Sign for James Lovelock's 'Exponential Dilution Chamber' for testing chemical detectors

Made:
circa 1980 in Cornwall
maker:
James Ephraim Lovelock
Sign, exponential dilution chamber. Sign, exponential dilution chamber. Sign, exponential dilution chamber.

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Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

Buy

License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

License

Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

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License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

License

Sign, exponential dilution chamber.
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Sign, exponential dilution chamber.
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Sign, exponential dilution chamber.
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Sign, reading 'Exponential Dilution Chamber', which marked the doorway to James Lovelock's home laboratory at Coombe Mill on the Devon / Cornwall border, c. 1980

The Exponential Dilution Chamber was a 50 cubic metre airtight room that James Lovelock built inside a barn at his home in Cornwall. The composition of air inside the Chamber could be precisely controlled. Over three years Lovelock used the Chamber to confirm the accuracy of his highly sensitive Electron Capture Detector (ECD), which could detect tiny concentrations of certain types of chemicals. Air quality monitoring stations around the word used samples from the Chamber to calibrate their own detectors.

Details

Category:
Experimental Chemistry
Object Number:
2012-127
Materials:
wood (unidentified) and paint
type:
sign
credit:
Lovelock, James Ephraim