Re: the argon project

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

Original poster: "Mike Harrison by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <mike-at-whitewing.co.uk>

On Sun, 17 Nov 2002 17:28:56 -0700, you wrote:

 >Original poster: "J Dow by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" 
<jdowphotography-at-hotmail-dot-com>
 >
 >
 >
 >
 >
 >Hello all
 >
 >I've been running my coil in the MassArt metal shop/foundry and Drum (he
 >runs the place) is getting into coils and HV. We were talking shop the
 >other day and got on the topic or argon welding gas, ionized gas, neon
 >signs and such like. He had the idea of putting a neon tube in a fish tank
 >and lighting it with the HV field from my coil. I didn't think it work
 >because of the water. Then I though of mineral oil, it would be clear like
 >water, but you would have to get an awful lot of it. Next I thought of
 >using this nice 4 foot by 3.75" clear acrylic tube I got out of the trash.
 >It was part of a fish "tank". It was meant to stand up and bubble, there
 >was a light at the bottom.
 >	The experimental idea:
 >Stand tube with mineral oil where the secondary would go. Pump argon in
 >from the bottom. Watch as the argon bubbles in the oil ionize. The top is
 >caped to form a closed loop. We even found the old vacuum pump if we need
 >to bring the internal gas pressure down. The way I see it; if there is a
 >volume of low-pressure gas and you put it near a HV field it will ionize.
 >It shouldn't matter the sort of container you use, Glass, plastic or oil.
 >Anticipated problems:
 >Because the argon won't ionize at normal pressure, will a fish tank pump,
 >pump it at low pressure. We will see.
 >Read you later
 >Josh
Argon will ionise at atmospheric pressure, albeit at a somewhat higher
voltage than at low pressure. Might be worth a try...