Re: plasma ball without glass

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: William Beaty <billb@xxxxxxxxxx>

On Fri, 13 Jan 2006, Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "Langer Giv'r" <transworldsnowboarding19@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Hey everyone, I have a small little plasma ball that you can buy from
> radio shack for $60-70, and was wondering, if you break the glass
> ball around it with the gas inside, will it still work?


Are you talking about my article on making "plasma globes" at 1 atmosphere
with no glass?

I've added short 1meg videos demonstrating the effect.   A "vacuum tester"
handheld TC which makes 1/2" sparks in air will make 10" sparks in the
argon in an open goldfish bowl.


   Making plasma globes without glass
   http://amasci.com/tesla/heli1.html

Someone needs to experiment with 1-atm gas mixtures to see what happens.
I tried butane in argon (butane from a portable soldering iron) and got
weird grey fuzzy discharges which formed and rose, formed and rose, like a
dim and very fuzzy Jacob's Ladder.  I wonder what helium in argon does?
Nitrogen doesn't work, it poisons the effect.

The TC in commercial plasma globes might not have a high enough voltage to
make impressive streamers in 1-atm argon.  No need to break the glass
though, just disconnect the HV lead from the globe.  It's a solid state
mini-TC.



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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