Re: water spark gaps

["$" <Steve-at-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-xxxxxxxxxx>)]

Some years ago I experimented with discharging caps through water spark
gaps. I stopped for eone reason only, it is extremely dangerous!!. The short
puls at high energy simply converts water to high high pressure steam (i'm
talking about steam at 100s of degrees C.
----- Original Message -----
From: Tesla list <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2000 3:01 PM
Subject: Re: water spark gaps


> Original poster: "Jochen Kronjaeger" <Kronjaeg-at-Stud-Mailer.Uni-Marburg.DE>
>
>
> > Has anyone ever experimented with water spark gaps?  If so, did you run
> > into any big problems?
>
> I tried this recently, though not systematically. I simply submerged my
> multiple copper tube gap in a bucket of tap water. This turned out to
> be far too conductive, i.e. shortet my OBITs without charging the cap.
>
> Deionized water will be better, but considering the small gap distances I
> doubt it will work well. Also, the water will propably degrade rapidly.
>
> I experienced another strange problem when drawing an arc between a copper
> electrode and a water surface. Sometimes, there was something like a small
> explosion, not really violent, but quite a shock. This might be due to
> electrolysis (hydrogen+oxygen production), but I somewhat doubt this as
> there was no reason for hydrogen to accumulate. Anyway, let this be a
> warning that unexpected and possibly dangerous effects might occur with
> under water gaps.
>
>   Jochen
>
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