Say buddy, can you spare a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer?

Erskine chemistry professor Doug Fry didn't really have a tin cup in his hand. In fact, he was more than willing to take a used instrument off of Clemson University's hands at a fair price. But, thanks to e-mail and friends, Erskine's chemistry department became the lucky recipient of a slightly used yet fully functional NMR as a gift from the University of Massachusetts - Amherst.

Fry had been doing work at Clemson University's NMR facility when he noticed an unused spectrometer near the one he was working on. He inquired to Alex Kitaygorodskiy, who heads the facility, about acquiring it for Erskine. Alex explained that they were actually saving that one to trade in on a new model. Fry kept prodding Alex via e-mail to let Erskine buy it. Instead, Alex sent Fry's message out over the internet to hundreds of colleagues who work in NMR facilities. Fry quickly received no fewer than nine offers of NMRs at little cost or free.

"We had a number of offers from schools, companies and even one government organization," said Fry.

After a little research, they settled on one offered by Charlie Dickinson of the Polymer Science Department at UMass, Amherst. "It was in mint condition, and had only been driven on Sundays to church and back," said Fry, "and it is very similar to the one that I had been working on at Clemson."

"It cost between $50,000 and $100,000 when new," said Fry of the eight-year old instrument. "And it sat unused for a couple of years before UMass decided they needed to get rid of it to make room for two new NMRs of their own."

UMass' space problem turned out to be a blessing for the Erskine Chemistry Department. Erskine's old NMR, which the college has had since the 1970's, had recently went on the fritz. "I don't know how organic chemists survived without them before they were invented," said Fry.

The technology, which takes a sample of organic matter and places it between two polls of a large magnet and then pulses radio waves through it, was developed in the 1940's by physicists as a way to determine the molecular structures of compounds. By the 1950's NMRs were routinely used, but only by the largest universities and companies with the money and time to buy them and assemble them on their own.

It was shortly thereafter that the medical community realized the potential NMR had for use in diagnosing disease. The apparatus could actually "look inside" something, or someone, and show an accurate picture. Figuring that telling someone they had to go through a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer might not seem too appealing, the name was changed by doctors to Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or MRI.

"It is basically the same technique, only the NMR spins the sample being analyzed at 20 revolutions per second and most people wouldn't like that," Fry said jokingly.

So while the NMR itself was passed along by UMass 'gratis,' Erskine still had to pick up the tab for its travel expenses and installation. Once it arrived at Reid Science Hall last November, the department still had to wait until a good piece of the $23,000 installation costs were raised. That happened in April when Fuji awarded Erskine funds for just that purpose. With that and the generous contributions of Chemistry Department alumni, installation work started in May.

It was just last week that installer Fred Herring, the electronics technician from Clemson's Chemistry Department, got the NMR up and spinning. "We've already had students working on it. They've really taken to it," Fry said. "But we still have some more money to raise for the completion of the installation."

With the new Center for Science and Values due for groundbreaking and completion expected by fall of 1998, the NMR will have to be relocated again. "It will have its own lab in the new building," said Fry. "And it won't cost near as much to move it and reinstall it."

Erskine's Facilities Management helped with the local move of the three pieces, one of which weighed almost a ton, and will be the prime movers for the relocation Fry said. "They really did an outstanding job."