Re: materials of electroddes for Neon gas tubes..

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: William Beaty <billb@xxxxxxxxxx>

On Wed, 5 Oct 2005, Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "Mercurus2000" <mercurus2000@xxxxxxx>
>
> Hmm, I didn't know the plasma arcing would be that much of a problem,

Plasma causes chemistry.  It's corrosive like acid or salt water.  It's
also high-energy, so it can attack materials which salt water won't hurt.


> whenever I see a neon bulb light up, the plasma manages to stay contained
> away from the glass tubing, not sure how that works exactly.

With neon signs?  The plasma is up against the glass!  Depending on the
gas mixture, the plasma is usually fuzzy, and if the diameter of the sign
tubing was larger, the glass would let the plasma expand to a somewhat
larger size.  Dimmer, though.


> Does that neon wire use real neon gas?

Nope.  It's a kind of EL panel, a light-emitting capacitor.   I hear that
it's big at raves, and at Burning man.

A thin central wire is embedded in plastic insulator full of
electroluminescent phosphor.  A very thin ground wire is spiralled around
it, then the ground wire is held against the phosphor by with a thin
plastic layer (which might have a transparent conductor, I'm not sure.)
Then it's embedded in thicker transparent colored plastic.  It's a
capacitor with a light-emitting dielectric.  Plug it into 120VAC.  Or
400Hz 300VAC.


> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2005 11:20 AM
> Subject: Re: materials of electroddes for Neon gas tubes..
>
>
>  > Original poster: William Beaty <billb@xxxxxxxxxx>
>  >
>  > On Tue, 4 Oct 2005, Tesla list wrote:
>  >
>  >  > Original poster: "Mercurus2000" <mercurus2000@xxxxxxx>
>  >  >
>  >  > I would like to make a electrodeless neon tube using plastic.. That's
> why
>  >  > I've been asking.
>  >
>  > It won't last very long.  I'd use glass-covered electrodes (such as short
>  > glass tubes with one closed end and foil or nickle-paint inside.  If
>  > possible, keep the plasma from touching the plastic.  Perhaps you could
>  > jam lots of short glass segments into some plastic hose.  That way the
>  > hose would still be flexible, but the plasma wouldn't destroy the plastic
>  > surface.
>  >
>  > It's cheaper to use EL "neon wire" such as G15574 from
>  > http://www.goldmine-elect.com
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  > (((((((((((((((((( ( (  (   (    (O)    )   )  ) ) )))))))))))))))))))
>  > William J. Beaty                            SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
>  > billb at amasci com                         http://amasci.com
>  > EE/programmer/sci-exhibits   amateur science, hobby projects, sci fair
>  > Seattle, WA  206-789-0775    unusual phenomena, tesla coils, weird sci
>  >
>  >
>  >
>
>

(((((((((((((((((( ( (  (   (    (O)    )   )  ) ) )))))))))))))))))))
William J. Beaty                            SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
billb at amasci com                         http://amasci.com
EE/programmer/sci-exhibits   amateur science, hobby projects, sci fair
Seattle, WA  206-789-0775    unusual phenomena, tesla coils, weird sci