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Re: Fun with Helium
From: Steve Falco[SMTP:sfalco-at-worldnet.att-dot-net]
Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 1997 6:17 AM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Fun with Helium
I tried a simple experiment last night that was pretty neat: I had some
old helium balloons and some 2 liter clear plastic soda bottles. I
filled a soda bottle with helium (held the bottle upside down, put a
small hole in the balloon, then stuffed a bit of the balloon up into the
bottle. I then squeezed the balloon to force the helium to displace the
air in the bottle. The bottle was then capped with its screw-top).
I fired up my coil, held the neck of the bottle, and pressed the bottom
of the bottle against the terminal of the coil. (Coil output is such
that the arc will not jump the length of the bottle - don't try this
with a high-powered coil!!!!)
Anyway, I got a neat purple glow of ionized helium in the bottle, with
some strangly shaped patterns running through it. An identical bottle
just filled with air did nothing.
I'm sure many folks have tried this before me, but it might be fun for
those of you who have not...
Steve Falco
sfalco-at-worldnet.att-dot-net