Re: Plasma ball purged out/remedies?

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

Original poster: "Steve Cook by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Steve-at-g8cyerichmond.freeserve.co.uk>

Just a couple of suggestions on this one. My son gave me one a couple of
years back. After a while it too became rather dim. I then ran it for a
protracted period it brightened after a while. Then I thought back to some
problems I had with glass components in high voltage apparatus some years
back, although the glass appeared to be clean I gave it a wipe with some
propan-1-ol (iso-propyl alcohol), back to normal! Also if the globe gets
cold it tend to form a layer of verrrrrry thin water on the surface, warming
it up can help. (I'm talking about 1 molecule thick or thereabouts).
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Friday, December 06, 2002 10:51 PM
Subject: Plasma ball purged out/remedies?


 > Original poster: "Jolyon Vater Cox by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jolyon-at-vatercox.freeserve.co.uk>
 >
 > I know that this may strictly be "off topic" but since plasma globes were
 > recently mentioned on the list I'd like to say that
 > I have had a such a globe for three or four years and recently the display
 > has become very thin and hazy -
 > it used to have bright lavender (argon?) arcs terminating in red (neon?)
 > pads over the years these have become less bright now there is just a
 > purple glow around the central electrode.
 >
 > I understand that with time and use these globes "purge out" i.e. they
lose
 > their gas fill as the gas ions from the high voltage discharge are
 > gradually adsorbed into the glass (with low pressure there can't be much
 > gas in the globe anyway)
 >
 > So I am looking for way to re-juvenate the globe to restore original
 > quality of the display.
 >
 > I have noticed the display is quite bright when it is first turned
on -then
 > it slowly thins out; it is also quite bright when it is switched to
"audio"
 > mode when it flashes brightly in sympathy with reasonably loud sounds,
 > especially percussive noises.
 >
 > Is it true that the globes have a trimpot in the base of the unit that can

 > be accessed with a tool to increase the intensity of the discharge and
 > "release more gas"
 > -I am a bit dubious as to how this reasoning works as surely increasing
 > discharge intensity will cause remaining gas to purge out even more
quickly
 > -am I wrong on this issue?
 >
 > Or will the globe actually have to be refilled- only,other than
 > replacement,this really seems like the worst possible scenario as it is
 > radical surgery; also I live in the UK where such facilities seem to be
 > scarce or non-existant- who might provide such a service?
 >
 >
 >