Re: triggered spark gap in a vacuum?

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <Mddeming-at-aol-dot-com>



Tesla list wrote: 
> 
> Original poster: "sundog by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" 
<sundog-at-timeship-dot-net> 
> 
>  Hi all! 
snip--- 
> 
>   I don't like the idea of irraidating myself, nor having to explain to the 
> others in my house exactly *why* a spark gap has to be wrapped in lead 
> blankets :/  The idea of growing any more toes isn't too hot either ;)  I'm 
> not paranoid about getting a dose of x-rays, but want to be informed as to 
> what I'm tinkering with. 

I went to the sources, "Lecture Brfore the New York Academy of Sciences- 
April 6, 1987" N. Tesla, " The Fundamentals of X-Ray and Radium Physics" 4th 
ed. (1967) by J. Selman, MD, and D.A.Rinehart's "Roentgenographic 
Technique",(1943) . All seem to concur that Aluminum foil or mesh as little 
as 1 mm thick and a few centimeters of free air space should provide adequate 
shielding for soft X-rays (below 35 kV). A way to verify this might be to 
place a few pieces of photographic film in opaque, thin plastic or cardboard 
containers at about 6" - 12" from your Al foil-shielded gap, run it for 
several minutes from a distance, and develop the film. A blank film means no 
problem, an exposed film means oops. 

Matt D.