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Home brew flash lamp for trigger



hi folks, i would just like to mention my flashlamp i built... could be
used for
triggering a spark gap--

i picked up two 32 uF 5.5 kv photoflash capacitors from a surplus store.  They
each weigh about 8 lbs. The same store also had a -5.5 kvDC 30 uA power supply
way in the back too!  i bought it all.  Excited, i went home to experiment.
 the
caps took about 3-4 minutes to charge up with this power supply. after
that, ya'
better watch out!  once i got blown across the room by one--(that is off
subject)... anyways, i aquired (from north coast scientific) an 8" length of
quartz tubing with a molded t-fitting at one end.  I then shaped two
electrodes
out of steel (tugsten would of worked better) and epoxied them in each end.  I
had a refrigerator vacuum pump, which i hooked up to the t-fitting of the
quartz
tube.  this setup was nice.  i had the flash tube up on mounting brackets
inside
an inner-polished aluminum pipe.  i would charge up the capacitor to full
power
(a trivial procedure) and then turn the vacuum pump on.  It started to suck
air
out of the flash tube, until the pressure dropped enough then it flashed.
this
flash tube runs on air (which is pretty much just nitrogen and oxygen) and is
brighter than staring at the sun!  i succeeded in pumping a liquid laser
with it,
so a gap would be no exception.  this home brew flash tube (hbft) costed me
under
100 bucks.

Cabbott Sanders
Salem Oregon
http://members.aol-dot-com/cabbotttt
ICQ# 699435
AIM: Cabbotttt
Ph:  503-390-8992