Building Scientific Apparatus

The best book in this subject area, with lots of hard to find information. It's broad in scope, with excellent use of language and illustrations. The best practical reference for lab equipment builders and maintainers. A little pricey, but worth it.

This book is an amazing compendium of information essential to being a great scientist. Unlike most science related books, which teach only the theory behind instrumentation, the authors of "Building Scientific Apparatus" took the time to discuss both the basic theory AND the practical logistics of building and maintaining different types of scientific instrumentation. The book is written for someone with a science background, but not an engineering one. It is often too easy for scientists to duct tape and WD40 our way to some temporary apparatus that will suit a single experiment. However, all too often this "temporary" (aka jury rigged) set-up ends up being used for years. Unfortunately, when problems arise (which they ALWAYS will with jury rigged equipment) scientists (especially graduate students) have a tenancy to ignore the issues either because they "don't have the time" or don't have a clue how to fix them. That's where this book comes in handy. Whether you are fixing one of these temporary systems, or building some apparatus for an experiment - this book has the information necessary to transform that jury rigged set-up into one that wont have to be rebuilt over and over.It has a great description of machine shop capabilities (and the basics of how to machine parts), and an intro to glass blowing. After that is where the book really takes off and discusses more directly related topics: Building/maintaining vacuum chambers, optics, lasers, and electronics each of which are given adequate space in the book. The authors include a lot of the basic theory of each chapter in an easily understandable manner (which is not necessarily unique to this book). But the real treasure trove in this book is the practical, almost hands-on information that is so often overlooked in science labs. For instance the the chapter on electronics starts out with the theory of electronics and description of different components, but then moves on to discusses the intricacies of grounds and grounding, different sources of noise and info specific to power supplies, and data acquisition. Finally, the last part of the electronics chapter discusses logistics and practical information such as component selection, printed circuit boards, board design, and even a primer on essential techniques like how to solder electrical components correctly.All in all, this is a great book for anyone, equally helpful for someone starting out as a young scientist or an experienced scientist beginning a new scientific endeavor. All you have to do is look through the table of contents and I'm sure you'll agree.

I am studying a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, and I found this reference an excellent way to fill in the gap between engineering design (in which I am experienced) and the design of scientific apparatus. Designing and building is a unique and peculiar discipline, combining fastidious attention to detail and a slap-dash approach - all justified by scientific rigor on the one hand and limited budgets on the other.This books gives a grounding in basic engineering skills and the technical data and summaries needed to apply most contemporary scientific gear. I found the overviews of electronics for signal conditioning, the basics of hooking together DAQs and sensors and the various small mechanisms that have evolved to fulfill the needs for accurate positioning and motion control.If you are starting out building scientific apparatus, get equipment with excellent manuals and a copy of this book. Later on you might slap together an awesome measurement system from hand-me-downs and scrap and your awesome experience, but start with something basic. This book is an excellent way to get up to speed and make a start.

This textbook provides an excellent introductory coverage of most things needed by the experimental physicist. Each section is written on the introductory level, but many of the important topics are covered, and the text contains many references to facilitate further study. There is a lot of practical data presented so one might use this a reference book for many years. This text is ideal for students of physics, though many of the topics may also be relevant to students of physical chemistry, if not other areas of science of which I know little. The coverage is broad enough that post-grads may find this text useful for areas outside of their specialisation, especially since the text contains so many references. The scientific hobbyist would find this text to be a joy to read and use.

It's a book, and I bought it. It showed up quickly and undamaged.I don't have any qualifications to review the content, but have it on good authority that it's chock-full of useful tips, diagrams, and accurate information relating to building scientific apparatus as the title suggests. Yup. Indeed.

I recently purchased the updated edition of this book, after having owned the previous edition for many years. It is concise, well-written, expertly illustrated and thoroughly referenced.The book covers a number of areas, all of which I've had occasion to use in my career as a materials scientist and chemist. The book is aimed at the practical aspects of design, construction and use of apparatus, primarily what might be termed "physics apparatus", but the principles may be applied to many scientific fields. It provides sufficient theory and mathematics necessary for an understanding of the designs, as well as pointing out common pitfalls.When I am designing and building equipment this book is never out of reach.

This text was required reading for joining an experimental research laboratory and I am able to reference it when attempting to work with anything hands-on in the laboratory for the first time. It contains general information about how tools and machining parts operate as well as details about vacuum components, optics (both photons and charged particles), electronics, etc. All figures are hand-drawn, clear, and concisely labeled -- high-quality stuff. Highly recommended for all fields of experimental work.