Re: Strange Blue Glow (was: Re: Strange shock (fwd))

["John Williams" <jwilliams-at-edm-dot-net> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

	I spent five years in nightschool as a fine art photography
major, so I know a wee bit about photgraphy and film.  I also majored
in physics in college and I started building tesla coils when I was
about thirteen years old, more years than I like to count.  Not that
I've been as avid about it as most of the folks on the list.  I've also
done my bit with static electric machines.  Currently I work for
Cal Tech as a bioinfomatics consultant doing computational dna
reasearch in a small off campus labratory.
	I saw the picture in question several years ago.  I honestly
don't know how to account for what was recorded in the photograph.
I've never seen a coil produce what was on the film.
	If you can imagine what it would look like if a bowl of
hot water with a lump of dry ice were put on the top of the coil and
the mist allowed to fall down the sides of the coil form, it would be
like that only much more diffuse and of course with that electric
blue glow we all know and love.
	There is the possibility that the coil was somewhat miss
tuned and overcoupled just enough that it was nearing de arsonval
breakdown but wasn't quite there.  Such a condition might ionize
the air about the base of the secondary enough for a time exposure
to pick up the effect.  The problem with that is that I doubt it would
have that apparent quality of appearing to flow off the form like
a liquid.
	Without seeing the coil up close and looking at the negatives
in a detailed fashion there isn't any way to know for sure.  I don't
know if ozone would sink like that.  It might.
	I think it is likely that there was some trick of the
fields and gas excitation and the way the film recorded it that
made it appear that way.  The real cause of the effect doesn't have
to relate to how it looks.
	I just don't know.

	John


>Original poster: "Grayson B Dietrich" <electrofire-at-juno-dot-com>
>
>List, John
>
>Could it possibly have been a surprisingly maasive amount of ozone
>production? I know that it appears blue in a pure enough form. Would it
>be heavier than air?
>
>
>
>On Sun, 16 Jul 2000 12:16:32 -0600 "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
>writes:
>> Original poster: "John Williams" <jwilliams-at-edm-dot-net>
><snip!>
>>
>> He also had time exposure photos that apparently showed a blue glow
>> about the base of the secondary.  This was not the usual effect
>> you get when the primary is to close and breakdown is threatening.
>> It looked more like ionized air flowing down and over the
>> base mount in a sheet, like a fluid.  Hard to beat for a really
>> strange
>> tesla coil picture.
>>
>> Now I wish I hadn't lost track of the url...
>>
>> 	John