Re: beaded flat plate disc

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: William Beaty <billb@xxxxxxxxxx>

On Fri, 14 Oct 2005, Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: BunnyKiller <bunikllr@xxxxxxx>
>
> I bought one of those 14" wide "discs" ( basically 2 plates of glass
> with "beads" in it with a hi volt discharge in the center) to produce
> a "flat" tesla coil streamer effect.

That's "Luminglas," the flat plasma globe invented by Wayne Strattman of
Boston:

  http://www.strattman.com/products/

Flat plasma chambers were impossible because placing 15lbs air pressure on
a sheet of glass is the same as placing the glass under vertical 30" rods
of lead!  (a one-inch rod of lead, if it's 30" long, weighs 15 lbs)
"Crackle tubes" already existed.  These were those wide neon tubes full of
marbles and phosphor powder, where the plasma streamers jump around
spontaneously.  Wayne's brainstorm was to pack the space between two
sheets of glass with glass beads.  These allow the two glass panes to
support a vacuum without being crushed by air pressure.  The beads can be
coated with various phosphors.

> I got it from WalMart for 20$   kinda kewl   center region is
> green/yellow ( Im color blind so I really cant tell what color it is )
> with a red ( I was told its red) mid section and the typical blue
> that argon produces ( that color I can see)

The phosphor on the glass beads controls the color.  They can fill the
narrow pocket with beads with several types of coating.  When turned off,
the phosphor coating just looks white, even though differen groups of
beads give different color glows.  From the color of the discharge I think
these things are argon filled.  (And the first Luminglas products were
bright breen: zinc sulfide no doubt.)  The power supply has a little
tesla-coil type inductor, but I don't know the voltage or frequency.



(((((((((((((((((( ( (  (   (    (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