Facilities of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Science
Crossdating Facility, Rooms 415 and 415A SERF
These
rooms are our primary locations for crossdating wood specimens. The
rooms are generously fitted with abundant, spacious, custom-designed
wood cabinets, file cabinets, drawers, and shelving, and also
include a small wet lab and gas outlets. Room 415 (below) contains
three Leica stereozoom boom-arm microscopes, with continuous range
7X-30X magnification. One microscope is fitted with dual gooseneck
fiber-optic lights, while standard Nicholas illuminators are used
for the other two. A twin room, 415A, is adjacent to this room, and
is used primarily for crossdating, student study, equipment storage,
and wood storage.
We also use this set of rooms for storing most of our field equipment. We have a full complement of increment borers (about 43 at last count), dbh tapes (in all sizes), GPS units, two-way field radios, sanding supplies, dissecting needles, pack frames, and more.
Measurement Facility, Room 413 SERF
The
laboratory is very fortunate to have Room 413 SERF. Located on the
fourth floor overlooking the Tennessee River, this many-windowed,
well-lit room contains our imaging system, consisting of a 24"
Velmex stage, Fisher-Scientific stereozoom boom-arm scope with
trinocular head, a Kodak MDS 290 digital camera, a Gateway Pentium
personal computer, and Hewlett-Packard PhotoSmart color printer.
This room also contains three other standard Velmex measuring
systems (two 24" and one 12") with four stereozoom
boom-arm microscopes.
This room also contains numerous file cabinets, drawers, and shelving, and contains five work desks for students and visitors. We also have six other Pentium personal computers for analysis, apart from those computers used for measuring. The picture above shows just one half of the room.
Wood Preparation Facility, Room 207C SERF
Again, we are fortunate to have a conveniently-located and well-stocked wood preparation facility. Our wood shop is located on the back loading dock to the Science and Engineering Facility. The room was custom-designed to maximize the amount of equipment in a small, yet environmentally safe room. We have sophisticated dust collection (floor-mounted) and dust filtration (ceiling mounted) systems to ensure safety and good health. The room has all the equipment and tools one would need for dendrochronology, including a spacious pegboard sanding table. In addition, the room has a fire-proof cabinet for containing all the petrochemicals used in our fieldwork. Yes, we can and have used the hydraulic lifting ramp on the loading dock!
Wood Archive Facility, Room 207F SERF
Rounding out our laboratory is the room where we archive our wood samples. This room is located inside SERF, in close proximity to the Wood Prep Facility around the corner on the loading dock. This multipurpose room contains all samples for projects that have been completed. We have recently outfitted this room with over $1000 worth of heavy-duty industrial shelving to replace the old metal cabinets.
