22-11-2016, 04:59 PM
My experience of what happens when unusual things are put into a high powered macerator was ten years ago. I was working on a contract at University College in London. The optics lab was below ground level (on a stable underground concrete platform). However, pressure built up in the pipework from the Student's Union due to heaven knows what had been put in to loos and caused havoc with the macerator and pipes, and blew a manhole cover in the corridor above the optics lab. And filled the lab knee deep in ordure.
I came in a few days later and the place was pretty clean and smell-free at that point. But a first generation echelle diffraction grating (for the project) was in a flight case under the optical bench, and had been seriously under-poo. This large unit took 18 months to manufacture and cost £80k.
I opened the flight case with real trepidation - and the seals on the case had worked perfectly, and nothing at all had got in. Phew. We then relocated all the optics to a cupboard well above danger level!
Craig
I came in a few days later and the place was pretty clean and smell-free at that point. But a first generation echelle diffraction grating (for the project) was in a flight case under the optical bench, and had been seriously under-poo. This large unit took 18 months to manufacture and cost £80k.
I opened the flight case with real trepidation - and the seals on the case had worked perfectly, and nothing at all had got in. Phew. We then relocated all the optics to a cupboard well above danger level!
Craig
