Carts always seem to be at a premium in the lab. They are supposed to be used to transport equipment — the whole reason there are wheels involved — but they often turn into squatters. They take up residence next to an experiment for an extended period of time, often hosting some equipment that’s also supposed to be temporary, such as an oscilloscope, and become the equivalent of a mobile home in a trailer park: Mobile only in name.

Which is why we got a couple of new carts. I assembled them and took the opportunity to give them the equivalent of vanity license plates:

The two numbers are the hyperfine frequency splittings of Cesium (on the left) and Rubidium. To four digits, at least.

The bulkiness of our electric drill/screwdriver meant that the casters blocked access to the screw-holes. I’m not sure who originally said If necessity is the mother of invention, then laziness must be its father, but I didn’t see any reason to tighten 32 big screws by hand, so I kludged this together with help from a few pieces from our socket-wrench set

Now we can race the carts around the hallway, until someone loads them up. Oops, too late.