Tesla Post

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Tesla Post
From: Chip Atkinson <chip-at-grendel.objinc-dot-com>
Date: Wed, 14 Aug 1996 09:26:18 +0700

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>From tesla-at-america-dot-com Wed Aug 14 01:15 MDT 1996
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Date: Tue, 13 Aug 96 22:18 EDT
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To: chip-at-objinc-dot-com
From: Bob Schumann <tesla-at-america-dot-com>
Subject: Tesla Post

Hi all,

I was doing some messing around with my small coil
and experienced a strange effect of which I have not
totally understood yet. I don't know what compelled
me to do this but I am amazed at the results.

I use a nail as a breakout from by torroid. I took a
balloon of medium size and blew it up about the
size of a softball. Fully inflated, it would have been
say 9 to 10 inches in diameter. The first balloon 
was orange, color not of much interest at this point.
The neck of the balloon was still very thick
rubber and I decided to do the 'nail in the balloon
trick', not to pop it. I ran the breakout nail through
the neck of the balloon. I then fired the coil for about
10 seconds. Streamers were making there way through
the walls of the balloon and could be seen on the outside.
I shut down the coil, removed the balloon by gripping
on the neck further up to allow no air to escape as I
removed it from the nail. Then I tied a knot much closer
to the balloon and clipped off the neck. My first thought
was that I had captured ozone in the balloon. The balloon
seemed much heavier than it should, so I dropped it a
few times and was convinced that it was indeed heavier
than air. Then I noticed the first strange effect that when
kicked, it rolled with an eccentric property. Like that of
a joke golf ball or pool ball. I blew up a few more balloons
of different colors, still not important yet, and kicked them
around just as they were. No eccentric rolling. I performed
the same experiment on the other balloons, some popped 
due to too much air pressure creating to much stress to
handle the sparks. I ended up with 5 balloons that all
rolled with the eccentric property. Then I noticed the next
strange effect of which I find fascinating. I held one of
the balloons up to a light and saw a record or picture of
the streamers that were there! Because I had not blown
the balloon up to normal size, the color of the balloons was
not transparent but translucent. I got a 15'' balloon (large)
that was transparent. I blew it up partway and indeed could
see through it. I placed it on the nail but this time put the
nail on the bottom of the torroid pointing down as to center
the nail in the balloon. I ran the coil for less time, say 3 -4
seconds and removed the balloon. The image was 
beautiful. It sort of reminded me of a Richard Hull video
in which a spark image was captured in a lucite rod.

Okay, thats it. I have been thinking about what is in the
balloon, moist air with a higher level of carbon dioxide.
I wonder if there are gases in the balloon that fail to mix
causing the eccentric rolling. This will cause me to think
all night. :o

Comments are welcome. 
Thanks
Bob 



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* If you understand, things are just as they are.        *
* If you do not understand, things are just as they are. *
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