Ice Run of August 21st, 2007

Today was another really nice day for a drive in the mountains. It was a bit warm down on the plains, but even at altitude, it was still about 90F andGillian (my assistant today) was panting away with the heat...

"Let's get in the shade...please!"

Grandpa's view as we pull up to the shed.

That's one full ton (2000 pounds) of Dry Ice under the tarp.

When we opened the Shed and lifted the lid on the Cryonic Chamber, we found quite a population of Crystal Critters...some were big and lonely, some were small and in large groups.

The Crystal Forest was pretty nice this time....

And, of course, a couple of independent little Critters.....

 

 

Here's what the remaining blocks looked like this time.....compared to last time.

 

 

 

 

Here's the thermometer....it reads somewhere around -70F

 

Last month, the temp went up over 40 degrees while we were re-stocking the chamber.

This time, we kept the lid closed unless we were actually adding ice.

 

 

We also kept the remaining load covered, except for those boxes being immediately unloaded...

 

You can see how the water vapor collects on the extremely cold surface of the boxes.

 

 

 

Here's the last part of the load.

 

We try to break it up into 500 pound sections, to minimize sublimation of the entire load.

 

We still loose an estimated 10% of the load on hot days like this.

 

We also took this opportunity to replace one of our frontline boxes with a new one.

 

You can see the old, broken box on the left, and the new, whole box on the right.

The gap in the middle is where the box belongs.

 

Above, to the left, you can see the insulation pulling away from the plywood lid. In the center, you can see the bolts and washers we used to re-fasten the insulation. (The previously used adhesive doesn't hold up very well in cryogenic temperatures) To the right can be seen the results of our repairs.

After we loaded all the ice into the cryonic chamber, we were still not completely full.

We estimated that there was 150 pounds of pellets, 70 pounds of block and 25 pounds of mass for a total of 245 pounds left.

We added 1950 pounds to bring the total up to almost 2200 pounds. Observations indicate we only have about 2000 pounds total(probable 200 pound loss from sublimation during transport)

 

For fun and enjoyment.....