Periodic table installed on floor of chemistry lab

  • Published
  • By Brandice J. Armstrong
  • Tinker Air Force Base Public Affairs
Hidden deep in Bldg. 3001 is a unique mural, of sorts. Built into a chemistry laboratory floor, the mural is a chart that best represents the science of chemistry.
   Chris Mance, 76th Maintenance Wing chemist, designed and primarily installed a 180-square-foot periodic table into the electroplating lab floor. With help from fellow chemist David Nguyen, the project was performed between October and November 2006.
   "I'm happy with what I did," Mr. Mance said. "I see it everyday and it's there because I wanted it to be there."
   Mr. Mance said he first brainstormed the idea eight to nine months before he had the opportunity to bring it to fruition. The opportunity arose when a mold removal project got underway.
   The mold had been found in the lab walls. When contractors began working on the project, Mr. Mance said he had asked that the contractors move the laboratory benches, but it wasn't written into the contract. Instead of rewriting the contract to include the moving of the benches, Mr. Mance opted to do it himself.
   When he moved the peninsula of laboratory benches, it left an open space in what he called, "kind of a periodic table-shape" in the middle of the floor. Since many tiles were damaged, Mr. Mance said it provided him the opportunity to add the periodic table.
   "I thought it would be neat," he said.
   Mr. Mance said he scrounged for tiles and found some leftover from previous projects, bought others and ordered additional ones. His periodic table is colored white and black for active metals, red for transition metals, dark and light blue for non-metals, purple for noble gases and gray for rare earth elements.
   He even left spaces for two additional elements - a transition metal and a non-metal - that were recently discovered and have not yet been named.
   Mr. Mance said supplies cost the government less than $100 and his out-of-pocket supplies also cost less than $100. The labor was completed in his free time.
   Though Mr. Mance said he's happy with the finished product, he did experience challenges, which included leveling uneven tiles, filling in and raising old drains and scraping away the old tiles.
   Much of the floor was completed in three to four hours, Mr. Mance said. However, stenciling in the atomic numbers and element symbols took longer than Mr. Mance suspected. He said, he thought it would take a few hours.
   "It took about a week to do," Mr. Mance said. "It's more work than I expected but I like the result. It's unique."
   As a result of his efforts, Mr. Mance said tours have stopped in his lab to see the periodic table and there's talk of adding a periodic table on the main wall of the chemistry area.