Tony Duell wrote:
  I doubt very much if thing I got up to at school would
be OK now. Like
 making a crude  cathode ray tube. OK, it had ot be continuously pumped
 (and a rotary pumo doesn't realyl give a hard enough vacuum), but I did
 get a spot that could be deflected. Learnt a lot doing things like that. 
How a about now deflecting a tiny spot?. There was a atomic force microscope
somewhere web as a DIY project but I think it vanished overnight.
I think they were claming about $150 or so for the simple equipment.
  -tpny 
Ben alias woodelf