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A little company called Down River Cryogenics in Jefferson is on the cutting edge of cryogenics - freezing things, not bodies, that is - and is providing the hi-tech service to a variety of industries.

"People ask us all the time what it is we do here. I guess a lot of people think we freeze bodies," owner Michael Pate said.

He explained "cryonics" deals with freezing bodies, whereas "cryogenics" is the study of low temperatures and how materials are affected by them. The term also refers to the creation of low temperatures.

Customers seek cryogenics treatments for items ranging from machine parts to musical instruments.

Pate, his wife Judy Pate and two employees use two processors he built himself. They use liquid nitrogen to lower the machines' internal temperatures to -316 degrees Fahrenheit, hold the temperature for 32 hours then temper the contents at 450 degrees for two cycles of 10 hours each.

The business has been operating for nearly eight years and uses a variation of a process that developed from a discovery by NASA scientists during the early days of the U.S. space program.