RE: Pocket neons/ neon sticks etc.

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

Original poster: "Mccauley, Daniel H by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <daniel.h.mccauley-at-lmco-dot-com>

> 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?
> 
> 
	You could probably use one of these to drive an SSTC type tesla coil
(very small one) if you had control of your output frequency as your output
frequency must equal the resonant frequency of the secondary for SSTC's.

	However, they do put out very low current.

	dan