1. TekScopes@groups.io
Topics

A few pics from a new-to-me exhibit in the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History

@0culus
 

https://groups.io/g/TekScopes/album?id=128766

The exhibit depicts the critical assembly labs that operated at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (now Los Alamos National Laboratory). The scientists who worked in them (rather bravely I might add) were working to quantify critical masses of plutonium. A number of fatal criticality accidents occurred in the years these experiments were carried out. Robotic assembly was developed later, with the scientists safely shielded.

Anyway, there's a selection of vintage test equipment that members of the list may enjoy, mainly a 535 and a DuMont oscillograph. Most of the stuff in the exhibit is authentic, ex LANL gear. Other than the criticality experiments.

Sean
J Mcvein
 

Put on your Atomic Age bucket list a visit to the Hanford 'B'reactor.  Some vintage Tek in a 1968 time capsule.  Also themost extensive thermocouple crosspoint switching system around.
JimMc

On Friday, November 1, 2019, 4:28:12 PM PDT, sdturne@q.com <sdturne@q.com> wrote:

https://groups.io/g/TekScopes/album?id=128766

The exhibit depicts the critical assembly labs that operated at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (now Los Alamos National Laboratory). The scientists who worked in them (rather bravely I might add) were working to quantify critical masses of plutonium. A number of fatal criticality accidents occurred in the years these experiments were carried out. Robotic assembly was developed later, with the scientists safely shielded.

Anyway, there's a selection of vintage test equipment that members of the list may enjoy, mainly a 535 and a DuMont oscillograph. Most of the stuff in the exhibit is authentic, ex LANL gear. Other than the criticality experiments.

Sean
battyhugh
 

If you are in Minneapolis - on the S side of the bridge across the river on the W side (if I remember correctly) - there is another relic - you have to decend about 6 stories down - there are masses of HB spec analysers and a rather large Van de Graffe generator - - very strange (I saw it in early 90's) - A Dr Weiblen was working at that time on using high voltage pulses to bust up moon rock. It would be rather interesting to document the remaining residues of the 50's and 60's (on the marshes near Palo Alto is an old radio transmission facility - might be interesting... but wait.. there's more!
@0culus
 

On Fri, Nov 1, 2019 at 06:02 PM, J Mcvein wrote:


Put on your Atomic Age bucket list a visit to the Hanford 'B'reactor.  Some
vintage Tek in a 1968 time capsule.  Also themost extensive thermocouple
crosspoint switching system around.
JimMc
Oh, that would be awesome. Will definitely keep it in mind when I find my way up that direction.

Sean
@0culus
 

On Sat, Nov 2, 2019 at 01:10 AM, battyhugh wrote:


If you are in Minneapolis - on the S side of the bridge across the river on
the W side (if I remember correctly) - there is another relic - you have to
decend about 6 stories down - there are masses of HB spec analysers and a
rather large Van de Graffe generator - - very strange (I saw it in early 90's)
- A Dr Weiblen was working at that time on using high voltage pulses to bust
up moon rock. It would be rather interesting to document the remaining
residues of the 50's and 60's (on the marshes near Palo Alto is an old radio
transmission facility - might be interesting... but wait.. there's more!
Hmmm, is it an abandoned site or is someone taking care of it?
Daniel Koller
 

I'm no nuclear science history expert, but wrt the original post,  that 535 seems out of place.  The criticality experiments were generally carried out in the 1940's and the 5 series was not available till the 1950's.  Afterall, by 1945 they knew what it took to make a pile of uranium go off.
But in the 1950's the techniques of Nuclear spectroscopy were being developed and that scope would have been at home reading the pulse outputs of scintilation counters.  I used such scopes in Columbia University's undergraduate physics labs in the 1980's for just such pulse counting.   they had not updated the labs in 30 years (!!) so it was very much like working in the 1950s
Someone correct me if I am wrong in my time estimates.
Dan

On Wednesday, November 6, 2019, 10:02:59 PM EST, <sdturne@q.com> wrote:

On Sat, Nov  2, 2019 at 01:10 AM, battyhugh wrote:


If you are in Minneapolis - on the S side of the bridge across the river on
the W side (if I remember correctly) - there is another relic - you have to
decend about 6 stories down - there are masses of HB spec analysers and a
rather large Van de Graffe generator - - very strange (I saw it in early 90's)
- A Dr Weiblen was working at that time on using high voltage pulses to bust
up moon rock. It would be rather interesting to document the remaining
residues of the 50's and 60's (on the marshes near Palo Alto is an old radio
transmission facility - might be interesting... but wait.. there's more!
Hmmm, is it an abandoned site or is someone taking care of it?
Glydeck
 

Dan,

You are correct. The 535 came from Stan Griffiths at the Vintage Tek museum in trade for a 570 they had. He said he tried to explain that Tektronix was a post war company and that any Tek scope would be an anachronism. The nuclear history museum said they understood but just needed something for the exhibit. BTW, the 570 is on display at the Vintage Tek museum.

George

On Nov 7, 2019, at 6:29 AM, Daniel Koller via Groups.Io <kaboomdk=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote:

I'm no nuclear science history expert, but wrt the original post, that 535 seems out of place. The criticality experiments were generally carried out in the 1940's and the 5 series was not available till the 1950's. Afterall, by 1945 they knew what it took to make a pile of uranium go off.
But in the 1950's the techniques of Nuclear spectroscopy were being developed and that scope would have been at home reading the pulse outputs of scintilation counters. I used such scopes in Columbia University's undergraduate physics labs in the 1980's for just such pulse counting. they had not updated the labs in 30 years (!!) so it was very much like working in the 1950s
Someone correct me if I am wrong in my time estimates.
Dan

On Wednesday, November 6, 2019, 10:02:59 PM EST, <sdturne@q.com> wrote:

On Sat, Nov 2, 2019 at 01:10 AM, battyhugh wrote:


If you are in Minneapolis - on the S side of the bridge across the river on
the W side (if I remember correctly) - there is another relic - you have to
decend about 6 stories down - there are masses of HB spec analysers and a
rather large Van de Graffe generator - - very strange (I saw it in early 90's)
- A Dr Weiblen was working at that time on using high voltage pulses to bust
up moon rock. It would be rather interesting to document the remaining
residues of the 50's and 60's (on the marshes near Palo Alto is an old radio
transmission facility - might be interesting... but wait.. there's more!
Hmmm, is it an abandoned site or is someone taking care of it?
1 - 7 of 7  
More
Home Messages Hashtags About Features Pricing Updates Terms Help Twitter