which are already adequate. Two new methods of absorber-plate thermal analysis which can be used within the framework of existing theory were developed. The first method used the separation of variables technique in a unique manner to solve exactly for the coupled axial and transverse temperature distributions in an absorber plate-tube assembly. The conventional assumption of an overall uniform loss coefficient U_L was used in the analysis. The first method is practical only for parallel-flow collectors. The second method used two sectionally uniform loss coefficients -- U_LI for internal collector sections and U_LE for edge sections -- to evaluate collector performance. The second method is applicable for both parallel-flow and serpentine configurations. The validity of two assumptions commonly made in flat-plate collector analysis was investigated using the new methods. The first assumption that was investigated involved the approximate treatment of the effect of axial conduction on the absorber-plate temperature distributions. Results from the first new method were graphically compared to the predictions of approximate analytical treatments given by Whillier and Phillips. The comparisons showed that, for conventional flat-plate designs, the method given by Phillips yields values of the heat removal factor F_R accurate to within 1 per cent. The more commonly used method given by Whillier is accurate to within 10 per cent for conventional designs. The second assumption that was investigated dealt with the manner in heat losses from the collector peripheral area are taken into account. Results from the second new method indicated that, for typical collector designs, the conventional edge loss treatment yields values of instantaneous collector efficiency n_c accurate to within 3 per cent absolute and 15 per cent relative. Analysis of the net effect of the two improvements indicated that approximate axial and edge-loss treatments are not the primary source of error between experimental and theoretical results for typical collectors. The solution technique developed in the first new method has potential applications to a number of conduction-convection problems. The second new method has the inherent capability to better evaluate performance and design questions related to edge effects. Convenient relations between the mean plate and fluid temperatures and the heat removal factor F_R were obtained. The relations apply for parallel-flow analysis under the assumption of a uniform loss coefficient U_L. / Ph. D.

A cylindrical-parabolic solar collector was thermally optimized for a winter season using a weather model and an extension of the present state-of-the-art collector theory. An accurate model for the cover transmittance and a seasonal performance model was developed. The optimum collector dimensions and materials were found to be a strong function of the design operating temperatures. The optical and thermal losses of a cylindrical-parabolic collector were compared and the results showed that the major loss for process heating temperatures was heat lost by natural convection. Reflection and cover losses were the next largest losses. Comparison of a flat-plate collector with a cylindrical-parabolic collector showed that a cylindrical-parabolic collector appears better suited for process heating than domestic hot water or space heating. Glass and plastic covers were analyzed and the optimum collector slope was obtained. The investigation resulted in a better understanding of how different collector dimensions and materials affect collector performance. / Master of Science

An analytical and experimental investigation was undertaken to evaluate a proposed method for determining the thermal degradation of materials used in flat-plate solar collectors. The proposed method is based on measuring stagnation (no-flow) temperatures of the absorber plate. A comparison of the advantages and limitations of the proposed method is made with the conventionally used existing method which is based on measuring the energy output from the collector. Previous investigations have shown that the existing test method may not be sufficiently sensitive to detect expected changes in material properties, is influenced by the test environment, and is relatively expensive to perform. The material properties of interest are primarily the cover transmittance, the solar absorptance of the absorber, the infrared emittance of the absorber, and the thermal conductivity of insulation. Experimental results were obtained from both on and off-campus test sites. The data includes those from solar simulator tests and indoor tests using a highly instrumented solar collector. This indoor collector was equipped with electrical strip heaters mounted on the backside of the absorber plate to simulate the absorbed solar radiation in a controlled environment. The experiments included an investigation of four techniques for measuring the absorber stagnation temperature. Steady-state and transient analytical models are developed to evaluate stagnation temperature test methods. These models are validated using extensive experimental data. The proposed method is based on measuring stagnation temperatures before and after prolonged exposure to prevailing environmental conditions. While these measurements are simpler than those required in the energy output method, other.factors, such as transient effects, are important for outdoor tests. Test methods using instantaneous and allday integrated stagnation temperatures are considered. Both of these test methods were shown to be highly sensitive to environmental conditions. Wind speed was shown to potentially have the most serious influence on results. The measured temperature distribution of the absorber plate was shown to be highly nonisothermal as a result of collector edge heat losses and thermal stratification of the air underneath collector covers. Instantaneous measurements were observed to be very sensitive to transients as a result of intermittent cloud cover. All-day integrated measurements were not affected by such transients. The investigation revealed that proposed stagnation temperature test methods have potential in determining collector property changes after environmental exposure. Results indicate that the proposed method is more sensitive to small property changes than the current energy output method. However, variations in environmental conditions should be limited or taken into account when using stagnation temperature test methods. / Ph. D.

An analysis of outdoor collector performance data collected as part of the NBS Durability/Reliability Test Program is presented. The data is analyzed for consistent patterns of performance degradation resulting from prolonged outdoor exposure at low flow rate and stagnation conditions. The analysis includes examination of the effects of pyranometer sensitivity changes with time and sensitivity dependence on temperature. Performance results are compensated for differences in test environments by use of an analytic correction routine. A statistical examination of the implementation of the testing procedure is made to identify interlaboratory differences. / Master of Science

Data taken during the National Bureau of Standards Durability/Reliability (NBS D/R) Program is analyzed in depth in this report. The main thrust of the analysis is to develop methods of relating material property changes to full scale collector efficiency changes after exposure to environmental and operational conditions. To this end, results of material sample and full scale collector tests are discussed separately and then related to each other. Many of the materials tested showed no measurable change in optical properties after 480 days of exposure. Therefore, the results of six representative samples which span the range of responses observed are presented in detail. Next, a mathematical model of collector thermal performance is used to show the theoretical dependence of efficiency on property values. Actual degradation measurements of three typical collectors in the NBS D/R Program are presented. These measurements, based on ASHRAE standard 93-77 tests, show degradation between 0 and 4 percent of the original value of efficiency. Also presented is an analysis of the stagnation temperature variation with exposure time. No conclusive data resulted from the stagnation temperature analysis. Finally, the mathematical model is used with results from the material tests to predict the change in efficiency. The predictions are always within ± 3 percent of the measured 480-day efficiency. Error is estimated to be a result of uncertainty in insulation conductivity values used and other unexplained sources of error. / M.S.