I posted this on a FB page which may delete it, saving it here since i typed it all out.
KC Star article on successor company.
https://www.kansascity.com/makercity-kc/article224971630.html
https://www.facebook.com/groovewasher
https://www.instagram.com/groove.washer/
Related to what I think was a Discwasher polonium static zapper, which worked great by using alpha particles to kill static.
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I think Discwasher also made a static zapper too. If so got a fun story for you.
A friend who worked for the spooks processing film in a portable lab for a certain high speed airplane observed that there was a huge problem with fogging and damage to the film.
the film was something like 16" wide, I think (look up the SR-71 cameras, it's there). A very tightly wound spool quite large in diameter taken during the flight by the cameras on board.
When they would develop the film there were blotches, which were traced by these guys to static sparks from when the film was unwound.
With the agency as with any organization the hive mind of the agency had engineers and meetings and all sorts of crap going on, but in the mean time he was processing film and could clearly see sparks in the trailer.
No hive mind folks in site, just meetings there.
He heard about the static zapper for records, and took it on himself to get a couple and after some bailing wire and tape installed them in the processing spot so they were aimed at the sport where the film separated from the roll. A lot of the fogging went away, and the people up the food chain, the analysts, and other people were find.
Noone tells the hive mind and their meetings, but the word got around what fixed it and soon a lot of crews have the bailing wire and Static killers (I think Discwasher gizmos) installed and are happy.
What happened was at some point they packed up and went to move one of the processing labs which were in 20' containers which were broken up and moved as needed. But most of the bases were long term, at places such as Guam, Nellis and a few other spots you can find iin the stories.
Somehow one of the moves went thru a checkpoint which sniffed for hazards, and all sorts of alarms and panic ensue. My buddy wasn't around, but after the source was found to be these bits of polonium in the anti static gizmos eventually they came round and put him on the spot.
Finally all the useful parties got together, and my buy who was agency was given a talking to, and things went along, presumable with propery build $3000 anti static units instead of a couple of $20 discwashers and tape and bailing wire.
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BTW if anyone has any of the original antistatic zappers, I think the half life of the isotope is run, and they won't do much, but will be hazardous chemically, and as bad as you hear in the news to ingest by accident.
The ones I recall were Polonium, because the anti static effect was from the alpha particles, which decayed into helium gas atoms taking electrons from the static along with them
Take them to a hazmat disposal site if you find one in your grandfathers stereo pile and explain to the hazmat folks what you have.
If kept intact and out of prying hands they are not particularly dangerous, but what they are and what they contain may not be that obvious 40 years later.
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Grovewasher info from Star
"Get
Steve Chase waxing melodic about the evolution of the recording
industry and in particular, vinyl records, and his eyes glimmer with the
acuity of a diamond stylus. The gushing enthusiasm for his musical
pastime and his company, GrooveWasher, is tempered only by a 35-year career in the banking industry: measured passion.
Following
a path part legacy and part cliché, Steve birthed GrooveWasher in his
garage. Its roots track back to record albums’ halcyon days of the late
1960s. He credits his early relationship with Bruce Maier, PhD, in
Columbia, MO for GrooveWasher’s origins. “He was an avid audiophile and
professor of microbiology,” Chase says. “He introduced me to high-end
audio and it was about three years later that (Maier) started the
Discwasher company.”"
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