For combustion experiments, the bomb calorimeter must be selected and moved on to the laboratory bench. The Control Panel is built into the bomb calorimeter and is turned on (opening the Control Panel window) by clicking on the LED panel. Clicking on the calorimeter lid opens it, which exposes the bucket and the bomb assembly. The bomb assembly can be clicked and dragged to the bench top and disassembled to expose the bomb cup, and the bomb cup can then be taken to the balance area to load samples. Samples should generally be 1 g in size. The bomb is reassembled for a measurement by placing the bomb cup on the bomb head, placing the bomb head in the bomb, and placing the screw cap on top of the bomb. The assembled bomb can then be taken to the calorimeter and placed in the water bath and the lid closed.
The combustion experiment is controlled with the bomb Control Panel. The LED on the bomb Control Panel is used to display the temperature, O2 pressure, combustion wire length, and the volume of water in the water bath. The temperature, of course, is used to measure the heat given off from the combustion reaction. The other variables are necessary for the most accurate calculations but can most often be ignored. These variables are accessed by clicking on the appropriate button on the Control Panel. Lastly, the Ignite button is used to ignite the sample in the bomb. Note that because of the large heat capacity of the calorimeter (the bomb, bucket, and the water), it will take over five minutes before a steady state has been reached. Using the Acceleration button will be useful in this situation.
The Save Data button on the Live Data tab is used to save the temperature as a function of time to the lab book where it can then be copied and pasted into an external spreadsheet program for later analysis. The Graph button on the Control Panel is used to open the Graph Window. Details on the Graph Window are described below. The Units button is used to change the units displayed in the window for the different variables.