Re: Green glow

To: "'Tesla List'" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Subject: Re: Green glow
From: Tesla List <tesla-at-stic-dot-net>
Date: Fri, 2 Jan 1998 18:45:49 -0600
Approved: tesla-at-stic-dot-net

From: 	Gregory R. Hunter[SMTP:ghunter-at-enterprise-dot-net]
Sent: 	Friday, January 02, 1998 1:51 PM
To: 	Tesla List
Subject: 	RE: Green glow 

> To:            "'Tesla List'" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> Subject:       RE: Green glow 
> Date:          Thu, 1 Jan 1998 17:33:28 -0600
> From:          Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>

> 
> From: 	Gomez[SMTP:gomez-at-netherworld-dot-com]
> Reply To: 	gomez-at-netherworld-dot-com
> Sent: 	Thursday, January 01, 1998 2:10 PM
> To: 	Tesla List
> Subject: 	Re: Green glow 
> 
> Tesla List wrote:
> > UV-excited florescence.  Could I be generating "soft" x-rays?  I always
> > assumed the inert gas filling in light bulbs prevented x-ray tube
> > action.  Hmmm...
> > 
> > Greg
> 
> I was under the impression that most light bulbs "contained" only a hard 
> vacuum.  And yes, with any voltage much over a few tens of kV, in a vacuum 
> it ain't difficult at all to generate X-rays.  And given the voltage of a Tesla 
> coil, they aren't going to be soft, either, although the dose-rate, 
> determined by the current, won't be much.  The tungsten of which bulb 
> filaments are made is just dandy for producing X-rays.
> 
> Tesla himself had a few "single electrode" x-ray tube designs which ran on 
> RF.
> 
> regards,
> Gomez
> 
> -- 
> Gomez: card-carrying mad scientist, extreme fetishist, fiction dabbler, 
> pyrophiliac, technomage, goth, SF fan, lighting designer, dominant 
> pervert, and juggler of labels... http://www-dot-netherworld-dot-com/~gomez
> 
Gomez,

I think most regular tungsten lamps are charged with argon or some
other inert gas.  That's why they look like a plasma globe when
zapped by a TC.  The purpose of the gas filling is to prevent the
filament from slowly evaporating away and plating itself onto the
glass.  Old style cold-cathode x-ray tubes were pulled down to a
pretty hard vacuum, which enabled electrons to build up a good head
of steam before they banged into the target anode.  Gas filling
should preclude x-ray tube action by damping high-voltage electrons.
I don't really believe my green glow is caused by x-rays.  Even so, I
plan to run a test or two, just to make sure.  My thing is USAF
communication/navigation/radar electronics--not domestic lighting or
x-ray technology.  Feel free to enlighten me if I'm spouting
nonsense.

Happy New Year,

Greg

Feeling like Roentgen in bleak East Anglia