The apparatus is a 20.3 cm diameter titanium vessel containing 1.5 liters of liquid sodium. The vessel is heated on the outside with quartz-tungsten IR heaters and cooled on the inside by circulating hexane up through the center of the rotor. The temperature difference combined with rotation up to 200 rev/sec set up turbulent convection in the liquid sodium. The system was probed by applying single frequency, chirped, and pulsed external magnetic fields and watching the subsequent response of flowing sodium.

Dynamo I did not self-generate a magnetic field. Results are reported by

• N.L. Peffley, A.G. Goumilevski, A.B. Cawthrone and D.P. Lathrop. Characterization of experimental dynamos. Geophysical Journal International. 142 (1): 52-58 (2000). [PDF]  [DOI]  [ADS]