Note: Announcement about the publication schedule for the Bell Jar

For late spring through early fall I have decided to change the publicaiton frequency to quarterly. The next issue will appear at the end of June 2022. In the meantime, plesse do not hesititate to communicate with me, submit contributions, etc.

The March 2022 issue of the Bell Jar is available

This twenty seventh issue may be found on the Articles & Publications page. Articles include updates on Albert Noble’s liquid column microbarograph and on my capillary spark apparatus, measure twice, cut once (or not at all), and two books on fusion energy and a very different spin-off. I've noted three articles of possible interest in Vacuum Technology & Coating magazine that deal with residual gas analyzers for process monitoring.

Vacuum Training Systems

The Vacuum Education page has information on several vacuum training systems that I have developed over the past two and a half decades.

Discontinued Commercial Vacuum Training Systems: Complete documentation is available for the VTS-1B and PPTS-1A systems produced by MKS Instruments. Also available is the documentation for the VPAL-A that was produced by The Science Source.

The BVES (Basic Vacuum Education System): This is a hand-pumped do-it-yourself vacuum trainer with an excellent set of capabilities. Complete plans and instructions for use, along with a number of exercises, are available.

The VTES (Vacuum Technology Education System): This was to be the follow-on to the VPAL-A. It is designed for construction using simple tools and readily available parts. The basic system is a functional equivalent to the VPAL-A. The system can be expanded with a mass flow controller and/or pressure control features to give it the functionality of the VTS-1B. This device is a work in progress.

We're (still) Rebuilding!

November 2021 Status Summary:

Since the end of 2019 the big news has been the resumption of the Bell Jar as a monthly, free publication. Feedback has been great and there have been a number of regular contributors. All of the issues are listed on the Articles and Publications page

In August 2019 a new Education section was added (see the navigation button). This set of pages contains a set of information on vacuum training equipment (including legacy systems), details on construction, exercise information, etc. Information on new trainers is in progress.

During the latter half of 2019 the old Flash videos were updated. The Forum is now disabled and a number of pages have been retired. Some are simply not relevant anymore. Others need to be retooled. This would include the Books page where I had Amazon links. This will be replaced with descriptions and no links.

I am no longer providing accessories such as adapters, chambers, etc. The volume was never high enough to justify the effort. These will be replaced by drawings and commercial sources.

I stopped posting links to my Vacuum Technology & Coating articles in 2012. The publisher also changed the the on line magazine server. I will have an index to articles (2009-present) with issue month/year, title and an optional brief description. As a precursor to this, I have been grouping my articles into topic areas (gauging, pumping performance, etc.) and publishing a selection in each issue of the Bell Jar.

I have retained my "man-in-vacuum" logo, even though it creeps some people out (so I've heard).