Imploding Vacuum Tubes For Science

The researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory are looking for a way to harden photomultiplier tubes. In order to make a more durable tube the researchers decided it would be a good idea to first observe how the tubes are failing. So they got their hands on an old torpedo test bay and smashed some bulbs inside of it. Check in after the break for some high fps bulb smashing.

Photomultiplier tubes are used in massive quantities to detect the highly elusive neutrino particle. The problem is when you have 50,000 photomultipliers submerged in pressurized water the the collapse of just a single bulb can cause a shock wave of destruction. This is what happened in japan in 2001 when a maintenance worker unknowingly compromised a single bulb in a 11,000 bulb array. When the tank was repressurized that single compromised bulb caused them to lose 7,000 more.

[via wired]

[youtube = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBDT47polxo&feature=player_embedded&w=470%5D

[youtube =[youtube =http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLCQGG1fD2M&feature=player_embedded&w=470]

[youtube = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5NO_t9crBE&feature=player_embedded&w=470%5D

12 thoughts on “Imploding Vacuum Tubes For Science

  1. haha.. a related but illegal “experiment” is to obtain a surplus intact colour CRT, carefully float it out to sea then throw bricks etc at it.
    Frowned upon by enviro-whiners but almost as fun as fluorescent tube + plasma lamp driver light-saber fights.

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