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Re: Colored sparks
From: Atle Jorstad[SMTP:anjorsta-at-online.no]
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 1997 11:13 AM
To: Tesla List
Subject: Re: Colored sparks
At 08:22 AM 12/11/97 -0600, you wrote:
>
>From: Gary Lau 10-Dec-1997 1244[SMTP:lau-at-hdecad.ENET.dec-dot-com]
>Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 1997 10:51 AM
>To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
>Subject: Colored sparks
>
>Last night I placed a small wad of paper towel, soaked in water, and
>thickly covered with table salt on my torroid such that this would
>constitute a breakout point. The streamer that originated from this
>point was beautiful - BRIGHT sodium-yellow for about the first foot of
>arc, then fading to the usual blue-violet. Try it!
>
>I'm anxious to try salts of other metals - copper, barium, and strontium
>come to mind. Two things though. As the arc vaporized the salt, it was
>re-deposited on the surface of the torroid, so that even after removing
>the salty wad, sparks leaving the torroid were somewhat yellow (perhaps a
>concern for purists, may also be corrosive to the aluminum tape). Also,
>while NaCl vapors and dust are harmless, other salts may not be.
>
>Gary Lau
>Waltham, MA USA
>
>
Try copper chloride or copper sulfate. i have never "sparked" these, but i
have burned them, and that makes pretty nice colors.
Atle Jorstad