Repairing the unrepairable - # 08/167

"How do you repair the unrepairable?".....At Ham House we have to ensure that the conservation vacuum cleaners have the correct suction - not too strong, not too weak.

Tim and I puzzled and came up with this: a high precision medical syringe (which just happened to be in Tim's tool box), a manual "volume by weight" high precision scale, some tubing and a cork.
Here is the rig. Hold the scale steady, switch on, and see how high the suction can pull up the syringe plunger. Bingo....a perfectly precise measurement of suction power. Checking the norm is easy. The Internet tells you what a you should expect from a properly performing vacuum cleaner.

Tim and I play like this day after day...........Heaven!!!!!!!!!!!!!