Radiocarbon Dating at the University of Washington. II

Extract

The radiocarbon dating equipment previously used (Dorn, Fairhall, Schell and Takashima, 1962) has been moved to a different location. During the resulting hiatus in our dating program we have constructed a new counter with a few novel features. It is similar in concept to the Houtermans-Oeschger counter (Houtermans and Oeschger, 1958), but two changes have been made in the design: (1) The inner counter, constructed of thin, metallized plastic foil of thickness 4.2 mg/cm², is leak-tight relative to the outer counter. By means of two solenoid valves actuated by a simple differential mercury manometer the outer and inner counters can be filled separately with a pressure differential on the partition of less than 0.5 cm Hg. Thus all of the sample can be introduced into the inner counter while inert gas is fed into the outer counter. As the sample gas is not needed for anti-coincidence filling efficiency increases ca. 30%; (2) The metallic parts are made of commercially available high-purity nickel which is easier to procure than O.F.H.C. copper; nylon is used for the other parts. The outer counter appears to have a very low radioactivity, its α activity being 5 pulses/hr/100 cm².