Despite having a name that is a little too close to 'catheter', the cathetometer is a valuable tool here at work. When we're pulling a crystal, we use it to measure it's diameter from afar. It's kinda like a little telescope on a track that slides back and forth that measures how far it's moved. You look through the eye-piece and line it up with one side of the crystal, then slide it over and line it up with the other side. It tells you how far you slid it, and you've measured your crystal.
It has one down side (well, two, if you count the unfortunate name). It builds up a static charge. It might actually be the pullers that build up the small charge, but the cathetometer is connected electrically, so it doesn't really matter which. It's a relatively minor little shock you get, but the problem is the location. If you don't remember to touch the puller before sighting the cathetometer, the first thing that gets close to the equipment is your eyeball. As a result, I've received several little shocks just below my lower eyelid. Not the best place to be blasting yourself with electrons.
P.S. Blogspot doesn't think that 'cathetometer' is a word. It's best guesses as to what word I'm trying to spell? Costumed, Glutamate, or Guesstimate. Have some madlibs fun by replacing cathetometer each time in the text above with one of those three words.
1 comment:
Really, it shouldn't come as a surprise to you when you get shocked any more. I've seen how often you ground yourself while walking around the house.
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