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Re: Home brew flash lamp for trigger



In a message dated 11/5/98 7:38:23 PM Pacific Standard Time, tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
writes:

<< 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 >>

One of the problems with a flash triggered gap is it will require an
incredible power supply to recharge the caps that power the flash tube -
unless we just want one shot every few seconds or minutes.  Still, a good
experiment I suppose.

Ed Sonderman