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EMR 541A Solar Blind Photomultiplier, with exhaust tip
Photomultiplicateur du type store vénitien
Jalousieform Fotovervielfacher

Manufactured by Electro-Mechanical Research (EMR), Inc. (a subsidiary of Schlumberger Ltd.) - ASCOP Division (formerly Applied Science Corporation of Princeton), Princeton, N.J.

See also • Voir aussi • Siehe auch : EMR 541A Solar Blind Photomultiplier

 

EMR 541A Solar Blind Photomultiplier

Diamètre • Diameter • Durchmesser : 25 mm • 1"
Longueur • Length • Länge : 92 mm • 3" 5/8

 

Dave McGuire in Port Charlotte (FL) has the following interesting facts to tell us:

“These tubes were built this way for ruggedness. Though most of EMR's tubes were general purpose units, they were primarily targeted at two markets: space-borne applications and subterranean oil searches. In the former application, quite a few EMR PMT's were deployed on various research satellites and probes dating back to the early 1970's. In the latter application, the tubes can be subjected to corrosive liquids, shock and vibration, and thermal extremes, including rapid temperature changes. The Type 510 tube, a much smaller tube employing ceramic rings instead of glass, is virtually indestructible.

“In oil prospecting, the tubes were typically assembled with a scintillator crystal and an X-ray generator tube, and sent down into a borehole as a package. I don't know the specific physics behind this, but apparently oil-bearing rock has different X-ray reflection or excitation characteristics from non-oil-bearing rock, so this package forms an effective mechanism for oil prospecting.

“My grandmother Ruby (may she rest in peace) worked for EMR in Princeton Junction, NJ, throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. She was a production group leader in the department that made these 541-series tubes, as well as the 510 and 575 families. She ran the RF induction heaters that fused the glass and kovar rings together to form the tube envelope, and inspected the results.

“She worked a lot of overtime, and she used to take me with her for her weekend and after-hours overtime work when there weren't many other people around. This started when I was about six years old and continued until I was about twelve.

“Nearly all EMR 541-series tubes were made (well, started... just the glass/kovar envelopes, and then the photocathode deposition) by my grandmother.

“All 541-family tubes have those exhaust tips (EMR called them “arms”) on them during manufacture. There should be two, usually 90° apart on the cathode end. One is for pump-down, the other has, for a short time, what EMR calls a “channel” attached to it. The channel looks like a tube of its own.

“The channel is a bell-shaped glass object about 2 inches long and maybe one inch in diameter. There is a structure of metal troughs (I suspect these are the actual “channels” for which the whole assembly is named) containing metallic compounds, with pins on the base to facilitate electrical connections. Current is passed through those metal structures, heating them and vaporizing the contents of the troughs, and the vaporized compounds are then deposited on the inside of the front light entry window to form the photocathode.

“After photocathode deposition and final pump-down, a two-headed torch is used to seal the tube and remove the glass arms. After this, resistors are soldered from kovar ring to kovar ring, to form the voltage divider for the dynodes.

“As a kid, I got to watch most of the steps in those processes. I didn't understand much of it back then, but I remember it well.

“It is quite rare to see a “bare” 541 tube like this. As far as I am aware, no tubes were ever shipped by EMR that weren't completely potted. This suggests that this one may be a production prototype or a unit sent out for manufacturing quality evaluation.”

 

EMR 541A Solar Blind Photomultiplier

EMR 541A Solar Blind Photomultiplier

EMR 541A Solar Blind Photomultiplier

 


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