W
William J. Beaty
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
I just bought a "coater" at the UW surplus auction.
http://www.washington.edu/admin/surplus/LOT72A.jpg It's a
console with a 14" bell jar w/various vacuum feedthroughs,
all hooked to a diffusion pump, vacuum pump, pirani/penning
gauges, and a 100-amp 10V power supply. Looks almost totally
pristine. The big rubber gasket is all cracked, and it melted
itself onto the bell jar rim, so the thing probably sat in a store
room for a few years. I've yet to see if it runs the first time
plugged in.
My question: what would YOU do if you scored such a beast?
I'll probably start out simple and make the world's largest
radiometer. A field-emission microscope would be cool (make
a phosphor screen, then erode a tungsten wire atomically-sharp
using acetylene torch or electrolysis.)
I've always wondered what hobby-science would be like in
low Earth orbit or on the moon. Stick your workbench in a
vacuum environment where incandescent bulbs need no glass (and
where the hot filaments generate an electron cloud, so custom
vacuum tubes can be made from light bulbs and bits of foil.)
Now I can finally try such things out. Why not take an old
tube-type table radio, break the glass envelopes off all the
tubes, then pump the whole thing down and see if I can still
get it to work? Same with an oscilloscope. Cut the electron
gun free and shine it on phosphor-coated glass. And if I can
manage to cast fluorescent shadows on a phosphor screen with
a wide, high-current e-beam, what will the SHADOW of a small
coil look like as I crank up the current in the coil? (or as
I charge the whole coil to pos or neg high voltage?) And I
wonder how easy it is to make a TEM out of soup cans and duct
tape?
Other than that, I can't think of anything good.
Has anyone here kept up with The Bell Jar newsletter? Were there
any cool projects there worth tracking down?
(((((((((((((((((( ( ( ( ( (O) ) ) ) ) )))))))))))))))))))
William J. Beaty SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
[email protected] http://amasci.com
EE/programmer/sci-exhibits amateur science, hobby projects, sci fair
Seattle, WA 206-789-0775 unusual phenomena, tesla coils, weird sci
http://www.washington.edu/admin/surplus/LOT72A.jpg It's a
console with a 14" bell jar w/various vacuum feedthroughs,
all hooked to a diffusion pump, vacuum pump, pirani/penning
gauges, and a 100-amp 10V power supply. Looks almost totally
pristine. The big rubber gasket is all cracked, and it melted
itself onto the bell jar rim, so the thing probably sat in a store
room for a few years. I've yet to see if it runs the first time
plugged in.
My question: what would YOU do if you scored such a beast?
I'll probably start out simple and make the world's largest
radiometer. A field-emission microscope would be cool (make
a phosphor screen, then erode a tungsten wire atomically-sharp
using acetylene torch or electrolysis.)
I've always wondered what hobby-science would be like in
low Earth orbit or on the moon. Stick your workbench in a
vacuum environment where incandescent bulbs need no glass (and
where the hot filaments generate an electron cloud, so custom
vacuum tubes can be made from light bulbs and bits of foil.)
Now I can finally try such things out. Why not take an old
tube-type table radio, break the glass envelopes off all the
tubes, then pump the whole thing down and see if I can still
get it to work? Same with an oscilloscope. Cut the electron
gun free and shine it on phosphor-coated glass. And if I can
manage to cast fluorescent shadows on a phosphor screen with
a wide, high-current e-beam, what will the SHADOW of a small
coil look like as I crank up the current in the coil? (or as
I charge the whole coil to pos or neg high voltage?) And I
wonder how easy it is to make a TEM out of soup cans and duct
tape?
Other than that, I can't think of anything good.
Has anyone here kept up with The Bell Jar newsletter? Were there
any cool projects there worth tracking down?
(((((((((((((((((( ( ( ( ( (O) ) ) ) ) )))))))))))))))))))
William J. Beaty SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
[email protected] http://amasci.com
EE/programmer/sci-exhibits amateur science, hobby projects, sci fair
Seattle, WA 206-789-0775 unusual phenomena, tesla coils, weird sci