Re: Flash Tubes

• To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
• Subject: Re: Flash Tubes
• From: "j. Grissom" <johngd-at-bellsouth-dot-net> (by way of Terry Fritz <twf-at-verinet-dot-com>)
• Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1999 21:53:44 -0700
• Approved: twf-at-verinet-dot-com

Tesla List wrote:

> Original Poster: Dale Hall <Dale.Hall-at-trw-dot-com>
>
> Jimmy & List,
> Last week I exchanged info on the topic of Flash Lamp use as a tesla spark
> gap, with John Grissom or De Armond (?).
> He come by some really nice big ones.

That was me.  (It's not polite to republish private email! Especially when you
splatter it up.)  The lamps I have are 2.2KW high pressure short arc Xenon
lamps
- totally different critters.  I have no idea how they would function as a
breakdown gap but unless you found them surplus as I did, it's kinda irrelevant
since they cost from several hundred to several thousand each.

In a large CO-2 laser we built about 20 years ago when I worked for M&M Mars
(the candy company), we used a pressurized air triggered arc gap to trigger the
laser.  This thing was fabricated from fiberglass-reinforced Delrin.  Contained
two large (est 2" dia") brass hemispheres separated by about 3/8".  A sharp
trigger electrode protruded into the chamber to just about the edge of the
hemispheres.  The trigger was pulsed by a xenon-strobe-type pulse tranny.  This
thing discharged a large (don't remember the uF as much as I do the weight :-)
25,000volt pulse cap into the laser cavity.  Rep rate was about 1500 PPM.  I
don't remember much more about it; I was the junior engineer on the project.
I'm pretty sure the gap was pressurized to about 100 psi with nitrogen.  The
gap
lasted the life of the machine, which was several years.  The laser was used to
burn code dates into candy bar wrappers.

John
--
John De Armond
johngd-at-bellsouth-dot-net
Neon John's Custom Neon
"Bendin' Glass 'n Passin' Gas"

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