For Sale - High Purity Helium-3, Nitrogen-15 and Oxygen-18

20160410

I have for sale: five small laboratory type cylinders of rare, high purity stable isotope gases. Includes two liters of Helium-3. These are all from a retired CSIRO scientist's deceased estate, with provenance.

Detailed photos further down. The cylinders pictured above are for sale, and are:

1. One cylinder of Helium-3.    99.95+%   Contains < 0.05% 4He.   2L
   Cambridge Isotope Laboratories.   Lot I-2306   5-92. Stainless cylinder.
   Has intact 'full' tag. Original end cap on outlet, no sign it was ever removed. The "2L" means contents are two liters gas volume at STP (standard temperature and 1 atmosphere pressure.)
   Note: The yellow tag has started to break slightly along one side of the 'empty' tear-off line, due to being flexed while curled. I'll put a little sticky tape on that edge to stop the tear progressing further.
2. One cylinder of Nitrogen-15.   99/    2L
   Cambridge Isotope Laboratories.   Lot EB-314   5-92. Stainless cylinder.
   Has intact 'full' tag. Original end cap on outlet, no sign it was ever removed.
3. One cylinder of Oxygen-18.   97.87%    2.034L
   Enritech Ltd (Israel) Can't see any date code or serial #. Yellow cylinder.
   Has intact 'full' tag. Original plug on outlet, no sign it was ever removed.
4. Two cylinders of Oxygen-18. Mfr: CEA=ORIS Bureau des isotopes stables.
   White larger cylinders with mesh impact guards (which slide off and have been removed for the photo.)
   • Cyl 4a. Original plug on outlet, no sign it was ever removed.
     97.33%, 1 litre, Bouteille: 3643. No usage indicator tag.
   • Cyl 4b. Has outlet port not original plug (ie probably was in use)
     98%, 1 litre, Bouteille: 5653. No usage indicator tag.

Also worth mentioning but probably of no commercial value are two other items that came with the above.
These are not included in the sale, and are mentioned only for the context they provide to the cylinders above.

• Another small steel lab-gas cylinder, reddish brown, with the original label crossed out, and a masking tape label (hand lettered) still partially stuck to the cylinder. There is an outlet seal on the valve, so the contents may be per the hand written label. But who knows?
  The original label says: "CIL 20 Commerce Way Woburn, Massachusetts 01801. Cambridge Isotope Laboratories. Nitrogen 1L 15N2, 99% NLM-363 F=5837 Not for human drug use - for research only"
  The handwritten label says: "2 ATM abs (1 ATM above external pressure) He 20% Ar 80%"
  But it doesn't say He-3 or He-4, so one should assume it's the common isotope, ie of no significant value.
  Written in black marker pen on the cylinder: "1202.6" (The filled weight?) and "#2". Implying there was a #1 at some point.
  There's also "EMPTY OCT 92" in black marker pen underneath the masking tape label.
  Stamped in the cylinder steel: "E1640 MARISON"
• A glass pure gas carrier, labelled ¹⁸O2. Ie another container of Oxygen-18. These containers use an internal glass sealed nipple, that can be broken open by striking an internal sliding weight against it. The nipple on this one has been broken. The glass stopcock above that is closed, but there can be no certainty of the remaining contents or purity. Only the same comment that my friend made about all the cylinders: "If my dad bothered to save it from being tossed out, it probably has value." It came in a Farnel cardboard box with some shipping and origin information. Realistically it's merely a curio, and I'd prefer to keep it. However if you'd like it, make an offer.

Detail Photos

Cylinder 2, Nitrogen-15

Cylinder 3, Oxygen-18

Cylinder 4a, Oxygen-18

Cylinder 4b, Oxygen-18

He-Ar Cylinder NOT INCLUDED IN SALE

Glass Ball of Oxygen-18 (maybe) NOT INCLUDED IN SALE

Provenance

My friend's father was Leszek S Wielunski. He was a materials scientist, who worked for the CSIRO for many years up to the late 1990s. He died in 2015, with his son inheriting his posessions.

At left is a scan of his father's CSIRO business card.

On the 13th and 14th of March 2016 while I was helping my friend clear his family home in preparation for handover of the house, which had been sold, he gave many of those posessions to me. He plans to spend considerable time travelling, and did not want to be tethered to all these material things. He specifically included the crate of gas cylinders in the gifts to me, knowing they were valuable. (He was also amusing himself, wondering how long it would take me to realize their value. It took me two days.)

My friend's name is Andre Wielunski. Once I discovered what the cylinders contained, I checked with my friend that he had known that, known their potential value, and definitely intended me to have them.

Yes, he did, hence this signed statement he wrote out for me a few days later.

Another friend with more legal knowledge than either of us mentions the statement should have included mention of a consideration in order to be more solid. That was unfortunately accidentally omitted, but was assumed to be the hard work I'd put in, helping with clearing the house.

Also, mostly it was a gift from one friend to another, given that he knows my situation, interests and needs. That'd I'd absolutely understand and appreciate this gift, and could be trusted to not do something stupid like unseal and open the valve.

