Talk:Cary Instruments

spectropolarimeter
The Cary 60 was not, I believe, so early, more like the 60's. I will have to check. This instrument contains an excellent UV monochromator, a double prism design. I believe that most of the rest of the instrument is obsolete. There is very little demand for the ORD capability present in this instrument. There are at least 3 manufacturers (Aviv, Horiba-JY, and Jasco) making CD instruments that can surpass this instrument, in many ways.

It is possible to rebuild this instrument, to one degree or another, always keeping the monochromator, to allow operation with a computer, for instance (The original instrument recorded on a chart plotter), but there is little justification for saying that there is "no modern replacement".

One of the chief problems is that the original design could not penetrate well into the vacuum UV. This was a limitation imposed by the polarizer (KDP in cyclohexane I think) and the mirrors used. Modern instruments with UV optimized mirrors have more energy in the far UV with only a 150 W Xenon lamp than the Cary instrument had with a 450 W lamp.

The Cary instrument did not use a photoelastic modulator.

The other electronics are obsolete. For instance, the magnetic amplifier lamp current regulator alone probably weighs more than an modern instrument, and is less well regulated. By the way, this lamp power supply does not have a bleeder resistor to discharge the large capacitors used to start the lamp. This is a major design oversight and a safety hazard. Be careful.

--AJim (talk) 16:06, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

spectrophotometers
In contrast to the CD instrument, the spectrophotometers, most notably the model 14, were extremely innovative and are still outstanding instruments. There are optical improvements possible, most notably in the NIR, but the major disadvantage is the obsolete electronics. These instruments are well worth rebuilding with new electronics when their optical advantages are needed.

--AJim (talk) 16:10, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Cary, Varian and Agilent
The article says "The company was purchased in 1966 by Varian Medical Systems" however when Varian split, Cary went with Varian Inc, not Varian Medical Systems, and included in the subsequent purchase by Agilent. See http://www.chem.agilent.com/en-US/ContactUs/varian/Pages/default.aspx?cid=2307

57.66.56.238 (talk) 14:40, 3 May 2011 (UTC)