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Re: Spark Gap Gasses Experiment
Tesla List wrote:
>
> Original Poster: Terry Fritz <terryf-at-verinet-dot-com>
>
> Hi Bert,
> Since I am using glass as an enclosure, I don't want to use hydrogen
> because of the explosion hazard if I screw up :-)) It also leaks very
easily.
Actually, you don't have much of an explosion hazard. The hydrogen leaks
out, not air in, so as long as the hydrogen percentage inside is above
95%, it won't ignite. The small amount that leaks out will go right up
to the ceiling and out the ventilators, and probably won't exceed the 4%
LEL, so again, no hazard. The Nasa Lewis Research Center has a whole
safety manual on hydrogen, which is good reading, because it carefully
describes the real hazard issues. Probably your most tricky think would
be IF you got a pinhole, and IF hydrogen were flowing out at a
reasonable rate, and IF the stream ignited, you couldn't see the flame,
and you could get badly burned before you knew it. Actually, I think, if
you keep the pressure in your container fairly low, you just couldn't
get enough leakage to create a fire hazard (unless you do something like
work/store the thing, filled with H2, in an unventilated closet).
>
> Once you use up the oxygen, then nitrogen is left. However,
nitrogen is
> far from inert. It forms all kinds of chemical compounds especially when
> exposed to the extreme temperatures of arcs! Argon and helium seem to be
> the only reasonable and affordable gasses that are truly inert. I do not
> have a good source of helium, but if it were better, I could always get a
> bottle of it. It is amazing what a difference argon made in gap burning.
Interestingly, though, Air seemed to work better in trigatrons
(triggered spark gaps) for radar use. Something about the O2 being there
helping quench the arc. Craggs & Meek talk about this a bit, as does
Fruengel.
<<<<<Hi Jim, The fun part would be as you are blowing the air out of the
glass chamber, there would be a point reached where the hydrogen / air
ratio would be perfect for a powerful explosion. At that point anything,
espicially static electricity, could cause a very dangerous explosion. If
this thing works and others reproduce it, I would feel better knowing there
was no possibility of explosion. - Terry >>>>>