What Are These Shiny Relics from the Past? The Answer Will Surprise You
September 7, 2024
Source: Reddit
Can you recall how it was to enter your father’s workshop in the second half of the 70s or Perhaps he was fixing their car or adjusting the TV aerial but every so often he’d direct my attention to some strange gadget or a metallic tube lying somewhere. “That’s for science,” he would then say with a wink and here you were left with more questions than answers as to what kind of science demanded something so futuristic looking. That was when I noticed that maybe, somewhere among the dust and the mess, there was a metal vapor deposition bell, a small and not very noticeable, yet important tool in the progress of technology.
These glass and metal-coated cylindrical structures with the vacuum-sealed liveliness could have easily been ripped from a 1950’s sci-fi film, but instead they played a very important part in the development of technologies that are now standard in the modern world.
This paper reveals that after the Second World War, the whole world was fascinated with the future. From the space missions to the transistor radios, the 1950’s up to the 1980’s was the decade of the do’s and the possible. Many of these advances were made possible by the developments in material science such as metal vapor deposition. This process that involved the use of high heat and vacuum sealed chambers to apply a metallic film on materials was in the process of transforming industries such as electronics, optics, aerospace amongst others.
As most of us were admiring the color TV or the sleek body of a new car, scientists and engineers were working on machines of that type, which your dad might have shown you, to create the parts that enabled those products.
Transistors which are the basic components of modern electronics were being manufactured using the process by the 1960s. The semiconductors that drove the early generation of computers and space programs required these-controlled coatings to work efficiently. The reflective layer on the inside of those huge glass tubes was not for decoration, but to keep the vacuum chamber stable and to prevent any disturbances which might affect the adhesion of metal depositions to the targets. It is still hard to believe that something which looks so mechanical and industrial was involved in the design of the slim gadgets that are used in everyday life.
However, not only the scientists were engaged by these advancements. The use of vapor deposition systems came about at a certain period of history and this was rooted in a particular culture. During the post-war boom, industries expanded and the need for newer technologies became more and more imperative. Metal vapor deposition machines were used and they became important tools but at the same time they became a symbol of a world that was between the science fiction and fact. These glass and metal giants were part of the scenery in labs, factories and even some of the more advanced high school science classrooms giving a sense of the optimism and curiosity of the age.
In the early eighteen seventies when computers were being introduced in homes and man had begun to walk on the moon, vapor deposition processes had become a standard manufacturing technique. It played an important role in decreasing the price of electronic products such as calculators, radio and personal computers that were earlier affordable only to few. It is amazing that the shiny and enclosed structures in laboratories all over the country are quietly striving to give life some more contemporary touches.
Now, when people consider the technology of the twentieth century, we are bombarded with images of cool devices and smooth appearance. But, every innovation had a vast number of tools, scientists and procedures that not many people were aware of. The glass cylinders with metallic sheen that were a feature of this story were evidence of technique and innovation of an age that was eager to leap into the future.
Anybody who has seen their parents or grandparents work with their hands in a garage or a lab will find it rather heartwarming to see such tools come back. It makes us recall the days when technology was not only the end result, but also the journey – the failures and the successes that culminated into the production of some of the best innovations of the last fifty years.
These vacuum chambers, though may have been thrown into the scrap heap or simply left to gather dust, are a tale of mankind’s expansion. At a time when the society was only beginning to grasp the possibilities that the digital technology could provide, these tools played a key role in mapping the ideas onto the reality. Whether they were applied to a semiconductor or used in the development of a new material for space technology, they are a part of a time when the tomorrow was something real and something that was being created in garages, workshops, and laboratories around the globe.
Thus, the next time you will happen to encounter one of these metal vapor deposition bells, think about it. Reminisce on the days when the sound of machines in your father’s workshop was-mysterious and the world looked one step ahead.