Let's Hover

Hello,

Well, the beamtime may be over, but it just means the train must progress.

A sad non-levitating train, even if steam is coming from its chimney.

Wednesday morning, first thing, I glued up the engine, stinking out the lab with the glue. Had to leave it in the fume cupboard to dry. However, it was ready for an afternoon of testing which... didn't go so well. Turns out the glue wasn't as much as a problem as the bottom warping upon meeting the cold. It was throwing superconductors everywhere.

I did tape it up (seeing as sellotape seems to be the only reliable thing) and managed to get an engine which didn't leak. And didn't levitate. I now blame its weight. I re-glued it to be left over the weekend.

Thursday and Friday I was on holiday because, well, I was fairly tired by this point. 10 day week and all.

Monday morning, though, I was  back and ready to try again. After a quick meeting with a insertion device scientist (he deals in many magnets), we decided to try stronger magnets and different arrangements. The samarium cobalt magnets were replaced first by neodymium iron boron magnets and then by one of the largest permanent magnets I'd seen. It was about the size of  half a brick.

However, this turned out to be too powerful and couldn't even hover a single superconductor disk (a feat I've managed before. This is due to superconductors having a critical magnetic field. Like the critical temperature, once above this, the superconductor can no longer superconductor; it becomes an expensive black disk. The neodymium magnets did provide lift on the disk... but the magnetic field peaked so dramatically, it was hard to balance the disk at a height of about 10 cm.

So we were back with the samarium cobalt magnets... and a non-levitating train.

So, with a public viewing looming, Tuesday morning I was off to the shops. Yes, that's right, I got to spend 2 hours going around toy shops for trains, cars and skateboards (because hoverboards would be awesome too). And look what I manged Tuesday afternoon:

OH YES!!!

Type soon!

PS. All magnets used are those leftover from the building of the beamline. They help direct the beam and maintain its energy.

PPS. I will hopefully be adding to the picture collection here and on Twitter (@AdamasRos)