<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1264" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Ok, totally off topic to everything lately, but I
had to brag:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>My lab at school got our new vacuum tank today! :)
We've purchased a tank specifically for our work with Bismuth-fueled hall
thrusters, so we are now working with two large vacuum chambers. Our old tank
was one of the top 5 largest vacuum chambers of any university in the nation -
2nd or 3rd, we're not quite sure which yet, nobody in the lab has had a chance
to see Princeton's in person but we think theirs MIGHT be a bit larger.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>That was our old tank. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Our new one is even bigger! :) 6 feet in diameter
and 12 feet long (both INNER dimensions), this thing is a monster! And somehow
only cost $45,000 for the tank itself, which may sound like a lot, until you
learn the second lowest bidder was $140,000, and that's a quite reasonable
price. We're not sure how these guys could even MAKE the tank for $45,000. And
we got the thing off the truck and into the lab in less than 2 hours!! Fun
stuff. One of our guys figured the installation cost the school a couple grand,
$300-$350 an hour for a crane which was in our use for probably at least 2 hours
(it got there before the tank did), along with several workers running at
$30-$40 per hour each. But it's definitely worth it!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I don't have the pictures of the install quite yet,
but you can check out our tank on the Trinos (manufacturers) website, <A
href="http://www.trinos.com/01_index.html">http://www.trinos.com/01_index.html</A> Click
on the top picture in the left frame, that's our new baby. The picture does NOT
do it justice!!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Anyway, will post some install pics when I get
them, it's just too cool! :)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Brian</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>