Tesla experiment, arc IS NOT spark

[fzzzy]

Mine common primary and secondary terminal is marked (-), but there are people who has the common terminal marked (+).

Maybe you can notice by seeing which terminal produce bigger spark.

Battery charger. You can use it to charge another battery without much heat.

Ok, great, thanks.

BTW, you mount both transistor into a single heatsink. Are you sure they didn't short together?

Doh! Yes, of course, you're right.

Thanks!

[sucahyo]

Playing with dead bulb as spark gap today. The brightness seems less than normal. But purple glow happen more easily than on air. It still glow clearly visible purple even with my lowest current.
YouTube - Dead lightbulb as spark gap


There is no sound. and sometimes it show stream.


The steady fine stream indicate DC, an arc.

In an hour all the filament is gone burned.

[vrand]

Playing with dead bulb as spark gap today. The brightness seems less than normal. But purple glow happen more easily than on air. It still glow clearly visible purple even with my lowest current.
YouTube - Dead lightbulb as spark gap


There is no sound. and sometimes it show stream.


The steady fine stream indicate DC, an arc.

In an hour all the filament is gone burned.

Interesting sucahyo, thank you for posting the video

What materials do you think can withstand the arc's heat, so as to not burn out?

Thanks, Mike

[sucahyo]

What materials do you think can withstand the arc's heat, so as to not burn out?

Some mention tungsten.

Mine burned so quickly maybe because it is a 12V torch light bulb. I made another with motorcycle turn light bulb and still running as spark gap for 4 hours now, at lowest power though, enough to produce visibly purple color.

YouTube - Deadbulb spark gap #2

[fzzzy]

Stingo replication works!

After insulating the transistors from the heatsink, my stingo replication works. I shot a nice video showing push pin electrodes giving off arc and spark. I'll upload it tomorrow.

This is a very fun circuit. I am looking forward to trying the lightbulb experiments.

Thanks sucahyo!

[sucahyo]

Congratulation . I look forward for the video .

[fzzzy]

Some arc/spark videos

Here are some videos from my stingo replication. I used a magnetically quenched gap with two cubes of neo magnets.

Smallish spark gap. This one shows a range of arc and spark.

YouTube - Stingo circuit replication - Arc and Spark

Larger spark gap. This one shows a very wide, beautiful plasma.

YouTube - Stingo replication - Arc and Spark 2

The stingo driving a xenon flash tube. Pretty, but it burnt the tube out and won't form a plasma any more.

YouTube - stingo xenon tube

I did an interesting experiment: I placed a piece of paper in the gap while it was in both arc and spark mode. Later I noticed the paper had tiny holes in it, just like Karl Palsness describes in his presentation about the tesla hairpin circuit.



I didn't check the paper to see if it had holes after only subjecting it to arc or spark. I'll go back and do that experiment tomorrow to see the difference.

[sucahyo]

Interesting light on the xenon tube .

It is also interesting that magnet seems to confine the spark. How do you oriented the magnet?

Look forward for the paper hole conclusion .

[fzzzy]

More experiments

Here is the stingo driving a krypton gas discharge tube which was mentioned earlier in this thread. The tube is very long and it's difficult to tell whether it is tuned for arc or spark, but it's pretty.

YouTube - krypton tube.mov

Next, here is an experiment with putting paper between the open air spark gap. When paper is put into an arc, the arc is quenched and nothing happens to the paper. When paper is put in a spark, the spark keeps going and the paper is filled full of tiny holes.

YouTube - paper experiment

This experiment was suggested by Karl Palsness in the following video:

YouTube - Karl Palsness AEPC 2009 Tesla Hairpin Circuit Part 1

[fzzzy]

It is also interesting that magnet seems to confine the spark. How do you oriented the magnet?

I put the magnets facing each other, as described by tesla.



Does it matter which side is N and which side is S?

Thanks again for stingo! Having the frequency be so easily tunable is going to be very handy for attempting a magnifying transmitter replication.

[sucahyo]

Interesting experiment on paper and krypton tube. It is weird that the paper do not burned by the heat of the arc.

Unfortunately power and frequency is not independent in this circuit, many others too though.

Magnet orientation can also prevent spark or encourage them. Just like inquorate experiment on quenched spark gap as high voltage diode.

Remember that arc is not branching.

[fzzzy]

I did a quick experiment with the poles of the magnet on one side, then switched the magnets to the other side. There was definitely a difference. Indeed inquorate's diode thread has the information I need to understand what is happening.

I am traveling now, and will build another stingo when I arrive, but won't be able to experiment for a few days.

[vrand]

Here is the stingo driving a krypton gas discharge tube which was mentioned earlier in this thread. The tube is very long and it's difficult to tell whether it is tuned for arc or spark, but it's pretty.

YouTube - krypton tube.mov

Next, here is an experiment with putting paper between the open air spark gap. When paper is put into an arc, the arc is quenched and nothing happens to the paper. When paper is put in a spark, the spark keeps going and the paper is filled full of tiny holes.

YouTube - paper experiment

This experiment was suggested by Karl Palsness in the following video:

YouTube - Karl Palsness AEPC 2009 Tesla Hairpin Circuit Part 1

Interesting fzzzy, thank you for posting the videos

How can you tell the spark from the arc?

Thanks, Mike

[fzzzy]

Interesting fzzzy, thank you for posting the videos

How can you tell the spark from the arc?

Thanks, Mike

You are so totally welcome

It's pretty obvious when you observe it in real life, especially with the magnets in place. The arc is pretty and has a soothing white noise sound. The spark is blindingly bright and extremely loud and annoying sounding. The arc does not do anything when the paper is placed in it, in fact it stops the arc. The spark rips right through the paper.

The way I can tell is just from the sound and the way it looks. When you turn the dial there is an obvious and sudden point where it switches over.

Check out this diagram. They call what we are calling arc "glow" and what we call spark in this thread "arc"

Electric glow discharge - (The Plasma Universe Wikipedia-like Encyclopedia)

[rickinva]

Regarding Post # 25 by Broli

I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned here but take a look at this website:

Adjustable Spark Gap | JCB Energy

This guy is doing some of Tesla's early work on spark gaps. If anything I recommend anyone to use such an adjustable sparkgap in their sparkgap containing experiments.

Hi Broli:

In your message above, you gave us jcb's website link, but it no longer works. Do you have any other links to his work and especially regarding his adjustable spark gap?

Thanks,
Rick (Sep 10, 2012)