Interesting bit of info on spark gaps and UV

• To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
• Subject: Interesting bit of info on spark gaps and UV
• From: bertpool-at-ticnet-dot-com (by way of Terry Fritz <terryf-at-verinet-dot-com>)
• Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 07:49:46 -0700
• Approved: terryf-at-verinet-dot-com

This month's Scientific American has the following (pg 14):

December 1898
ULTRAVIOLET EXPERIMENTS:

"Prof. Zickler, of Brunn, has shown that a telegraphic instrument can be 
actuated at considerable distances by ultraviolet light. He employs a 
powerful arc lamp as his transmitter, using a screen of glass, to produce 
flashes of the ultraviolet  beam. The receiver is regulated to just below the 
sparking point. He was able to produce an effect at 200 meters. It is 
extremely interesting to physicists to learn that the easily absorbed 
ultraviolet light can influence a spark discharge at so great a distance."

===========

Hey, we're talking about a cronie of Tesla, producing light from a carbon arc 
lamp.  No fancy megawatt UV laser.  And he was initiating a spark at 600 
feet!  Air really absorbs UV, so at 600 feet, it couldn't have been much of a 
beam.  I grant you that he was triggering a very short spark with his UV,
but I 
suspect if he could initiate ANY spark 600 feet from the UV lamp, then a 
Tesla experimenter could undoubtedly trigger a Tesla coil gap placed only 
inches away from a good modern source of UV.

So, for those Tesla experimenters needing precisely triggered gaps, I 
wouldn't write off UV triggering of a Tesla spark gap just yet.  It looks
like 
those 1800's guys are *still* ahead of us <grin>.

Bert Pool

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