RE: breakdown of hydrogen

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: RE: breakdown of hydrogen
From: "William Parn" <parn-at-fgm-dot-com> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2000 17:00:40 -0700
Approved: twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net
Delivered-To: fixup-tesla-at-pupman-dot-com-at-fixme


Here is a link I believe from Jim Lux.

http://home.earthlink-dot-net/~jimlux/hv/insulgas.htm

It talks about the breakdown voltage of some different 
gases, including hydrogen.  It states that it is about 
65% that of air at STP.  

I have had a lot of fun making and playing around with
hydrogen, even though it will not likely explode on it's
own in normal air.  You put a spark or a flame to it and
it will definately ignite/explode.  The article above
goes into more detail.  It apprears that less than
5% oxygen and you will be okay.  ie) I have taken
a full glass bottle of hydrogen and attempted to
ignite it in standard air.  Very very difficult to
get it to ignite because there is no oxygen in the
bottle to react with it.  However it does give you
a very slow burning fire ring inside the bottle that
can last up to 5 minutes, very interesting to look
at.  However if you take a 1/4 bottle of hydrogen and 
the rest plain air.  It will ignite with a vengenance.
Looks like a rocket engine for a split second.

I am looking forward to hearing how your hydrogen gap
works out, sounds very interestings!

Cheers,
Bill Parn



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tesla List [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2000 2:29 PM
> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject: breakdown of hydrogen
> 
> 
> Original Poster: Mike Nolley <mnolley-at-mail.slc.edu> 
> 
>     Can anyone tell me the breakdown voltage of hydrogen at STP?
>             I'm in the middle of designing a hydrogen gap.  I've 
> heard that
> since hydrogen has such a low density the risk of hazardous 
> explosion when it
> is mixed with air is very low.
> 
>