Re: Jacob's Ladder

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Michael H Nolley by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <nolleym-at-willamette.edu>



>
> I was wondering if the electrodes of a jacob's ladder could be put inside a
> sealed jar filled with low pressure argon or helium so a longer arc could be
> obtained from a lower powered source? This way a flyback that could produce a
> 1/2-1" arc might be able to do two inches and have a thicker arc
resembling the
> streamers of commercial plasma globes.

    Remember, convection produces the upwards motion of the arc, so behavior is
likely to be very different in a sealed vessel, or one with different
gases.  It
could still be very interesting, however.  It might move very slowly, which
would
be a cool effect.
            --Mike