Re: Static discharge from my air compressor

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

Original poster: "Ed Phillips by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <evp-at-pacbell-dot-net>

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "terry oxandale by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <toxandale-at-cei-dot-net>
> 
> Just thought I'd share this with you guys. Tonight, just prior to bed, I
> went under the house to drain the water out of the compressor tank (I have a
> car project too). Anyway, the tank drains out a 2 foot piece of 3/4" PVC
> pipe with a valve in the middle. I opened the valve (125 psi), and the F15
> in afterburner took off. Just after I opened it up, I was surprised to see
> several 4" to 6" racing sparks circling around the end of the PVC pipe. It
> only last about 2 seconds, but non-the-less, it happened. I guess the only
> reason I've not seen this before was because this is the first time I've
> done this in the dark (light bulb burnt out). The best way to describe the
> effect was like in the first Star Trek movie when V-JER was shooting at the
> Klingon ships and the result was that the ship was covered in lightning like
> discharges before being destroyed. The effect wasn't as good as my coils,
> but the surprise was well worth the experience. Now back you our regularly
> scheduled program.

	If you'll look at a book on electrostatic techniques you'll probably
find references to HV generators using various forms of flowing gases,
including even steam.  The magnitude of the effect you describe seems
pretty spectacular, considering the simple setup.

Ed