Re: Corrected di-el strength of gas

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

Original poster: Jim Lux <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net> 

At 08:21 AM 5/5/2004 -0600, you wrote:
>Original poster: "john cooper" <tesla-at-tesla-coil-dot-com>
>Hi Bert:
>
>Maybe I'm not following this too well but how in the world is a flammable 
>gas, i.e., hydrogen, used in a spark gap?  Totally contained?  Under 
>pressure?  I suppose it would need oxygen to burn.  When I picture 
>blasting a stream of hydrogen into an uncontained spark gap I also see a 
>flame thrower, maybe it's just me but I've no exposure or experience with 
>the devices you've mentioned so please excuse my naivete'.  They do sound 
>strangely compelling though.
>
>John
Easy enough... you put it in a container, just like you suggested, where 
oxygen is excluded.  There IS a bit of a problem with hydrogen, and that is 
that it leaks out (the molecules are small...), so hydrogen filled devices 
either have a hydrogen reservoir of some sort (H2 adsorbed onto a palladium 
sponge, for instance) or provisions for refill.  The classic sparkgap 
technique is to put the gap into a closed chamber with a small amount of 
liquid methanol (CH3OH).  The chamber fills with methanol vapor, which 
dissociates in the spark to form H2. The oxygen binds with the metal in the 
chamber, and stays there as an oxide. As the H2 leaks out, more methanol 
vaporizes, etc.  (Naturally, opening the chamber, while it's full of hot 
methanol fumes and with sparks flying, can lead to some "excitement".  Such 
disasters occasionally occured back in the days of King Spark, where 
someone would open the door to the spark chamber without letting it cool)