Big color CRT by side of road

[klugesmith]

Near my work is a road where people sometimes leave unwieldy trash, to avoid a costly visit to the dump. This week a most unusual object appeared: a single-use bottle of high vacuum.

On closer inspection, it's a nominal 42 inch Trinitron CRT.   Weighs much more than 100 pounds. Has anyone here seen a bigger CRT television?
I bet it would float in water, neck-up. Might it serve as a sensitive hydrometer for some range of liquid density?   There is a rain-swollen creek not far away.

Tube was there on Tuesday and Thursday. Friday I went prepared to safely release the vacuum.  Somebody else had moved CRT onto the grass, and broken the neck off.
Obsessed with the buoyancy experiment, I got help loading float into car, then onto a pallet with aid of a forklift. 

Next week we can put it in a crate of water.   Any bets about whether it will sink, or how high and at what angle it will float?

By taking custody, it's now my responsibility to get the CRT to proper disposal site when experiment is over.  It will cost money.

[Twospoons]

Isn't CRT glass good at absorbing xrays? I seem to recall reading that somewhere ...
Could be useful if you're into that sort of thing.

[Mads Barnkob]

Water line will be at where the curvature starts.

Thanks for saving nature and humankind for another piece of smashed glass on a road

[klugesmith]

Mads called it right.   Last week we floated the giant CRT, now estimated to be 250 lbs (110 kg), in 1/4 of its weight of water.
Faceplate was practically horizontal, between 7 and 7.25 inches lower than free surface of the water.  We'll be more scientific about measurements next time.

Here's a close-up from before the water was partly drained.

Along they way, CRT short edges were fitted with some steel channels for easy lifting and tilting using an engine hoist.
In this picture the trunnion pins are offset, making CRT hang at an angle, from which we located the center of gravity.
Look how flat that screen is, in final generation of consumer color CRT's.