Wow, I've been wanting to build a Wilson Cloud Chamber for a long time, ever since I read about one back in the 1970s in C.L. Stong's famous book "The Amateur Scientist." Now this fellow Jim Messier comes along with this amazing video that features a cloud chamber that he built for a few bucks at age 13. I am feeling the pressure. No pun intended.
Back in the day, a reasonable excuse for not building this device was that it was hard to find the dry ice you needed for the cooling. No more! Now, at least in this area, you can get dry ice at your local supermarket (bring thick gloves or else you can burn your hands on this stuff). The heat is on. Well, actually the cold is on.
I wrote about cloud chambers before on this blog:
You can get the entire C.L. Stong book for free courtesy of KE5FX here:
All of this was sparked by a visit to Jim Messier's amazing YouTube channel, "Our Own Devices." There is a lot of great material there. Check it out and subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@CanadianMacGyver
Thanks Jim!
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