WHAT IS IT???

[chief]

I know this thing has something to do with radar but I don't know what, I have found about a hundred of these things new.
Round, 8'' long cylinder,frontlense,rear
wentilation holes and a TV co axial type plug. Made by perkin-elmer, electrodless discharge lamp with mercury element. warranty talks about atomicabsorption spectrometers and no looking at the radiation generated by it without eye protecttion, Anyone know what this is,could this be the missing componet of my death ray?

[Jim Caudill]

It probably has nothing to do with radar, but is a light source used to judge what frequencies of light are being absorbed by test samples. Separate the words into "atomic absorbtion spectrometers". Generally these devices are either emitters or detectors (ex Cesium Iodide detectors). I am guessing your's is an emitter of light. Sometimes you look at the wavelengths of emissions of a sample (ex burning Sodium) to help determine composition and sometimes you look at absorbtion. Hey, this is my guess and I'm sticking to it....

[WJHartson]

Try this web site, looks like this may be the company that made what you have.

http://las.perkinelmer.com/

Joe

[pgmrdan]

Jim has probably hit the nail on the head. But since you have found so many of them there may be another possibility.

Companies used to set up their own communications networks between buildings in a campus style setting. They used laser transmitters and receivers mounted on rooftops for communications. Foggy days were really a bummer for this.

Do these look weather proofed? Is there anything resembling rifle sights on it?

[Spin Doctor]

Well if they are light emitters and he can run tem in series he just might be on to his "Death Ray"

[rkepler]

Got a picture of it, Chief? It's very likely that it's from an UV fluorescence spectrometer. But PE got it's start from doing masking systems for chip work, and it might have been used as a source for that process.

[Evan]

I am certain it is a light source for one of these:

Click here

[andy_b]

it looks like Evan hit on the answer.
the real question is, what would happen if you powered all 100 of them up and aimed them at something?

andy b.

[Evan]

Instant sunburn. Those are likely very short UV and you probably won't see much of anything except a faint blue glow inside. After a while you won't see much at all.

You would also need the correct ballast to run them.

[This message has been edited by Evan (edited 05-03-2005).]

[chief]

I threw them away but the plastic boxes they came in were just right for storage
of drill and tool bits, taps and and dies.

[wierdscience]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by chief:
I threw them away but the plastic boxes they came in were just right for storage
of drill and tool bits, taps and and dies.</font>

Sounds like one of those deals where next week somebody will be looking for three at $1,000 each