Sale by Public Tender

Bids for the ³He must be accompanied by supporting evidence of who you are, where you are (Country), and what you'll be using it for. I reserve the right to disregard bids for any reason.

At a closing date yet to be determined, I will notify successful bidder(s), if any. I will also post any successful purchase values, but not the buyer details. Any cylinders that received no bids meeting the minimum will remain on sale unless specifically withdrawn from sale.

The bidding deadline, and the minimum bid value considered for each of the cylinders are yet to be determined, while I research current typical market value. These details will be stated here when this page is finalized, in the near future. Be aware the minimum bid value will be determined with reference to current market price in US dollars.

In the meantime, if you are interested in purchasing any of these and you have references showing typical current market pricing for such items, you are welcome to contact me and discuss. Or you can just submit a bid.

The primary cause of difficulty in setting a minimum bid price is that the US government NIDC (National Isotope Development Center) runs yearly auctions of Helium-3 from their reserves, and the auction results are private. In that the resulting sale prices are not announced. They only state the minimum acceptable bid per liter. Here are some references:

For potential buyers of these cylinders, there are obvious pros and cons besides the actual dollar pricing.

The Cons:

1. No guarantee. As an individual with no way to actually test the contents (pressure and purity) of these cylinders, I am unable to guarantee their content is still as labelled. Interested parties will just have to evaluate the probability of the cylinders being as labelled, given the history and condition of the cylinders. If you want more photos or have questions, just ask.
2. No return, no refund. The items cannot be returned, and no refunds will be given under any circumstances. I have accurately stated everything I know about these cylinders; you are bidding on them as they are. They are second hand goods, with no guarantee of contents or function.
3. Payment up front in full. I'm not going to ship the cylinders off, and just hope a buyer is honest and won't claim the cylinder(s) were empty/contaminated, when they were fine. If a buyer wants these shipped somewhere, then they will have to pay up front and have funds cleared before I ship them. Payment accepted by cash if picking up in person, or by bank tranfer beforehand otherwise.
4. Verification possibilities? I'm happy to see if some more mutually verified arrangement can be made. Perhaps testing of cylinder contents somewhere with both parties present? Or by a qualified third party? Shipping one of the lesser value cylinders first as touchstone? I'm open to suggestions.
5. Shipping: Internation or domestic air shipping could be difficult or impossible, for multiple reasons. Although we know the cylinders are at relatively low pressure and perfectly safe, flight restrictions on pressure cylinders are a problem. To the uninformed they certainly look like high pressure cylinders, and would probably be rejected from air cargo on safety grounds if x-rayed. Maybe I'm wrong about this?
   Also as an individual sender I have no way to ensure some customs agent doesn't get it into their head to try opening a cylinder and doing a sniff test or whatever.
   Domestic surface shipping should be fine.
   As a buyer, if you can't pick up in person you'll have to instruct me in your choice of shipping, insurance and customs declaration.
   Finding some shipping means that works for these will be the buyer's responsibility.
   The shipping workability, details and costs must be finalized before payment is made.

1. Small quantity. No need to buy in bulk, or pay the reseller markup. My minimum bid price will be chosen to be attractive relative to standard small quantity commercial sales. If you only want a couple of liters of He, here they are.
2. Quick. No waiting a year for the next US NIDC auction, or even international shipping if the buyer is in Australia. In fact if you are in a hurry, make an offer now, and you could have it/them as soon as you can pick up and pay cash.
3. No red tape. Just explain who you are and what you want them for, to satisfy my curiosity and self-protection in law. Easy. These would be sold on ebay, if I wanted to accept ebay's percentage cut. (Which I don't.)
4. Good Karma. These are rare items, of considerable scientific interest to those able to use them. The circumstances of them becoming available like these must be even rarer. (Read the full background story.) I want to see them reach an appreciative buyer, and be useful. I'll do whatever I can to see that happen. But I do need the money, and it's for a highly worthy cause. Which is one of those quests where speaking of it publicly beforehand risks sinking chances of success. So I'll only explain f2f, and only if I decide the asker would appreciate the story. But by buying these, you will be contributing to a good deed — or at least a serious attempt at it.

No Sale, and other scenarios

Bear that in mind when submitting bids. Assurance to return the cylinders when empty, or better yet offers to include equivalent/more empty but functional cylinders as part of payment, will be considered positively.

A component of my own vacuum system hobby project includes attempting to modify a Varian He vacuum leak detection system for use as a residual gas mass spectrometer, unless I can obtain an existing mass spectrometer residual gas analyzer. So I suppose the ³He and others may be usefull for calibration if I am unable to sell them.

I'm also struck by the degree of red tape and absurdity attached to official sales of ³He. The US government (and other governments bowing to it) have never been among my favourite entities, and in this matter it's no exception. I'll ensure the ³He is sold to a legitimate, legal buyer, in a country listed among the acceptables. But if I hear any rubbish about military/dual use restrictions, or threats of confiscation, I'll just open the valve. Maybe do the most expensive Helium Donald Duck voice impression ever. Two liters at STP should be enough for one or two quick lung fulls.

This file: http://everist.org/spacejunk/sell/helium-3.htm

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