tesla coil sfx

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

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

Here's an idea I had the other day that I thought might be kind of cool if it 
could be done. Here's my idea: What if someone built a coil that had a toroid 
with thousands of little perforations in its surface, similar to the surface 
on an air hockey table. Then they ran tubes connected to cylinders holding 
various compressed gases into the toroid. They could either run them up 
through the secondary coil and make a mechanical connection between the tubes 
and the toroid. By using various types of gases, could they change the color 
and appearance of the arcs coming from their toroid?  For example, if argon 
was first pumped into the toroid,  followed by helium, would the arcs change 
from blue-green to pink?  I saw some pictures of a tesla coil that had a 
toroid made of chicken wire, so I know that a toroid doesn't necessarily have 
to be solid. Of course, if this was to work, the coil would have to be used 
in a setting with almost no air currents. Click here for a diagram of what 
I'm talking about because it kind of hard to explain <A 
HREF="http://www.geocities-dot-com/cydesho/otherstuff/tcfx.gif">
http://www.geocities-dot-com/cydesho/otherstuff/tcfx.gif</A>  Does anyone else 
have any ideas or comments on this? 
                                        Justin