A Safety Shield is Born

One of Professor Celani's concerns for his apparatus during his demos was that he could not have it operate at higher temperatures because the glass might not handle it.  He stated more than once that he wants anybody replicating his experiment to improve upon the safety of it.  I don't know about you, but I am not keen on spending a lot of time testing a cell with 100 psi of Hydrogen in a glass tube without something to protect me if the glass gets nicked and decides to rupture.  

So we devised a safety shield and cradle to hold the cell.  The main shield is made from 3/16 inch (4.75 mm) clear polycarbonate.  The ends are open to allow airflow.  If the glass ruptures under vacuum or pressure, the polycarbonate will contain the vast majority of glass.  The shield is easily removable from the base with hand operable screws.  For shipping, we will put nuts on the threaded rods to tighten them onto the cradle brackets, and the whole thing will be shipped assembled.

And this is what it looks like as it is being built: