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Cesium vapor source detail. See previous sample for an explanation of this sample. Source: Ethan Currens Contributor: Theodore Gray Acquired: 2 December, 2007 Price: Donated Size: 0.5" Purity: >99.999% |
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Cesium vapor sources. This can contains a batch of small tubes full of cesium, permanently closed at one end and sealed at the other end with a small plug of indium (see next sample for a close-up of one of them). Their purpose and design is quite interesting. Various experiments require a source of small amounts of cesium vapor introduced into an otherwise completely evacuated chamber. Cesium is highly reactive: Exposed to air it oxidizes within seconds, so it must be kept in tightly sealed containers. The tricky part is designing a package that can be opened by remote control inside the vacuum chamber, without introducing any contamination. These cesium sources solve the problem by using a plug of indium, which has a fairly low melting point, to plug one end of the tube. The tube has wire strips leading off both ends of it: When an electric current is applied to these leads the indium melts, exposing the cesium inside. Why indium rather than any number of other substances with low melting points, like wax for example? Two reasons: First, it's completely air-tight, allowing no diffusion of air or moisture, and completely stable in air. And second because nearly all other substances that have a low melting point also have a low boiling point, and/or are fairly volatile at normal temperatures. Wax, plastic, etc, would hopelessly contaminate the vacuum. These operating instructions and brochure provide more details. Source: Ethan Currens Contributor: Theodore Gray Acquired: 2 December, 2007 Price: Donated Size: 2.5" Purity: >99.999% |
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Sealed glass ampule, 99.98%. Another beautiful cesium ampule from David Franco: He plans to offer these for sale on eBay along with a very similar rubidium ampule. The fact that cesium melts in your hand makes it one of the most fascinating element samples you can have: I never cease to wonder at the beauty of it. And the color is also quite remarkable: There are very few metals that are anything other than gray or silvery in color, so the delicate gold color of cesium is a real treat. (It's also very difficult to photograph: This picture does not do it justice.) Just be very, very careful not to break the ampule! It will react explosively with any moisture (e.g. your hand, the air, etc). I chose this sample to represent its element in my Photographic Periodic Table Poster. The sample photograph includes text exactly as it appears in the poster, which you are encouraged to buy a copy of.  Source: David Franco Contributor: David Franco Acquired: 10 July, 2003 Price: Donated Size: 0.5" Purity: 99.98% |
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Sample from the Everest Set. Up until the early 1990's a company in Russia sold a periodic table collection with element samples. At some point their American distributor sold off the remaining stock to a man who is now selling them on eBay. The samples (except gasses) weigh about 0.25 grams each, and the whole set comes in a very nice wooden box with a printed periodic table in the lid. To learn more about the set you can visit my page about element collecting for a general description and information about how to buy one, or you can see photographs of all the samples from the set displayed on my website in a periodic table layout or with bigger pictures in numerical order. Source: Rob Accurso Contributor: Rob Accurso Acquired: 7 February, 2003 Price: Donated Size: 0.2" Purity: >99% |
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Sample from the RGB Set. The Red Green and Blue company in England sells a very nice element collection in several versions. Max Whitby, the director of the company, very kindly donated a complete set to the periodic table table. To learn more about the set you can visit my page about element collecting for a general description or the company's website which includes many photographs and pricing details. I have two photographs of each sample from the set: One taken by me and one from the company. You can see photographs of all the samples displayed in a periodic table format: my pictures or their pictures. Or you can see both side-by-side with bigger pictures in numerical order. The picture on the left was taken by me. Here is the company's version (there is some variation between sets, so the pictures sometimes show different variations of the samples):  Source: Max Whitby of RGB Contributor: Max Whitby of RGB Acquired: 25 January, 2003 Price: Donated Size: 0.2" Purity: 99.5% |
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Sealed glass ampule, 99.98%. A quite remarkable object, it contains about a gram of 99.98% pure cesium metal. It's really very sad that if the glass were ever to break, it could very well explode on contact with the surrounding air blinding anyone in the area with flying shards of glass and molten metal. That's why we keep it under lock and key. Here's a picture of the locking cover, which is immediately underneath the engraved tile for cesium:  Notice there are a couple of samples of gold in with the cesium. That's because we don't have a separate locking compartment for gold right now, and also because it's interesting to see how very similar the colors of gold and cesium really are. Source: David Franco Contributor: David Franco Acquired: 11 June, 2002 Price: Donated Size: 2" Purity: 99.98% |
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