Re: plating xmas balls

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

Original poster: Ian Macky <ian.macky-at-oracle-dot-com> 

 > Original poster: Jim Lux <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>
...snip...
 > Perhaps Gold (a thin layer doesn't cost much) might be good, takes a good
 > polish, looks nice, is a reasonably good conductor, doesn't tarnish.

Cost to polish and gold plate a nice big spun aluminum toroid, please?

Might be awesome, might scream Pimp!!  Who knows?
Someone try it and report back.

Could streamers knock loose gold atoms and eventually eat it off?
The layer might be as thin as a few atoms, if the surface were smooth enough.

Does it happen now to Al or anything else?  Pure Al forms the oxide
quickly when exposed to air, and the oxide (as always) has a much higher
melting point.

Are streamer discharge terminals affected in any way by their duty?

For what it's worth (perhaps 0; perhaps < 0 for muddying the water):
in DC welding it's taught:

     the material on the side *receiving* the arc (i.e. the electrons
     impinge upon it) gets 2/3 of the heat; the side emitting the
     electrons gets the other 1/3.

That is, one side gets twice as hot as the other!
You choose polarity accordingly.

If electrical effects don't harm it (seems unlikely for hobby-size stuff),
then with proper handling a gold toroid could last "forever".  After all,
there's no physical contact save clamping to the secondary.

One solution to the Pimp Effect is to go platinum.  Looks silver, much
more tasteful, and it's totally inert like gold.  Polish it up to a
mirror and it stays a mirror "forever", like gold.  Super-high melting
point too, hence spark plugs.

Alas, yet more expensive than gold.

Somebody pinch me!