History
The 270 MHz (6.3 T) NMR magnet was originally manufactured by Oxford Instruments, Oxford, UK, in 1978-79 and installed by JEOL USA on a JEOL FX-270 NMR Spectrometer in 1979. The spectrometer was upgraded to a Delta-GSX 270 in 1995 before being retired in 1999 to make space for a JEOL Eclipse+ 500 NMR Spectrometer system.
Because the 270 MHz NMR frequency is now very uncommon, and the magnet could not sustain sufficient current to make 300 MHz, we thought that cutting open the magnet would be a useful teaching aid for our NMR customers and the NMR community.
Although NMR magnets can be properly disassembled for repair by the manufacturer, in order to show relative positions of the various parts, the method of disassembly used in this demonstration is destructive. Do not attempt to repeat this demonstration unless you intend to destroy your NMR magnet. The magnet was carefully sectioned by sequentially cutting and removing each layer of material.
What follows is a view of a superconducting NMR magnet that very few people have ever seen.