Conduit 1

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Conduit 1
x = 24, y = 13, rule = B3/S23 b2o$2bo$bo$b2o6$o3b2o15bo$2o2b2o15bo$b2o18b3o$2o21bo! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]] #C [[ AUTOSTART ]] #C [[ ZOOM 16 Y 2 GPS 10 LOOP 60 PAUSE 2 T 59 PAUSE 2 ]]
Pattern type Conduit
Conduit type Converter
Input B-heptomino
Output Herschel
Number of cells 10
Bounding box 11 × 5
Output orientation Unturned, flipped
Output offset (21, 0)
Step 59 ticks
Recovery time
(ignoring FNG if any)
54 ticks
Minimum overclock period
(ignoring FNG if any)
Unknown
Spartan? Yes
Discovered by David Buckingham
Year of discovery 1996

Conduit 1, also known by its systematic name BFx59H, is one of the earliest and most remarkable converters, discovered by David Buckingham on July 5, 1996. Composed of a block and a rock snake (or eater 1 in either of two orientations to make it Spartan, or shillelagh for slightly better clearance on the opposite side[1]), it transforms a B-heptomino into a clean Herschel with very good clearance in 59 generations, allowing easy connections to other conduits.

It forms the final stage of many of the known composite conduits, including the majority of the original sixteen Herschel conduits. It is important because it was one of the key pieces in finding a method for construction of oscillators and guns of arbitrarily large periods (see omniperiodic).

BFx59H injector

x = 23, y = 17, rule = B3/S23 2o$bo$o$2o3$11bo$10bo$10b3o$3b2o15bo$3b2o15bo$20b3o$22bo2$2o$b2o$o! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]] #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 ZOOM 16 GPS 10 AUTOSTART T 0 PAUSE 2 T 64 PAUSE 2 LOOP 65 ]]
BFx59H injector
(click above to open LifeViewer)
RLE: here Plaintext: here

Earlier in 1992, Buckingham found a collision involving two 180-degree gliders and a block, which when catalysed by a snake produces a Herschel and restores the block. After the discovery of BFx59H, it was realized that the constellation is identical because the same block is consumed to make the same intermediate R-pentomino. The reaction has a repeat time of 65 ticks.

This was first used by the over-unity reaction in a p500+200n glider gun built around November 17.[2] In February 2004, Karel Suhajda built a pseudo period-14 glider gun at period 70 containing this mechanism.

For a long time this mechanism has been unnamed. It was named BFx59H injector recently[3] due to the observation that it allows one to inject a Herschel in the middle of a Herschel track. For clearance issues, the preceding conduit is the RF28B variant with extra forward glider (as in a variant of L156) and the succeeding conduit is R64 or Fx119. As this requires two synchronized signals, it has been obsoleted by single-input merge conduits like rectifier and Bx106/Fx119 Herschel merger.

Some other devices that convert two gliders into a Herschel with a BFx59H and additional catalysts are also known, though with a lower recovery time. In 1996, Dean Hickerson constructed some Herschel-based guns with the following 2G-to-H converters.[4][5]

x = 52, y = 66, rule = B3/S23 29b2o$30bo$29bo$29b2o6$32b2o15bo$7b2o23b2o15bo$8bo40b3o$8bobo9b3o28bo$ 9bo12bo$21bo3b3o$25bo$26bo$9b2o$8bobo$8bo$7b2o2$21b2o$21bo$22bo$21b2o 25$29b2o$30bo$29bo$29b2o$20b2o$20bobo$21bo2$8bo$8bobo21b2o15bo$8b2o22b 2o15bo$49b3o$2o49bo$2o5b2o$7bobo$7bo! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]] #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 ZOOM 10 WIDTH 800 HEIGHT 800 Y 2 GPS 20 AUTOSTART T 0 PAUSE 2 T 137 PAUSE 2 LOOP 138 ]]
Two other 2G-to-H converters, based on 8+ and 4- collision respectively. The first one releases an extra SW glider if the ghost eater is used instead. The second one employs an RF28B.
(click above to open LifeViewer)
RLE: here Plaintext: here

In the patterns shown above, ghost Herschels are used to mark the output location.

See also

References

  1. Sergey Petrov (March 27, 2012). Re: Thread For Your Accidental Discoveries (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
  2. gun4b.lif at Paul Callahan's Page of Conway's Life Miscellany
  3. Entity Valkyrie (October 28, 2018). BFx59H injector
  4. Dean Hickerson. "Herschel-based guns". Dean Hickerson's Game of Life page. Retrieved on April 29, 2022.
  5. Dave Greene (February 26, 2021). Re: Thread for basic questions (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums

External links