the argon project

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "J Dow by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jdowphotography-at-hotmail-dot-com>





Hello all

I've been running my coil in the MassArt metal shop/foundry and Drum (he 
runs the place) is getting into coils and HV. We were talking shop the 
other day and got on the topic or argon welding gas, ionized gas, neon 
signs and such like. He had the idea of putting a neon tube in a fish tank 
and lighting it with the HV field from my coil. I didn't think it work 
because of the water. Then I though of mineral oil, it would be clear like 
water, but you would have to get an awful lot of it. Next I thought of 
using this nice 4 foot by 3.75" clear acrylic tube I got out of the trash. 
It was part of a fish "tank". It was meant to stand up and bubble, there 
was a light at the bottom.
	The experimental idea:
Stand tube with mineral oil where the secondary would go. Pump argon in 
from the bottom. Watch as the argon bubbles in the oil ionize. The top is 
caped to form a closed loop. We even found the old vacuum pump if we need 
to bring the internal gas pressure down. The way I see it; if there is a 
volume of low-pressure gas and you put it near a HV field it will ionize. 
It shouldn't matter the sort of container you use, Glass, plastic or oil.
Anticipated problems:
Because the argon won't ionize at normal pressure, will a fish tank pump, 
pump it at low pressure. We will see.
Read you later
Josh