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Re: Solid State Control of Neon Lights....
>
>~ You are very much on track here. This is the fundamental circuit for what
>~ are called flow units or scripting units. (The originals were tube driven
>
>Is this the "beading" effect I have seen in some tubes, where the light
>is in little "beads" which flows up the tubing? If not, then how is this
>effect created?
Flow or scripting is not often seen - the light fills and recedes within the
tube much like watching a thermometer. One explanation is that neon within
a tube with respect to the outside atmosphere acts as a capacitor that is
being charged by the pulsating dc. Another way of looking at it - somewhat
similar - is in terms of biased charging. We're talking Crooke's Effect
1990s style. Joe Upham showed me a design where as the neon filled its
"tail" receded so that a surge say 1 or 2 ft long within an 8 ft tube could
pulse through the tube. The flow effect by the way, can be fairly
accurately controlled e.g. flow to 6ft5" hold for 32 seconds recede back to
4' etc. though day to day hunidity and such do change things a bit.
Beading is the standing harmonic wave version of generally lower rf (closer
to audio range) pulsating dc or relatively square ac. Mild biasing in either
direction, accomplished via frequency change usually (reactance) will change
the speed and direction.
I'm beginning to think we need a hall of neon effects over at
www.neonshop.com. We have snaking, crackling, and how many out there have
seen the little multi colored pinwheel whirly gigs?? I know, I know -- bad
pumping.
>
>~ So, what's this about continuous electron beams - any neat non-classified
>~ stuff you can tell us about?
>
>This is a Dept. of Energy laboratory for nuclear physics research. The
>beam (electron beam at 200 microamps, 4GeV) is used as a probe for
>breaking atomic bonds and determining the bond characteristics.
>But we are still in the commissioning phase, hopefully research
>can begin in the next few months. And there is no classified research
>here (but D.O.D. is eyeing us....).
>
>The real neat here is the plentiful knowledge of vacuum systems existing here,
>since the beam lives in a 1" stanless steel pipe (1 mile in path length)
Aw, should have used glass. :-)
>which is pumped-down to 1x10-7 torr.
That'll get you down there..
Thanks for the info.
Kenny
Kenny Greenberg Neon Artist, Scenic Specialist, Columnist - Internet World
c/o KRYPTON NEON 34-43 Vernon Blvd Long Island City, NY 11106
Ph: 718-728-4450 Fx: 718-728-7206 Email: kenny@neonshop.com
http://www.neonshop.com gopher://gopher.panix.com:70/11/nyart