From: REMOVE_THISdwilkins@means.net (Don Wilkins)
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.metalworking
Subject: Re: Problem twisting 22g sq copper wire
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 1999 01:24:31 GMT

On 2 Mar 1999 21:19:50 GMT, beecrofter@aol.comBee (BeeCrofter) wrote:

>What do you use a mile of niobium wire for?

Probably for making superconducting magnets.

From: REMOVE_THISdwilkins@means.net (Don Wilkins)
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.metalworking
Subject: Re: Problem twisting 22g sq copper wire
Date: Thu, 04 Mar 1999 01:44:56 GMT

On 3 Mar 1999 04:04:55 GMT, beecrofter@aol.comBee (BeeCrofter) wrote:

>Ok now what do you do with superconducting magnets?

Well you can make a bundle of money if you know how to make the magnet
and then program the software for MRI. Of course there are some big
boys out their already making the equipment and putting the big
bundles of money in the bank so if you have a hankering to do this you
better know how to do all that stuff.

Reminds me of back when we produced the first 100,000 gauss magnet.
Now you should understand that this was produced with a
superconducting magnet and a 12 volt car battery. You could put the
entire apparatus in an outhouse.

At about that time MIT had just gone whole hog in an effort to produce
these magnets by conventional methods and were drawing a tremendous
amount of water from the Charles river for cooling the electromagnets.

After the first successful run one of the chief investigators was
asked "what do you suppose they are going to do with the facilities
over at MIT." His answer "Well they can put in a whole bunch of pay
toilets".

From: mulligan@advinc.com
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.metalworking
Subject: Re: Problem twisting 22g sq copper wire
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 1999 04:50:30 GMT

In article <19990302161950.15313.00002476@ng-fv1.aol.com>,
  beecrofter@aol.comBee (BeeCrofter) wrote:
> What do you use a mile of niobium wire for?

Hee hee.  I suspected somebody would ask that.  At the time
my group at IBM's research division was involved in building the
world's largest superconducting detector for a rather unusual
particle, the magnetic monopole.

No, its not at left-handed smoke shifter.  Turns out that there
is no reason why monopoles should not exist, except for the
fact they don't.  Or do they?  There were a number of theories
about this, but not much in the way of experimental work.

Our group has a lot of expertise in superconducting electronics,
so we decided to build this detector.  The niobium-titanium wire
looses all electrical resistance at liquid helium temperature,
so that is the conductor of choice to hook up the detector
boards.

We took over the front hallway for our wire twisting work.

Jim