Categories of exhibits
UV lamp extractor tool
Exhibit no. 159
Before interfacing mass spectrometers to computers, the detector signal was often recorded using an oscillograph. A light-beam oscillograph consisted of mirror galvanometers, an optical system, and a unit that moved a photosensitive paper. The optical system formed a focused beam of UV light which was directed to the galvanometer mirror. The light was reflected onto the photosensitive paper, where it traced a curve that depicted the variation of the signal over time. High-pressure mercury arc lamps were used as sources of high-intensity ultraviolet light.
The exhibit is a high-pressure mercury lamp manufactured by VEB Narva Berliner Glühlampenwerk, the central manufacturer of light bulbs in the German Democratic Republic. A similar lamp was part of the Visicorder Oscillograph Model 2106 (Honeywell) used in the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czechoslovak Academy of Science, Prague in the 1970s. A special tool was required to remove the lamp. It contained two plates with small holes into which the tips of the lamp fitted. The oscillograph was connected to the MS902 double-focusing mass spectrometer manufactured by AEI Ltd. in 1969.
