[time-nuts] Aging rate of crystals

[Thomas A. Frank]

> The best experiment I can think of to prove this is to run the
> oscillator in a paper bag until it is stable,
> then trickle a flow of dry nitrogen  into the bag for a day or two
> and watch for oscillator drift as the humidity
> in the oven drops to extremely low values.
> It is a pity that I do not have bottled gas on tap any more.
> cheers, Neville Michie


I like your theory, it has a marvelous macroscopic physical component  
to it.

A way to run that test without any bottled gas would be start during  
a very humid spell (the stabilize things at a humid level; say 80%  
RH), then to put the crystal assembly into a sealable plastic  
container (Tupperware for US folks) with a bunch of silica gel or  
other desiccant.

The humidity in the container will drop to well below 20%, and stay  
there until you open the container.  That's a pretty decent range to  
work over.

Tom Frank, KA2CDK