Re: Cold Cathode Transformer

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: FIFTYGUY@xxxxxxx 

In a message dated 1/18/06 7:01:33 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
tesla@xxxxxxxxxx writes:

>Cold cathode tubes do not require the heating
>elements as neon tubes do, thus, they have immediate start up, can
>also be dimmed, and have long life. The tube is what is actually
>"cold cathode", and the transformer current simply needs to be
>capable of starting it.

    I thought all neon lighting was cold cathode? I know some 
fluorescents are cold cathode - are these what you're thinking of? 
Not sure why anybody would want to dim neon (although a friend of 
mine did so for a display in his house, using a variac).
    15kV seems like an awful lot of voltage to start a fluorescent 
bulb - don't they all contain, by definition, mercury vapor that the 
neon tube lacks?
    120mA also seems on the a low side of running current for even a 
single fluorescent bulb?

-Phil LaBudde