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Re: Orange Jacobs Ladders & more fun with argon
On Mon, 26 Oct 1998, Tesla List wrote:
> Original Poster: wwl-at-netcomuk.co.uk (Mike Harrison)
>
> Just found a neat trick - coat the rods of a jacob's ladder with a
> salt/water paste - the orange sodium glow looks really neat!
Mr Transtrom (the fellow who was killed on stage by a Tesla Coil back in
the 20's or 30's) actually got a patent on making colored electrical
discharges. In addition to the above, he used barium chloride for
green, strontium chloride for red, and copper chloride for blue (I'm
not sure that the patent stated which of the copper chlorides, but either
will probably work.)
While just about any sodium salt will work to give a sodium yellow, the
chlorides are needed to give reasonable color for the other salts. I don't
think Transtrom had the knowlege of the involved chemistry available to
him in those days, but he managed to work it out, anyway. Getting good
colors in modern fireworks required developers to rediscover this wheel
all over again, and materials to add chlorine to the flames are routinely
added there, as well.
The different colors are fun to see.
Wes B.
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