Jim O'Neil writes:

>> Harmon Craig's wonderful old machine, Delilah, and the faithful machine I
<< used at the USGS, are now dismantled ...

	Well Delilah is not dismantled, just put away in storage to make room  
for computers and maps, etc.  The turbo pump and mechanical pumps have been  
taken off and used elsewhere, but the rest remains.  Sometime ago I posted the  
following notice on E-Mail, asking if anyone was interested in buying her for  
$20,000.  But that was two years ago and there were no takers. I would accept  
$5000 now, as is, and buyer pays shipping.

Harmon Craig


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DELILAH FOR SALE:

            I am beginning to think that DELILAH might be interested in  
retiring from her present position in the Isotope Laboratory, and moving to a  
more congenial location where she might once more be the star that she used to  
be. She has had a long run here, over 20,000 performances, and it may well be
that greener pastures await her somewhere.

            DELILAH ("Device for the Estimation of Light Isotopes Like Argon
and Hydrogen") is of course my split-tube, home-made D/H mass spectrometer
that I built here some 30 years ago. As far as I know she is the only
D/H machine that ever routinely achieved a precision of plus minus 0.2
per mil for seawater samples, though in all modesty I have to say that a
lot of that is experience and common sense about machines.  She has a
double collecter on the Mass 3 axis, allowing her to be used as a normal
CO2 etc. machine, so she would be useful as an additional dedicated
machine for N isotopes, etc.  Moreover, the D - H spread on the focal
line is about the same as for N2 and Ar (28/40 vs. 2/3) so that it can
be useful for gas studies with measurements of N2/Ar ratios, 15N vs.
14N, and HD vs H2.

            DELILAH has an ion pump for standby, which she has been on
for a while, but operates with a good oil diffusion pump buffered by
an Edwards ensemble of LN2 trap, Peltier cooled flange, etc.  Best of
all, DELILAH routinely runs with the lowest H3+ formation in the source
of any machine I have ever heard of: about 2.0%.  (But there is a trick
to this that few people know).  She has a complete vacuum inlet line,
and samples can be expanded in, as we routinely do, or Toeplered in and
recovered.  She also has our special variety of infinitely tunable and
recoverable-position source magnet.  She still uses Vibrating Reed
Electrometers and Dekaviders, and she has a home-built emission
regulator like the one we use on our Helium-3 machine (GAD)>

            She is called "DELILAH" because she was built after
SAMSON ("Scripps Analytical Mass Spectrometer Originally by Nier") in
the Isotope Laboratory. (Thus the machine that followed DELILAH was
logically named MICAH, both for Old Testament position and for the
remembrance of early machines: casting molten and graven images of silver).

            So I am sending this to a few friends via E-Mail
just to see if there is any interest out there in an ageing lady who still  
looks good and puts on a good show. (I have five mass spectrometers and can  
probably keep two or three running, but never five any more).

            Of course I would like to have some $20,000 or so for her
(complete with electronics and vacuum system of course, plus there are
about a hundred sample tubes.  I could even throw in a complete Uranium
preparation line, if desired: DELILAH would be lonely without it).
But I am interested in hearing from anyone with an interest, a need, or
some good ideas about her future (Museum, anyone?).  Somewhere, out
there is the right home for a lovely stalwart lady who has always given
her best and more, and rewarded good care with the best analytical data
on deuterium ever obtained.

            Anyone interested or have ideas?

Harmon Craig