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Re: health question
Original poster: "Mike" <induction@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Hi David,
I agree on the O3 part of your answer but you can
hardly describe a few Torr as a hard vacuum, consider that a good
mechanical pump by itself can do from 5 to 1 Millitorr, then you go
to the diffusion stage and then to the Ion pump stage.
What you usually need is a lot more vacuum than you describe, under
usual man-generated voltages.
In recent reports of Gamma rays being detected by Earth orbiting
satellites from high altitude lightning exchanges in our atmosphere,
some study in air was done about X-ray and Gamma Ray from our high
voltage toys.
What was found is that regardless of size (such as the large VDG
system at the Boston Museum of Science) or some really big Tesla
coils, these did NOT make gamma or x-rays, perhaps because the
discharge path is more slowly built up.
But It WAS found that the discharges from big Marx generators did
cause detectable gamma and x-rays, this happening at sea level pressures.
If you look at the bang power of a TC and that of a Marx, per strike
event, the Marx has lots more, though it can not fire as quickly for
a big cap bank. So the Marx has more in common with lightning events,
some of which also make high energy radiation.
What I find interesting is that while the Tesla coil does not make
them at sea level or 760 Torr, the Marx and lightning do.
Could be an avalanche time issue.
Maybe some with can crushers could place new rolls of film by the gap
and develop it after a few tens of firings.
To be a possible problem, it may have to be a large Marx bank, who knows.
Likely what is measured is far less harmful than the sound of loud
gap discharges, to the ears.
Mike
----- Original Message ----- From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, February 03, 2006 5:41 PM
Subject: Re: health question
Original poster: DRIEBEN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Jay,
These issues have been brought up in the past
more than once on this list. The ozone (O3) is
definitely an issue that must be addressed,
especially when operating indoors. O3 is toxic
in very minute concentrations and will cause
asthma-like wheezing, coughing and headaches
when one inhales it in concentrations that ex-
ceed the human toxic limit (Many of us know
this from first-hand experience). OTH, x-ray
production is usually not a big problem for
coilers as it takes HV excited electrons striking
a heavy metal target inside of a hard vacuum of
only a few torrs to produce significant le-
vels of hard, ionizing x-rays of energy levels
above a few 10s of kEVs. In other words, to
produce significant and dangerous levels of hard
x-rays requires more sophitication of equipment
than the average high voltage hobbiest has at
his disposal and they are certainly not going
to be produced "by accident".
David Rieben
----- Original Message -----
From: Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Friday, February 3, 2006 1:06 pm
Subject: health question
> Original poster: "Jay McDonald" <jay.mcdonald@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
>
> One more question - it is my understanding that in addition to
> powerful EM
> fields, high voltage devices also have a habit of putting out x-
> rays and a
> lot of ozone. Ozone can likely be dealt with by ventilation. What
does
> anyone know about the x-ray factor? Does anyone have a measuring
> device that
> they've used to measure their coil's output?
>
>
>
> Jay McDonald