"Hey, Office Extrovert, doesn't that voltage source for the nanotube machine make ozone?" I ask. I'm pretty sure I know ozone when I smell it. Even if that machine is putting out something else, this lab still needs some ventilation.
"Yeah, I guess it could." He goes over to the machine and looks at it. He picks up the portable methane sensor on the same table and presses the ON button. The buzzer sounds and he quickly presses the button again. "I think the battery is dead. I wonder where the manual for this is."
On the black surface of the sensor is printed "Do not operate without reading all instructions." The sensor only has five buttons and more than enough blank space to allow instructions to be printed on the sensor itself. I guess the manufacturer wasn't paying attention. The manual is not in evidence anywhere.
"Isn't ozone toxic to humans?" asks Amp&Effects.
"Yeah, that's why I keep bringing it up," I say. We all go over to the ozone-emitting apparatus and stand next to it while we speak. And we're supposed to be smart people. Hey, is that toxic? Let's sniff it while we figure it out. I don't mention what the safety guy told me on the previous day. He'd said, "Hey, this was the lab I closed down. There was this Ph.D. in here with all this tubing and those gas cylinders and that machine. Everyone else in the hall was getting scared."
The matter of ozone is discussed, but nothing is resolved and I still don't have my ventilation. I'll bring it up again on Monday. Or maybe on Safety Day this coming Wednesday.
The nanotube machine continues to go through its heating cycle, but this time something bad happens. The mineral oil through which the exhaust gas bubbles becomes overheated and starts smoking. Black stuff is deposited on the inside of the glass tube in which the samples are baked. I suspect something similar is getting deposited in our lungs, and find reasons to stand out in the hallway. It is decided to cut the cycle short, but even so the cool-down period will be several hours. The professor is disappointed, but not as much as one might expect. Eyes wide, he confides, "I can't wait for it to cool down so I can see what that black stuff is."
Now they're determining how to get the black deposits out without destroying the glass tube. If this means they can't run the machine for a few days, I'm all for it. I have to admit, I'm curious about the black stuff too.
438 words | June 20, 2004 07:05 PM | Rocket science