[time-nuts] Question for the cesium nuts.

rlutwak at comcast.net rlutwak at comcast.net
Fri Mar 16 13:55:42 EDT 2007


> What are we going to do when all the CBTs owned by amateurs start to end of 
> life? 
Buy another instrument off of Ebay.  It'll be cheaper, more accurate, and last longer than the old one.  Plus, it'll have microprocessor control and thus be cooler and more entertaining for the hackers.

> Anyone care to start a discussion on the merits of restoring a CBT to life? 
It can't be done.  Trust me, I've done it.

-RL

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-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: "Jack Hudler" <jack at hudler.org> 

> It seems to me that like all good things they must come to and end. 
> 
> If all CBTs have a life expectancy that varies depending on the 
> manufacturer. 
> 
> What are we going to do when all the CBTs owned by amateurs start to end of 
> life? 
> 
> I for one am certainly not going to buy one, not at those prices! (Unless 
> I'm retired then that's another story) 
> You only have calculate the time value of money for that CBT purchase over 
> the remaining time to retirement; If that doesn't stop you dead in your 
> tracks then this group really is aptly named! :) 
> 
> From my perspective, that of wanting to own a Cesium Standard; I don't 
> really want to layout the monies for something that's going to end of life 
> on me shortly (few years) afterwards. 
> 
> I know that handling (Caesium) Cesium-133 is tricky at best. It's a heavy 
> alkali metal and contact with moisture is right out! 
> Other than that it's not terribly difficult to create a safe environment to 
> work with it. 
> 
> So there must be something else that's considerably more difficult than 
> opening the tube, recharging the ampoule, resealing it, pulling an ultra 
> high vacuum and baking it out. 
> 
> I've not seen any pictures of a naked CBT, still I'm not too worried about 
> cracking the tube open if its Pyrex, unless resealing it caused the cesium 
> beam collimation to be lost. 
> 
> Are there if any getters to worry about? If so, how would one ablate the 
> contaminates of the surface? 
> 
> Anyone care to start a discussion on the merits of restoring a CBT to life? 
> 
> Jack 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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