Re: Effect of UV on topload

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

Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>

UV is certainly going to knock some electrons off from photoelectric
effect.  Off hand, though, I wouldn't think that the effect is very big for
aluminum, etc.  (now, if your topload were plated with potassium or
something like that...) The other thing is that the electron knocked off
would almost instantly hit an "air" molecule and head right on back to the
topload.

Of course, there must be some electrons that stay out long enough...
otherwise you wouldn't get any sparks...


Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "Paul Nicholson by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <paul-at-abelian.demon.co.uk>
> 
> Some questions on the effect that hard UV has on electroscopes,
> toploads and secondary coils:
> 
> a) Is the UV in sunlight hard enough to discharge an electroscope?
> 
> if so,
> 
> b) Does shining hard UV onto a TC topload or secondary coil make a
> measureable difference to Q factor?
> 
> if so,
> 
> c) Can direct sunlight impinging on a coil set up outdoors have an
> impact on the Q factor?
> 
> and, er,
> 
> d) Does Terry by any chance have a hard UV lamp?  Eprom eraser, etc?
> 
> Cheers,
> --
> Paul Nicholson
> --