Big Ship

Big Ship or The Big Ship may refer to:

Big Ship (Cardiacs album)

Big Ship is a mini-album by Cardiacs, released in January 1987. It was an album-sized vinyl record played at the speed of a single (45rpm) and was issued with a lyric insert. It was the first Cardiacs release to exclusively feature the so-called classic 1980s line-up of the band (Tim Smith on lead vocals and guitar, Jim Smith on bass guitar and backing vocals, William D. Drake on keyboards and backing vocals, Sarah Smith on saxophones and backing vocals, Tim Quy on percussion and Dominic Luckman on drums).

The anthemic title track has become a key Cardiacs song, played at nearly every concert and appearing on most of their live albums. "Tarred and Feathered" and "Burn Your House Brown" were also played by the band into the 1990s and 2000s.

Critical reception

In Melody Maker, Mick Mercer reviewed Big Ship in skeptical tones. While praising the "impressively restrained operation" of "Stoneage Dinosaurs", he also noted that "the title track sounds like those ancient monsters Procol Harum, trapped in some horrendous storm. Memories of Gruppo Sportivo even come sneaking through, but The Cardiacs hold their own ridiculous heads high, only wreaking their vocals, the heavy keyboards and thumping bass refusing to crumble. Unfortunately "Tarred and Feathered" sounds like spotty kids running round a piano, while the dustbin drums of "Burn Your House Down" reminds me only of dreamy Saturday afternoons when the Playaway band would do their thing." Mercer also commented that "with Cardiacs everything is accidental, especially good taste. Arrest these peasants before they get another chance."

Big Ship (Freddie McGregor album)

Big Ship is the fifth studio album by Freddie McGregor. The album was released in 1982. The backing band was the Roots Radics and it was mixed by Scientist.

Track listing

Super black

Super black is a surface treatment developed at the National Physical Laboratory in the United Kingdom. It reflects much less light than the darkest conventional matte black paints available previously.

Conventional black paint reflects about 2.5% of the incident light. Super black absorbs approximately 99.6% of light at normal incidence, and only 0.4% is reflected. At other angles of incidence, super black is even more effective. At an angle of 45°, super black reflects 1/25 as much as black paint.

The technique used for super black is based upon chemically etching a nickel–phosphorus alloy.

Applications for super black are in specialist optical instruments to reduce unwanted reflections. The disadvantage of this material is its low optical thickness, as it is a surface treatment. As a result, infrared light of a wavelength longer than a few micrometres penetrates through the dark layer and has much higher reflectivity. The reported spectral dependence increases from about 1% at 3 µm to 50% at 20 µm.