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RE: Ultraviolet light from brush discharge.
Whether this is dangerous depends on the brightness of the UV and your
distance from it. Have you had 'arc eye', that is, have you had a problem
where your eyes feel like they are full of sand or grit and are very sore
after running your coil? I got this once by accident when I was delivering
some welding supplies to a welding shop for my mother. (Ok, strange family,
I know). If the UV is enough to cause arc eye, you should definitely be
careful. However, at lower powers, do remember that UV is ionising radiation
and can cause skin cancer, so be sensible. You can actually buy UV filter
glasses designed for the purpose from industrial supply companies, although
as I understand it plain window glass is pretty good at blocking UV without
blocking visible light.
On a slight aside, I don't know if you get it in the US, but 'Fairy Liquid',
a bright green washing up liquid popular in the UK for about the last
millennium or so, actually flouresces extremely brightly under UV. We found
this out by accident when playing with a UV lamp late one night, walking
around the house in darkness, then wondering why a few splotches around the
sink were glowing bright green! Other things to try are washing powder,
especially the 'tablets' you can get these days, which glow very nicely. I
should say that all of these things will glow pretty strongly with a cheap
UV torch I bought from Maplin Electronics, so if you try them and find that
they don't glow much, you probably don't have a lot to worry about.
Allegedly. :)
Sarah
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tesla List [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
> Sent: 13 March 2000 01:40
> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject: Ultraviolet light from brush discharge.
>
>
> Original Poster: Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>
>
> Hi All,
>
> While running my CW coil in very low light, I noticed that
> paper and a few
> light colored cloths fluoresce as if under black light. It was not real
> intense but I was wondering if it is maybe not a good idea to stare at the
> discharge for lengths of time. I don't see the discharged
> "burned" into my
> retina if I close my eyes or anything, but I thought I would ask.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Terry
>
>