The contents of each volume of the Bell Jar are listed below. Articles with no indicated author may be presumed to be either the handiwork of the editor or a gathering together of the submissions of several contributors. Not specifically listed, but part of each issue, are editorial and reader commentary, items & information wanted or available, supplier listings, and useful tidbits.

Some of the articles listed below are available in electronic format (HTML or PDF). Please refer to the Electronic Articles page. These may be in a slightly truncated format or merged with other articles if required in order to make sense as standalones. I've also tried to correct any boo-boos that might have been in the originals (while, probably, introducing others). More substantial collections are available on the Download page.

During its first year, the content of tBJ was pretty much based on what the I had to offer. Brief contributions appeared in each issue’s Commentary column as well as in a few pages of more substantial reader input. Bill Connery’s article on a very small and simple system for making graded neutral density optical filters was the first "feature length" project contribution. The text and sketches were submitted on some note paper and something that looked like a piece of an envelope. High quality can have humble origins.

The first subscribers were “recruited” thanks to a mention by Don Lancaster in his Hardware Hacker column in what was “Radio-Electronics” Magazine.

The other notable contribution during year 1 was Michael McKeown’s highly entertaining article on the history of the units of pressure. Mike's ready wit (British, I might add) has continued to occasionally grace the pages of tBJ.

The first year’s issues were composed on a Canon bubble-jet typewriter. Most of the illustrations were drawn on the hardcopy originals with traditional drawing instruments. Those originals are still in decent shape and the better articles were transferred to the PC for more permanent storage. During the year I learned how to correctly spell “gauge.”

• Vacuum Basics

• An Amateur’s Vacuum System (in 4 parts)

• Conversion of Refrigeration Compressors to Vacuum Service (in 3 parts).

• Gauging - In Praise of the Lowly Discharge Tube

• Plasma Accelerators - An Introduction

• The Units of Pressure Measurement - Michael McKeown

• A Simple Mini System for Evaporation - Bill Connery

• A Basic Capacitor Discharge Power Supply

• Building a Thermocouple Vacuum Gauge

By the start of 1993 I had invested in a real computer and started doing all the graphics and images with the PC. The average page count also increased. That made me feel less guilty about the necessary $5 increase in the subscription price.

A computer bulletin board (the VacTech BBS) was created and this got some level of use by at least a few of the readers.

More editorial mentions by Lancaster, T.J. Lindsay (Lindsay Publications) and others continued to swell the ranks of subscribers. Paid advertising, however, didn’t do much. Educators and professionals began to discover tBJ and I began to dream about getting several thousand subscribers, quitting my job and moving shop to a small Carribean island.

• New Life for Old Microwave Ovens (in 2 parts)

• An Amateur’s Vacuum System (5th part)

• A Coaxial Plasma Gun

• Apparatus Splits Glass Tubes Longitudinally - NASA

• How to Make Buckyballs - Greg Konesky

• How to Make a Glass to Metal Seal - Kevin Bennet

• Reconfigurable Glass Vacuum Chambers

• A Simple Chiller

• Exploding Wires

• Outgassing - Michael McKeown

• Build a Pair of Magdeburg Hemispheres

• Production of Very Low Temperatures - F. B. Lee

• A Homebuilt Diffusion Pump (Status)

• A Simple, Flexible Chamber for Beam Experiments

• The Multiplate Chamber (MPC) Electron & Ion Beam Source

During this year, the electronic version was introduced in the form of text articles that were distributed through the Usenet. I left my high paying job in the computer industry (actually, the job left me). Soon thereafter I got sucked into the vacuum industry where I now get compensated for working on not much.

• Build a Multiplate Chamber Beam Source

• Bob Templeman on Generating X-Rays with Receiving Tubes

• A Kit of Components for Conducting Gaseous Discharge and Electron Beam Experiments

• A Homebuilt Transmission Electron Microscope - Chris Frye

• Some Experiments with Glow Discharge Produced Electron Beams

• Another Coaxial Plasma Gun

• The Restoration of a High Vacuum, Thin Film Deposition Machine - Alan K. Ward and John H. Moon

• Original Thought Experiments - Martin R. Carbone

• A Quarter-Million Volt Impulse Transformer

• Compression Plates for Stacked Electrode Assemblies

• Brief Items including: electron & ion beam kits, pathological science, cleaning surfaces for epoxy bonding, ideas for feedthroughs, a one tube radio with homemade vacuum tube, chilled baffle for small diffusion pumps

With the email version of tBJgetting a good reception, I began making plans for this Web page. The BBS’ computer (an old 286) died and, since it received little use, it was decided to discontinue the BBS.

