Re: [TCML] color salts for sparks on tesla coils

["Derek, Extreme Electronics" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My thought is that the wood provides a reservoir of salt to feed the arc 
a vapour of the chemical.
With a metal breakout the chemical is quickly burnt away, with the 
exception of sodium which is so reactive small amounts last for ages 
even on metal breakouts.

Another supposition is that the arc needs to form through the vapour, 
again the wood provides a much larger cloud, just having the dry 
chemical at the breakout isn't very effective.

    Derek

On 25/08/2013 22:03, Jim Lux wrote:
> On 8/25/13 12:13 PM, Derek, Extreme Electronics wrote:
> > Take a look at some experiments I did with "doping" the breakout of a
> > small SSTC with a selection of chemicals a while ago..
> >
> > http://www.extremeelectronics.co.uk/other/chemsparks/
>
> the sparks with the wooden breakout look a whole lot better.. I wonder 
> if that's because there's more salt there, or if it's something where 
> you're getting small incandescent particles of soot that are doped?
>
> My tennis ball experiments were no doubt aided in appearance by the 
> small particles of burning wool from the ball fuzz.
>
>
>
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