Spark disk toy

To: "'Tesla List'" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Subject: Spark disk toy
From: Tesla List <tesla-at-stic-dot-net>
Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 01:49:05 -0600
Approved: tesla-at-stic-dot-net

----------
From:  Jim Lux [SMTP:jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net]
Sent:  Friday, February 06, 1998 9:16 AM
To:  Tesla List
Subject:  Re: Spark disk toy

>
> Disney
among others...

 has used this technology for several years.  I would guess about
> 10 years.  I do not know any more of the details then already described
> but that this is not new and ST did not come up with it.

This is known as "crackle neon", generically. You see it as disks, large
diameter tubes (4") etc. The fabrication details are presumably
proprietary, but in general, it consists of filling the space with some
coarse media (glass beads, sections of glass tubes, PE beads, etc.),
filling it with a "rare" gas mixture (i.e. neon/argon/helium) and putting
the voltage to it. It requires a lot less voltage than a neon tube of the
same length at atmospheric pressure because you are getting a discharge
over the surface of the dielectric inside the tube.

There are several suppliers of these devices to the special effects
industry in the Los Angeles area. I'll try to get some names and numbers,
but for a start you could look at the http://www.la411-dot-com and search for
"NEON"