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Re: vacuum pump




From: 	TimRaney-at-aol-dot-com[SMTP:TimRaney-at-aol-dot-com]
Sent: 	Saturday, July 12, 1997 2:46 PM
To: 	tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: 	Re: vacuum pump

Doug (and All):

"Microns" are another way of saying "thousandths of a millimeter of Hg."  One
Torr equals one millimeter of Hg and a milliTorr (mTorr) is a more current
way of expressing "microns."  If you can pump down to 25 microns, you can do
most of the classic discharge tube experiments using a HV DC power supply or
a Tesla oscillator.  Most folks overlook the interesting discharge tube
effects you can observe by using a HV AC source, i.e., 9 to 15KV neon sign
transformer or a small (under 1KW output) Tesla oscillator.  

The vacuum pump you mentioned is normally used in the refrigeration industry
for evacuating the system prior to recharging with a refrigerant.  You can do
a lot of stuff with the pump you have.  A good basic text available through
Lindsey Publications is "An Experimenter's Introduction to Vacuum
Technology," by Steve Hansen.  Steve is the editor of "the Bell Jar" and
believe he's either on this list or the "HV List."  He's got a web site with
a lot of vacuum-related information that is worth checking out.

I've done some simple experiments using discharge tubes with a Tesla coil or
HV AC source and produced plasma beams at pressures around 20 Torr (20 mm Hg)
and subjected these beams to magnetic fields.  Fun to watch!!  Hope this
helps.....you can do a lot more than just pump down capacitors.


TIMOTHY RANEY, TCBOR