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Molspin Ltd
Molspin was formed in 1979 to manufacture products for the paleomagnetizm research environments. Indeed, our founder, Dr Lindsay Molyneux, was involved with Professor Creer in developing fluxgates and devices to measure the expected value of the earth's magnetic field due to its rotation.
This work, along with concommitant discoveries at Newcastle University, led to the development of a number of devices for measuring small magnetic fields including the necessary fluxgates and control electronics.
Some History
The development of Molspin products has been closely linked to the development of computers in this country.
The first measurements of rocks was done with a crude but sensitive method where the rock was bought close to the lower of two magnets constrained by a torsion fibre. To make a measurement the rock had to be raised and lowered between the changes in orientation. It took about 15 minutes to measure each rock sample. The work could only be done in the countryside because of magnetic interference from surrounding buildings and objects. Even dairy cows could have an influence on the results obtained!
It was at this point (1960) that Newcastle University obtained its first computer - a Ferantee Pegasus. Dr Molyneux wrote a machine code program to disentangle the written results of the rock measurement.
Professor Creer suggested that a fluxmeter could be used to measure a slowly rotating rock sample and Dr Molyneux devised the electronics to turn this into a meaningful result.
Newcastle University had a D.S.I.R contract to examine computer controlled typesetting. To start with it used the main University computers but when the Digico was formed in 1964, a machine was purchased from them and interfaced by Dr Molyneux to a Purdy-Mackintosh phototypesetter. (A fuller explanation of the D.S.I.R. project can be found here). In 1968, Digico started manufacturing the first affordable desktop computer.
Around this time, an analogue to digital converter became available and Dr Molyneux realised that the Digico could also drive the fluxgate magnetometer. The result was the first computer controlled spinner magnetometer. It was an immediate success and these were sold all over the world and the spinner was often referred to as a Digico (the name on the computer).
After a time, around 1981, the first really friendly computer (namely the BBC computer) created the effective start of the home computer. It was much cheaper than the Digico and Molspin was formed to make and market the complete unit.
The Minispin was introduced in about 1994 and the computer interface which had been external to the unit was incorporated within it (effectively all of the digital electronics from the BBC computer). The Minispin was then sold without a computer but with a program that would run on the typical PC. However the chips of the BBC became obsolete around 2007 and the Minispin was re-engineered to use a more up-to-date chip namely the Mega128. It proved possible to arrange the changeover from the BBC chip to the Mega128 as a plug-in change.
Back to the present
Molspin's devices are regularly referenced in geological journals and papers as any search will reveal. Molspin's products are reliable, rugged and the best value for such equipment on the market. A key measure of the robustness of our instruments is the count of those returned for repair. Few are returned for repair and those that are returned tend to be very old (>15 years) or have been subject of some gross accident.
The development of the field of environmental magnetizm in the early 1980s provided another outlet for Molspin products to meet the challenges of detecting transport and subsequent deposition and/or transformation of mineral grains. These are particularly needed in sedimentary deposition, alluvial and glacial deposition and pedogenesis.
Molspin continues to look for other areas where Molspin's instruments can contribute to the research effort.