Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 April 2009
Cordes (1976) introduced the problem of determining the maximum number of resolution classes of a finite set partitioned into equicardinal subsets such that the number of pairs common to any 2 classes is minimized. A later paper of Mullin and Stanton (1976) investigated those conditions under which the configurations were actually BIBD's. They obtained a bound for these special configurations and conjectured it applied in general. We prove this in the present paper. A recursive and a direct construction are also given for a special class of configurations.