Richard,
I have three Cs oscillators here and have on occasion transported them
to USNO in Washington DC for recalibration. I put them in the back of my
wife's van; she drove to USNO and a worker dashed out of the building
with a cable carrying UTC(USNO). The self-contained batteries run the
thing for twenty minutes; an auxiliary battery pack runs it for many
hours. Power for my wife's van comes from an inverter and van's battery.
I have a log for one of these devices that has been all over the world
since the early 1970s when it was shipped by commercial air as a first
class passenger. Maybe ten years ago the DoT got serious about
transporting these things and I had to get an approved shipping
container to send the devices for Cs tube replacement.
There is a story that HP (Agilent), in a bid to convince DoT the devices
were safe to ship, tossed one out the second story lab window onto the
parking lot. You have to see and handle one of these things to
understand how massive and rugged they are. I suppose it made a serious
hole in the pavement. Anyway, DoT now allows shipment by conventional
container.
If you have ever seen a tiny bit of Sodium hit water, you might expect a
tiny bit of Cesium to do the same. The stuff is indeed mildly
radioactive, but so is the waste nuclear fuel now transported by convoy.
In any case, my devices are seriously labeled as "cesium oscillators,"
not by any way, shape or means as "atomic clocks."
The best story I have is a report that, during a stopover at Roma
Fiumicino Airport (now Leonardo da Vinci Airport), the battery pack was
about to expire and the accompanying passenger needed to find power to
recharge. A skeptical airport manager finally agreed, but upon
connection the charger blew the circuit breaker. I have no report of the
ensuing actions, but it does show that a Cs oscillator with discharged
batteries might as well be tossed out the window.
Quite frankly, there is no need in present society to ship Cs devices by
air, unless to deliver a newly manufactured unit. I calibrate mine by
GPS probably as precise as the lab worker at USNO. We have two-way
satellite transfer between laboratories and no longer need LORAN-C for
that purpose. For that matter GPS has replaced my need for Cs devices in
the first place and, after all, the tubes don't last forever and cost
several thousand bucks to replace, even with used tubes.
Dave
Richard B. Gilbert wrote:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Ulrich Windl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
"Max Power" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Use of "Atomic Clock" Nomenclature
<snip>
It seems that Cs clocks are now forbidden to fly
because cs133 is highly flamable (or even does it
burn spontaneously ?) in the ambiant air.
Cesium belongs to the same chemical family as Sodium and Potassium. It
will burn spontaneously when exposed to air and/or water! I would be
surprised, however, if the amount of cesium in a cesium beam tube were
sufficient to be serious problem. And if I were shipping a cesium beam
tube or an entire cesium clock by air, I would take extreme care in
packing it. I'm told that the cheapest cesium clocks cost about $40,000
US.
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