[time-nuts] HP 5071A Electron Multiplier of Cesium Beam Tube

Poul-Henning Kamp phk at phk.freebsd.dk
Sun Sep 6 19:27:18 UTC 2009


In message <1611.12.6.201.101.1252264616.squirrel at popacctsnew.quik.com>, "J. Fo
rster" writes:

>I'm not so sure. If you cut open the tube and then immediately rinsed the
>insides with deionized water, then the acid etch, I doubt there'd be much
>Cs left after 5 minutes. Now there could well be nooks, crannies, or cul
>de sacs that are all but impossible to wash out. I can certainly believe
>that.

While you may be able to get away with that in your garage, I can
certainly see why HP didn't want to do it at work:

>From Cs' MSDS:

	Extinguishing Media: DO NOT USE WATER. Use class D metal
		fire agent, dry salt or sand.

	Special Firefighting Procedures: Firefighters must wear
		full face, self-contained breathing apparatus with full
		protective clothing to prevent contact with skin and eyes.
		Fumes from fire are hazardous.

	Unusual Fire and Explosion Hazards: DANGEROUS WHEN WET. If
		involved in a fire, burning metal may produce
		severely corrosive fumes of cesium oxide and
		hydroxide. Cesium reacts violently with water,
		liberating and igniting hydrogen, perhaps explosively.
		Cesium may ignite spontaneously on contact with
		air. Pyrophoric metal.

Remember, a spent Ceisium tube has a couple of grams of the stuff
spread out with a very large surface area.

You won't see me open one...

-- 
Poul-Henning Kamp       | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
phk at FreeBSD.ORG         | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer       | BSD since 4.3-tahoe    
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.




More information about the Time-nuts_lists.febo.com mailing list