Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Plug
Cap
Cone-seat
closure
1
in. diameter
Pressure
tubing
To pump
9
in.
Thermocouple
1
in. diameter chamber
Platinum or
gold capsule
Length 1.8-7.5
cm
Cone-seat
closure
Thermocouple
Welded or
Pinched
Figure 3.11 Tuttle autoclaves
[34]
.
strength of the vessel. In most standard Tuttle vessels, this ratio is 4%. Using Stellite
25, experiments can be carried out at 900
C and 1 kbar or 750
C and 3 kbar for
long-term use (from hours to weeks). Roy and Tuttle have actually made many
hydrothermal experimental runs of several months in the late 1950s. Moreover, the
reaction could be “quenched” by lowering the furnace quickly and surrounding the
bomb with a container of water.
Around 1950, Roy and Osborn
[35]
had also designed a simple universal pressure
intensifier for compressing virtually all gases (H
2
,N
2
,CO
2
,andNH
3
) or liquids like
H
2
O from the compressed gas tank pressures of about 100
200 bar to 5 kbar. And
from 1950 onward, “test-tube racks” of hydrothermal vessels including such compres-
sors were used worldwide for hydrothermal research, mainly in the geochemical
community.
Figure 3.12
shows the advertisement of Leco Company, Tem-Press
Research Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, which has been set up by Tuttle, Roy, and
Licastro to make these key tools of hydrothermal research available worldwide. This
continues to the present day, mainly due to the overriding convenience and simplicity.
