Pocket neons/ neon sticks etc.

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Original poster: "Jolyon Vater Cox by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jolyon-at-vatercox.freeserve.co.uk>


Pocket neons/ neon sticks etc

Re clubber s neon sticks aka pocket neons as well as the expensive Star Wars
"lightsabres" that contain neon tubes -are these in effect small tesla coils?

Powered by internal batteries, all of these contain an inverter and a small
tube which is terminated only at one end maybe then only by a wire that is
attached to the outside of the tube -the AC voltage between the wire and the
surrounding environment alone being sufficient to ionize the gas.

Also could the inverter from any one of these, or from a PC cold cathode case
lamp, be used to drive a small tesla coil - or could a larger version of the
same, built from common parts, be used a practical source of HV for a
not-so-small tesla coil?