• Refrigeration Service Vacuum Pumps (Medium vacuum at low cost)

• Geiger Counters and Power Supplies - David M. Raley

• Two Simple Projects: Constructing a Radiometer and a Pirani Gauge - F. B. Lee

• Some Resources and Ideas for Plasma Experiments

• More on Thermal Conductivity Gauges

• The Aerobic Workout Vacuum Pump

• Vacuum and Scientific American’s Amateur Scientist Column

• George Schmermund’s Sorption Pumped X-Ray Tube

• Build a Plasma Sphere

• Backstreaming from Oil-Sealed Mechanical Vacuum Pumps - Philip Danielson

• A Cheap Metal Vacuum Chamber - Robert Jones

• Several Inexpensive Replicas of Antique Cold Cathode Discharge Tubes and a Simple Spark Coil Add Up to Some Cheap Thrills - Tedd Payne

• Solder Glass Techniques - Daniel Koller

• Some Notes on Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Displays

• The Evolution of the X-Ray Tube - Dan Smith

• A Simple Medium Vacuum System (an easy to construct vacuum stand)

• Demonstrate a Transmission Electron Microscope

• Some Reflections - Franklin Lee

• Introductory Vacuum Experiments - Franklin Lee

Still dreaming about getting those thousands of subscribers and moving to the Carribean. Perhaps when I retire. Articles for 1996 included:

• Adding Instrumentation to a High Vacuum Deposition Station - H.J. Earle, J-G Imbault, A. Ward, J. H. Moon

• A Brief Tutorial on the Glow Discharge - In several parts

• Pump Oils and Other Furry Animals - Mike McKeown

• Home-Made Geissler Tubes - F. Castro (Dangerous way to make vacuum from 1925)

• Complete Dummies Guide to the Operation of a Typical Diffusion Pumped High Vacuum System - Roy Schmaus (from his Vacuum Technology Page)

• Brief notes on freeze-drying and an exploding wire driven gun for high speed particle impact testing

• The Production of Phosphors, An Introduction - Ely Silk

• Manometers (liquid and diaphragm manometers and includes some information on techniques used to backfill discharge tubes)

• Applications for Mechanical Diaphragm Manometers

• Infrasound Monitoring with a Microbarograph

• A Home-Grown, Sealed Carbon Dioxide Laser - David Knapp

1997’s issues got off to a bit of a slow start. The first number didn't get mailed until the first part of April. Spring made it out in September and Summer/Autumn didn't get out until the start of 1998.

• More material on Microwave Oven Conversions: In Praise of Junkery - Jack Herron; Scientific Apparatus Using Domestic Microwave Ovens (examples from the patent literature)

• Freeze Drying (principles and some experiments)

• Discharge Tube Experiments with AC Potentials - Timothy Raney

• Home Built Mass Spectrometers - Carl A. Helber

• The Baroscope

• A High Altitude Chamber for Biological Studies

• A Functional e/m Apparatus

• The Umac 606 Rediscovered

• Neutrons and Neutron Generators

• The Farnsworth/Hirsch Fusor - Richard Hull

1998 was, again, another year of slipped publishing schedules. The last issue of the year squeeked out just after Christmas.

• Magnetic Deflection of Electrons using Vacuum Tubes - Timothy Raney

• Leaks: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

• A Simple Vacuum System for School Use

• Two Freeze Drying Chambers

• Resources for Industrial Strength Vacuum Education

• Mini-F: A Small Plasma Focus Device

• Materials Modification with the Coaxial Plasma Gun

• Potpourri of Short Topics: Drying Wood Turnings with Microwaves and Vacuum; Microwave Plasma Update; More on Richard Hull’s Fusor, Chris Frye’s TEM and Hansen’s Microbarograph

My publishing schedule remained consistent.

• A Homemade Propane Refrigeration System

• Sputtering (first of several parts)

• An X-ray Tube Prototype

• A Small Reactor for Plasma Polymerization

• The Speed of Sound, Shock Tubes and Potato Cannons

• High Vacuum with Mechanical Pumps

• The Editor Rebuilds his Vacuum System

• On the Electro-Chemical Polarity of Gases (W.R. Grove’s historic paper)

• The Dumbing Down of America

• Basics of Sputtering (several parts)

• Three Simple Vacuum Tube Projects - Nyle Steiner

• Design Differences in Thermocouple Vacuum Gauges - Axel Schmetzke

• More IEC

• Edison’s Patent on Coating Phonograph Records

• Frozen Free Radicals

• Plasma Ashing

• Little Things Falling in Vacuum

• The Crossed Field Neutron Source

• Microscopy and Image Analysis

Below are the contents of Nos. 1&2.

• The Cartesian Diver as Physics Demo, Toy and Pressure Gauge

• Those Cools Bands in the Positive Column - Reginald Smith

• Plasma Topics (history of some diagnostic methods, the Thomson spectrometer, nuclear tracks in plastics)

• An X-Ray Tube - Jon Rosenstiel

• Puff Valves

As of May 2002 Numbers 3 & 4 are in progress. Articles will include tips on how to get rid of bubbles in gel candles, the real theory of the Crookes Radiometer, running oxygen plasmas without burning your house down and the basics of plasma x-ray devices.

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