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RE: Coil ideas for experiments
A non-technical viewpoint here, but if the laser is ionizing the sparkgap,
there will be a "beam" of ionized air between the laser and the sparkgap.
The caps will want to short across the sparkgap, yes, but would there be a
chance of the spark crawling back the laser to it's case (which would be
grounded, and probably have a surface near the beam? I think that would be
less of a concern than reflected UV. A few seconds for paper, that means
even less time for your eyes. Hmmm.....
Just a thought, after all..the purpose of the ionized air is to conduct...
:)
Keep it safe, as this one sounds unpredictable.
Sundog - Bugzapper...nice warm night, beer & chips...good entertainment
-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla List [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2000 10:01 AM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: Coil ideas for experiments
Original Poster: "Mark Broker" <broker-at-uwplatt.edu>
Hi,
My physics department has a "small" home-made CO2 laser. It uses a 7200V,
1500VA
plate transformer as a power source. I'm pretty certain that it wasn't
tuned
properly, but I had to hold paper for a couple seconds before it would burn.
I
would estimate it's output at about 2W, though no measurement was made due
to the
higher-than-ordinary power (the biggest meter I know of in the department is
20mW). One would get far better results merely by adding the laser's power
source
to the TC's power source.
Using a laser to ionize the air brings MANY safety concerns to mind. A
laser
powerful enough to ionize the air will also vaporize skin. Also a laser
doesn't
lose much power over long distances. Furthermore, the beam cannot be seen,
ESPECIALLY since all truely powerful lasers operate at non-visual light
frequencies
(CO2 is 10.6um, visible light is 400-700nm).
It's an interesting thought experiment, but I would *GREATLY* discourge one
from
actually attempting to use a laser to ionize the air to increase spark
length.
My two cents,
Mark
Tesla List wrote:
> Original Poster: "Luc" <ludev-at-videotron.ca>
>
> Hi Mark
>
> Nitrogen laser are powerful easy to built and radiate in the UV region
of the
> spectrum (perfect for ionization )
> http://www.repairfaq-dot-org/sam/lasercn2.htm#cn2saf
>
> Luc Benard (Montreal)
>
> Tesla List wrote:
>
> > Original Poster: "Mark Broker" <broker-at-uwplatt.edu>
> >
> > Nick,
> >
> > You'd need a pretty large laser in order to sufficiently ionize the air
> to have
> > any effect. The typical 1/4mW laser pointer won't work (nor will
several of
> > them). I'll try to ask the optics professor tomorrow, but he'll
probably say
> > that a pretty huge laser would be needed.
> >
> > It is a pretty sweet idea, however.
> >
> > Mark
> >
> > Tesla List wrote:
> >
> > > Original Poster: ANTarchimedes-at-aol-dot-com
> > >
> > > Yes, I've thought about giant plasma spheres myself (perfect for
> halloween...
> > > provide decorations and keep little kids out of your lawn at the same
> > > time...). However, I'd still like to know if my laser idea might
work.
> > >
> > > Nick Moor
> > >
> > > P.S. Do any of you think that this list needs a directory with IM
> names and
> > > ICQ numbers?