Scoville high performance liquid chromatography unit - photo

[Altair]

Scoville high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) unit. Used to measure the amount capsaicinoids in chili peppers.

Fullsize image: https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net...r_fullsize.jpg



Previously:

Scoville hot peppers scale - photo
Chili pepper chopping machine - GIF
Chili roasting tumbler - GIF
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...523#post139364

[nova_robotics]

Someone's been watching First We Feast.

[bruce.desertrat]

My first 'real' job after College was doing HPLC analyses (albeit in my case it was analyzing metabolites of nitrosamine aromatic hydrocarbons as suspected carcinogens). My first task when I started in that labe was to refurbish a pair of Waters pumps just like those. (they're the boxes on the right hand side there. The thing with the CRT is the pump controller, then the detector. I cannot honestly tell what it is, might be a uv absorbtion detector or it might be a fluorescence detector, then the two pumps with the sample injector between them. The actual chromatography column is the ~6" tube in the front of the detector.)

The pumps have nearly solid stainless steel cylinders; the pistons are man-made sapphire about 2 mm in diameter that fit through seals in the cylinder heads, and replacing the seals is a delicate operation; you have to line up the cylinder just right and seat it, or you can break the piston off.

They make a tiny 'tink' noise when they do...guess how I know!

Our labs had a wonderful 'instrument' guy who kinda took me under his wing, taught me a lot.

Also that bit about 'only the third comany in the US' must refer to whatever food company that was using it; Waters had been making HPLC systems since the late 60's and by 1985 they were very common. My setup was actually an old hand-me-down from a previous researcher, and ISTR the color scheme was not that beighe that later typified Waters instruments.

My detector was an expensive (and finicky) electrochemical detector.

IIRC (this was ~1984 or so, and my chemistry has rusted considerably since!) I was measuring redox potential of aromatic nitrosamines in the 5 picoamp range. I ended up building a makeshift faraday cage around the entire apparatus to shield it from extraneous current; I could deflect the chart recorder quite a bit by just touching any of the tubing.