In article ,
ken scharf wrote:

Does anybody know about vacuum pumps homebrewing??? :-)

A LONG time ago (maybe 40 years?), Scientific American carried an article
(in "The Amateur Scientist" pages) about making a vaccuum pump. (It may
have been part of or near an article about making your own laser which
was strong enough to bounce signals off the moon!)

You can get a reprint of this book from Lindsay books
www.lindsaybks.com

Or, go to www.surplusshed.com and do a search on "CD". They have
copies of Scientific American's "The Amateur Scientist on CD-ROM"
collection in the Miscellaneous category (item M2071).

"From the archives of Scientific American Magazine, more than 72 years
of experiments and projects from all The Amateur Astronomer, The
Amateur Telescope Maker, and The Amateur Scientist columns from the
beginning in 1928 thru 2001. Every article is complete with all
photos, sketches, etc. More than 1,000 projects in every major field
of science.

"This comprehensive package also includes over 2,000 pages of helpful
Technical Notes that never appeared in the magazine covering topics
from choosing binoculars for astronomy to monitoring earthquakes, as
well as the full text of Procedures in Experimental Physics by John
Strong, a classic and much sought after reference on instrument making."

List price $40, being closed out for $24. I bought one a few years
ago shortly after it came it... it's an impressive collection of
experiments and ideas. Some of them are censored dangerous,
others as safe as milk.

SA's decision to shut down the Amateur Scientist column was a
disappointing one, I think.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!