Re: Lab sparks make x-rays

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "D.C. Cox" <resonance@xxxxxxxxxx>


The mean free path in air is less than 2 mm so it's difficult to 
accelerate electrons to high velocity to do this.  Also, most large 
terminals for these potentials are made of spun aluminum, an element 
not very conducive to X-ray production with it's low atomic number.

I can't recall ever seeing any Tesla coils that really do operate 
above 1 MEV except perhaps Greg Leyh's big unit ---- and his terminal 
is stainless steel, so it would be interesting to take some 
measurements on this machine using X-ray badges and then having a 
hosp. develop the film to see.  Most large TC's are plasma generators 
not HV generators.  Our Big Bruiser with it's 28 ft spark operating 
at 28 kVA will only produce 833 kV max output.

Dr. Resonance



----- >>
> > Current article in Science Daily talks about how not only natural 
> > lightning produces x-rays, but how recent studies have shown that 
> > laboratory sparks of 1.5 to 2 million volts in the air does too.
> >
> > You can bet Tesla coils probably are doing it too.
> >
> > http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20051101-20182700-bc-us-lightning.xml
> >
> > Bert Pool
>
> The actual paper is in Geophysical Research Letters,
>
> Dwyer, J. R., H. K. Rassoul, Z. Saleh, M. A. Uman, J. Jerauld, and 
> J. A. Plumer (2005), X-ray bursts produced by laboratory sparks in 
> air, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L20809, doi:10.1029/2005GL024027.
>
>
> Anyway.. it's a nice observation, but I'm interested as to why they 
> didn't mention the well known production of soft X-rays by 
> discharges with very high di/dt.  I don't recall the numbers, but 10 
> years ago or so, I was looking into whether this could occur with 
> conventional spark production gear (exploding wires, in my case).
>
>
> I doubt that TCs have enough voltage or current.