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Re: [TCML] SPARK COLOR?



Thanks - I suspected you'd have the answer. The middle picture shows the effect I'm talking about. I assume the positive terminal is to the left in the photo? The bright line is also familiar.

Sparks from my Van de Graaf generator frequently are bright bluish at the top terminal [positive or at least I think so] and sometimes they terminate in quite a bundle of purplish lines, presumably what you are talking about. Quite a striking scene in a really dark room.

Ed

Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz wrote:

EVP wrote:

<div class="moz-text-flowed" style="font-family: -moz-fixed"> I should know the answer to this but I don't and hope someone here can help.. What is the polarity of the two ends of a DC spark when one is purplish and the other bright blue or white? I'm sure it's been covered many times but can't remember the answer. Reason for question is the color of the sparks from the spark coil I built using GM ignition transformers. Because of the way it's excited the secondary pulse is more or less unipolar and shows these colors although not as strikingly as a spark from a VDG.

DC sparks, if not too strong, have the appearance of a brush, with a short straight stem at the positive end. I have never seen a good photo of this. When more charge is available, the spark apparently starts in this same way, but then forms a bright spark that follows the stem, having a straight bright segment at the positive end, and is a bit more diffuse at the negative end, but not always less bright.
Some pictures that illustrate this:
Straight segment at the positive end:
http://www.coe.ufrj.br/~acmq/bbspark.jpg
Several sparks, clearly brighter at the positive end:
http://www.coe.ufrj.br/~acmq/trmspk.jpg
Ball-plane spark gap. Positive at the ball. It doesn't produce long sparks if reversed:
http://www.coe.ufrj.br/~acmq/wazlspk.jpg

Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz


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